BOARD MEMBER | LECTURER
COACH | THOUGHT LEADER
COACH | THOUGHT LEADER
"Making my passion my profession"
Sadiq was born in North London and lives between London and Ibiza. He is the Senior Advisor for travel at Attestor Capital, where he is Chairman of the Advisory Board for Condor, the second airline of Germany. He also sits on the board of eTraveli, the world's largest flight platform, owned by CVC Partners, the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council for Travel and is a Trustee of Stonewall. Sadiq is also an Executive Coach applying the work of Carl Jung. He started an MBA course at Stanford on the Travel & Airline industry and is the subject of a case study in Jeffrey Pfeffer's class "Paths to Power".
He previously led tranformation at Emirates reporting to the President and spent 7 years with Lufthansa, where he was Chief Strategy & Innovation officer, reporting to the CEO. He began his career with Bain & Co. and was a partner at Seabury, a boutique airline consulting firm. He completed his MBA at Harvard Business School and holds a BA and MPhil in Management Studies from Cambridge University. He was included in FT Top 100 OUTstanding leaders list, Capital Magazine's Top 40 under 40 and the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders. He has visited over 120 countries.
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Do you want to fast track your career? Are you interested in pursuing a portfolio career? Would you like reinvent yourself after setbacks? This 5 P framework will help your career reach cruising altitude: by being clear on your Purpose, Preparing your mind and body by creating the space, being alert to Pursue opportunities, having Partners to support you and Pivoting in the event of turbulence. This keynote speech was delivered at the Stanford Alumni Reunion in May 2021
In the thought-provoking TED Talk titled "The Next Step for Airlines," I delve into the transformative future of the airline industry, addressing the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. As we stand on the cusp of significant technological and environmental advancements, the talk explores how airlines are poised to redefine air travel in unprecedented ways.
We start by understanding your personality type, using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (and the original Jungian Typology framework) to identify your strengths and development areas
You will learn the building blocks of personality type and identify new skills. We can create a bespoke action plan to help improve your decision-making (e.g. strengthening your intuition, appreciating values/feelings of others)
You will receive tailored support to achieve your career goals, build your CV and personal brand and secure your dream job. You can also be guided on how to develop a portfolio career.
We will also help you navigate the intricate landscape of power and politics, applying the work of Jeffrey Pfeffer, including developing mentors and promoters, working with narcissistic leaders and enhancing your communication and team skills
Building upon on the work of Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, we can delve into the realm of the unconscious mind, including biases, complexes, projections and automatic behaviours
Using tools such as dream analysis, active imagination and word association we will guide you on a journey of self-discovery. You can also learn to apply Jungian concepts such as Archetypes, Shadow, Persona and Syncronicity
"Having graduated with a Harvard MBA and 7 years of consulting experience, I was well prepared for the strategic content of my role and my mission to develop a strategy to turnaround the company. However, this training didn’t prepare me for navigating the corporate culture and psychology. I was offered the support of having a corporate coach and John O’Brien’s Jung psychology background stood out at me. Since then, John has been by my side, helping me develop, understand the landscape and have impact during each of my subsequent roles. He has taught me how to apply corporate analytical psychology and understand the unconscious forces at play in the board room. (...)
Business schools and consulting firms train people to only focus on results and that can lead to blind spots. To be effective we also have to understand the culture, the mindset of leaders and the psyche. In organisations there are often repeating patterns of family structures playing out. There are organisational scars from previous failures. There is often an inherent risk aversion, built up over many years. Coming in fresh into an organisation, one has to learn the culture whilst convincing people to trust us. As a leader with a diverse background, it becomes even harder to gain trust as people tend to like those who are similar. The 20/60/20 rule applies quite accurately in these situations: 20% of people can be convinced to support you, but 20% of people will be at best sceptical and at worst out to destroy you. The real challenge is to work on the middle 60%, using your supporters to help. In most companies trust comes with time rather than fresh ideas, making it challenging for new comers."
"Sadiq Gillani was hired as the head of strategy for the prominent airline Lufthansa when he was thirty-two years old, becoming the youngest senior vice president ever appointed. Gillani was chosen for that position by the CEO at the time, Christoph Franz, even though he did not speak a word of German and was going to join a very traditional, very German organization. In January 2022, Gillani joined the supervisory board of Condor, the second-largest airline in Germany, as a sort of vice chairman, and also joined Attestor Capital, the new owners of Condor, as a senior advisor for their airline and travel investments. Gillani's career nicely illustrates how he used his position at Lufthansa to extend his brand.
When Gillani joined Lufthansa, the former head of Seabury told him that he had a great platform and to leverage it to build exposure and prominence. Gillani took that advice, and it paid dividends for him in boosting his visibility and brand in the airline industry. For instance, Lufthansa was, not surprisingly, a member of the World Economic Forum, but had not been that active in the organization. Gillani described how he leveraged his position in Lufthansa to substantially enhance his network: I went to Davos as part of the Lufthansa delegation, learned about the YGL [Young Global Leader] community, and decided to try to become part of it. One of the requirements was that the CEO of your company, which was my boss, had to write a recommendation for you... I was accepted into the program. I had become the company representative of Lufthansa to the WEF and was also able to join their Global Future Council for Travel. This is about 20 people from across the world who help design the agenda of the WEF when it comes to travel and mobility."
