Meet Sadaf Qadir

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sadaf Qadir a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sadaf, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?

As a hijab (headscarf) wearing Muslim woman, a majority of the time I am the only person in the room who looks like me. The biggest thing I have had to learn over the years is to look through and past potential assumptions people might have of me. It’s easy to get caught into worrying about how someone else might be perceiving you, especially when you’ve experienced prejudice, discrimination, or even just well-intentioned but uninformed comments. I spent a lot of time feeling like I had to prove my “American-ness” and that I had to quickly shut down any potential assumptions some could make about me. Some of those assumptions included not being able to speak English properly, not being assertive (because I’m a Muslim woman), being someone who supported violence or hate (which no Muslims actually do), etc. As you can imagine, this is exhausting. To have to code switch so often prevented me from being myself and engaging productively in the work that I was doing.

As I grew and learned more, and as the world started to change, it became more apparent to me that while some people MAY have their assumptions, I also should not ASSUME they are assuming. I started to approach every interview, status meeting, and presentation focusing more on the content rather than trying to “fit in” or prove my “sameness”. I find that sometimes I do surprise people but most of the time, people don’t see me as differently as I thought they did. Especially in a workplace setting, often we are far more interested in problem solving and working together. When my identity does come up, I’m able to approach it more lightly and let people be curious. I love answering questions now because I took the pressure off of myself to be the educator or sole representative of my people.

It’s not always easy and there are challenging situations every now and then, but I always try to come back to my skills, years of experience, and expertise which helps me move conversations along.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m a project manager and I absolutely love it! The funny thing is, it wasn’t really where I thought I would be. As a young college grad, I didn’t even know what a project manager was. I was a Biology major and fully thought I would go into medicine. After having worked in a few different biotech and aesthetics cosmetics spaces, I realized where I fit in best and really thrived in was in creative and marketing project management. I think the reason why this specific type of project management called to me was because it’s not as rigid as something like tech or product. Marketing moves FAST and changes quickly and that’s what makes it a lot of fun for me because no two days are the same.

As I have grown and become and expert in this field, I’ve realized that project management looks different at almost every organization and sometimes there isn’t the right type of mentorship or auditing in place in order for it to progress positively. So with that, I’ve decided to also become a consultant so I can be that new fresh voice and perspective and offer support specifically to medium and small businesses who want to scale but may not know how to. I’m just about to launch my business, it will be called The Corporate Firefighter which is what I have often referred to myself and project managers in general. We help fight corporate “fires” and get organizations back on track.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three qualities or skills that were most impactful in my journey are communication, openness, and empathy. Communication is super, super important in the field of project management and in my opinion, it’s best to over-communicate. In project management, double-checking goals or clarifying next steps could literally save you multiple days of work or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Openness is one I’m actually adding based on recent learnings. It’s easy to get caught into the day-to-day and trying to maintain process, but sometimes the answer for how to do something comes in the least expected place. So openness is important in allowing us to receive that. And I always say empathy because project management is a people heavy job. I think it’s very important to understand that without the people, the project is nothing and so there needs to be a lot of respect and empathy. Focusing too much on only the timelines or the project and not thinking about the impact on the team leads to burn out quickly and that in the long run is damaging to both people and organizations.

My advice to folks early in their journey is to not let your anxiety or fear of being new hold you back from trying new things or presenting new ideas. I’ve had a few times where I have felt like I’m not the most qualified person in the room and held back from sharing only to later find that solution implemented was the same one I thought of. Everyone is new at some point and the worst that happens is people say no that won’t work. You accept it and move on and don’t take it too personally.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

This is a great question, especially as I’m starting my business and trying to target the ideal client. For me, the ideal client is someone (or a team/company), who values the impact of project management and is genuinely trying to understand it or improve in it. When teams try to implement project management but it’s not a top priority or at the center of process, then project managers can struggle to make an impact or change, which creates a circular loops essentially. So the clients I can help impact the most are the ones who are open to how good project and process management can change their workflows and how their teams function. My ideal client would also be smart and serious when needed, but also is able to approach corporate work in a lighthearted way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thecorporatefirefighter.com
• Instagram: octrailsandtreats
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sadaf-qadir/
• Other: TikTok: @octrailsandtreats and @thecorporatefirefighter