ExxonMobil Qatar’s Women’s Network hosts Women in Leadership - Moving Forward with Grace workshop for professional women from Qatar Petroleum, RasGas and Qatargas

The workshop, entitled Women in Leadership -- Moving Forward with Grace, was led by Kate Sweetman, an experienced leadership consultant, educator, author, and speaker. Sweetman is a former editor at Harvard Business Review, and co-author of The Leadership Code: 5 Rules to Lead By. The workshop focused on providing the participants with a range of strategies and tactics to manage change effectively. It also inspired them to develop a positive attitude to the benefits of change and to understand the demonstrable advantages that it brings to an organization.

Fatima Al-Housani, Tamayoz Curriculum Manager, for ExxonMobil Qatar, opened the workshop with a welcome note and a brief background on EMRA’A, its mission and the workshop’s purpose, saying, “EMRA’A is continuously encouraging and supporting women to achieve their full potential within their workplaces. We reach out to these women through workshops like this one and networking activities to contribute to their personal and professional development.”

“Women can be wonderful allies for each other in their organizations and their fields. By organizing events like this one, we encourage an exchange of dialogue and skills so that everyone can benefit and prosper from lessons learned,” added Waad Al-Qayed, Financial Analyst.

Sweetman has spent more than 20 years developing strategic leadership programs, and has worked with a full range of leadership levels from the organizational to the team to the individual. Her goal is to help connect the individual’s personal source of leadership to the complex business and human challenges of delivering profitable, sustainable growth. She has spoken on the topics of leadership, gender equity in leadership, and human resources in a number of locations in the U.S., Europe, Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Her coaching and consulting work has ranged from helping to shape more effective senior leaders and management teams in global corporations to supporting entrepreneurs in developing countries launch and grow their businesses.

Ghada Al-Abdulla with Qatargas described the day’s activities by saying, “Kate Sweetman is a great speaker and consultant with creative and effective ideas for women in business and in life. Today’s workshop provided useful advice on how to develop the qualities of good leadership that are essential for career and organizational success, especially in a challenging economic climate. I found it to be highly beneficial and I am very happy to have learned practical approaches that I can apply to my work.”

“I would like to thank ExxonMobil Qatar and all our colleagues at EMRA’A for giving us these opportunities, and for continuing to provide us with valuable lessons and information to take with us as we move forward with our careers,” she continued.

EMRA’A was founded in November 2009 and represents the women of ExxonMobil that are ‘Reaching, Aspiring, and Advancing.’ The network strives to connect with the Qatari community and hosts events with development opportunities, team-building activities, mentoring and networking.

Since it was established, EMRA’A has provided a platform from which opportunities for professional women can surface, and where trending topics related to women in the workplace can be discussed. The network is one example of how ExxonMobil is contributing to the Qatar National Vision 2030 by providing the energy that drives human potential, in support of a skilled, productive and diverse workforce that can sustain Qatar’s future.

About ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading inventory of resources, is the largest refiner and marketer of petroleum products, and its chemical company is one of the largest in the world.

ExxonMobil Qatar Inc. is a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation and is the interface point within Qatar for all ExxonMobil affiliated activities.