Inspire, Encourage, Empower | Thought Spot by Rahila Ashraf

Rahila Ashraf is a strong, steadfast individual who has strived to accomplish her goals. She’s currently working at Adamjee Life as Senior Manager of Sales Training. Being one of the most respected seniors at Adamjee, she shares her journey with us to inspire and encourage other young girls. Rahila Ashraf believes in being empathetic and takes challenges as an opportunity.

“I graduated as a Computer Engineer and decided to pursue teaching in the field. Three and a half years onwards I took the next step in my career and joined the corporate world in Sales, with a renowned publishing company in Pakistan. This was the start of my thirteen-year journey in the field of publishing and education.

We come across a number of young students and graduates who enter the workforce with a million dreams of instantaneous fame, riches, and success; while some very lucky outliers do exist, but for most it takes an immense amount of grit, hard work, reflection, and self-development to be able to achieve their success milestones.

It would be incorrect if I said that being a woman came as a disadvantage for me in my career because I was lucky to have been brought up as an individual and not gender. This gave me the confidence to view the corporate world as a rich treasure trove of opportunities for development and growth.

One major mistake that a lot of people make is to look around for competition, instead of inspiration and to view each challenge as an unsurmountable problem; I was wary of this early on and made sure that I was constantly in competition, albeit with myself, to be a better version of myself, personally, academically, and professionally. I am an avid reader and this allowed me to explore the world for inspiration to grow.

Each challenge that was thrown my way became an opportunity for me to work on myself and see what could I do to overcome the challenge and at the same time ensure that there was learning for me in the experience.

I cannot undermine the role of people who I was lucky to be with, family, friends, teachers, managers,
and colleagues who have all been a part of my journey.

In my role as a leader, the most vital trait was empathy and the realization that each team member has a key role to play in the growth and success of the team. Being able to pull myself out of a situation, understanding the needs and point of view of others, and putting myself in their shoes helped in
building teams and again that became a force to reckon with.

At present, I am working on developing the Sales Training function at Adamjee Life. My appointment in the role came as a surprise; the insurance sector is not usually perceived as an industry that is keen on development of their people, let alone the development of sales teams – an impression I was compelled to revisit at Adamjee Life.

Adamjee Life is committed to development of quality sales force who could serve Pakistan as financial advisors. They are moving into a digital arena, including development of high-end, top of the line, e-learning solutions for their sales force, a learner-centric training environment, and focus on data-driven assessment and evaluation process for continuous development.

It was refreshing to note that Adamjee Life saw me as a professional who could add value to their
organization and thus empowered me with complete trust to lead their Training and Development function in its next natural phase. I am thrilled to be at the epicenter of this revolution at Adamjee Life and look forward to great things happening in this sector.”

By Rahila Ashraf
Senior Manager of Sales Training

---

About Us:

Runway Pakistan is a complete solution provider for all your marketing communications related requirements. The ultimate hub of infotainment – Runway composes of all the key offerings – Monthly Print Magazine, Digital Magazine, Media Production, Creative Agency, PR Agency and Marketing Consultancy that a brand needs to be seen, heard and known!

Like and follow our Facebook page:
Runway Pakistan

Read our previous article:
Babar Azam, Others Seen Violating SOPs