The Yasar Ahmad Podcast

10 things HR knows but won't tell you, answered properly from a hammock in my garden. No corporate script, just straight answers from someone who sat on that side of the table for two decades.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR, and this is the kind of blunt career advice most people never get. We cover the questions that actually decide your next move. Is a PIP survivable (and how to tell if it's genuine or a setup)? Is the anonymous engagement survey actually anonymous? Do exit interviews matter? Should you take the counter offer, and why 70% who do leave within six months anyway? Are networking events worth it, and the one plan that makes them work? Is being liked at work a weakness? Can introverts actually get to the top? Should you tell colleagues what you earn? Should you ever quit without a job lined up? And the big one: 90 days, no budget, what do you actually do to get promoted?This is office politics, workplace visibility, salary transparency, and promotion strategy without the HR-approved non-answers. If you're good at your job and tired of guessing how the system really works, this is the one for you. Drop your own question in the comments and I'll answer it in the next one.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 10 things HR won't tell you0:11 Is a PIP survivable?1:09 Is the "anonymous" survey actually anonymous?2:11 Do exit interviews matter?3:17 Should you take the counter offer?4:28 Are networking events worth going to?5:37 Is being liked at work a weakness?6:52 Can introverts get to the top?8:12 Should you tell colleagues what you earn?9:47 Should you quit without a job lined up?11:38 90 days, no budget: what you actually do━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#HRSecrets #CareerQuestions #OfficePolitics #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

Get the Executive Interview System Here: https://ovdlab.com/shop/the-executive-interview-system____Your job gets your effort. But there are five things you should never give people at work, even when saying yes feels easier. This is where to draw the line, and the exact words to use.I'm Yasar Ahmad, and I've spent over two decades in HR. This is practical career advice on setting boundaries at work without torching relationships, built on a Stoic backbone. Most boundary advice tells you to "just say no," which gets you a reputation, not respect. Instead I give you the sentences that make the trade-off visible, so your manager or colleague has to respond to it. First, your self-respect: when another urgent task lands on a full week, "I can take this on, which existing priority should we move?" Then your peace of mind, how to stop office drama and workplace anxiety from eating your evening by separating what you know from what you're guessing.Then your time (how to shut down endless explanations once you've made your case), your trust (why an apology isn't the same as changed behaviour, and how to credit your work), and your loyalty (how to pin down a vague promotion promise instead of waiting on "you're essential" forever). If you're the reliable one who always says yes and keeps getting taken for granted, this is the one for you. Pick the one conversation you need this week and write your version of the sentence before you walk in.If you're preparing to look elsewhere, my Executive Interview System walks you through it: 36+ video lessons, a 72-hour prep plan, frameworks for 55+ interview questions, and salary negotiation. Check it out at https://www.ovdlab.com/shopSubscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 Five things to never give at work0:11 1: Your self-respect (the trade-off sentence)1:38 2: Your peace of mind (office drama)2:43 3: Your time (endless explanations)3:44 4: Your trust (apology vs changed behaviour)5:03 5: Your loyalty (the vague promotion promise)6:01 Recap: pick one conversation this week━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Boundaries #CareerAdvice #OfficePolitics #Stoicism #WinAtWork

Isra Chaker got asked one question by the Gates Foundation: how do you get people to care about something they've never been taught to care about? She had no health degree, wasn't a doctor, and had built her career running campaigns. She answered with a movement that has mobilised over $135 million for mothers and babies in more than 20 countries.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR, and this is the kind of career conversation I wish I'd had at 25. Isra is the founder and CEO of Every Pregnancy, and her path is a masterclass in visibility, confidence, and how to build something from nothing. We cover the practical career advice underneath the story: how she handled 423 job rejections and zero interviews before her first internship, how she went from employee to CEO, why she never suffers from imposter syndrome, and how she pitches funders (warm them up, one slide, leave time for questions) to raise millions. She also breaks down public speaking, reset time after rejection, and how to answer patronising "you should be doing this" feedback without folding.We get into the honest stuff too: chasing purpose over money, why your work should connect to your purpose, the misconceptions she faces walking into a room as a young Muslim woman, and the most toxic thing a boss ever said to her (she sued them). If you want real talk on leadership, entrepreneurship, and backing yourself, this one's for you.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH ISRAInstagram: @IsraSpeaksWebsite: https://www.isachaker.comEvery Pregnancy: search Every Pregnancy on all platforms━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 The question that started a $135M movement1:11 From bullied kid to "social architect"3:30 Moving to DC and 423 job rejections5:03 Jumping into Syria advocacy on Capitol Hill5:58 What Every Pregnancy actually does7:47 Designing a campaign: the landscape analysis9:58 The Gates Foundation call11:19 Why she never gets imposter syndrome12:57 Going from employee to CEO14:58 How she raises money: the pooled fund model20:52 Being a CEO and a present mother22:42 Rejection and the power of fast reset time25:58 Her pitch technique (and never calling it a pitch)29:31 The misconceptions she faces in the room32:51 Public speaking and recovering when you waffle34:33 The community she's building next37:52 Toxic bosses and best career advice39:46 Purpose over money: the real debate44:36 One message for you━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#IsraChaker #EveryPregnancy #CareerAdvice #Entrepreneurship #WinAtWork

You paid tens of thousands for a degree that taught you nothing about how corporate decisions actually get made. From day one, executives are forming opinions about your future based on rules nobody ever wrote down, and if you're working hard in silence, you're already losing.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. This is the career advice on office politics and workplace visibility that no induction ever gives you: the seven unwritten rules that decide whether you're the person they promote or the person they forget. I've sat in the calibration rooms where these decisions happen, watched 74 names go by in three minutes, and seen a promotion come down to "remind me which one she is." This video hands you those seven rules and the exact frameworks to start using them on day one.You'll learn why merit is only about 10% of the equation and strategic exposure is 60%, why executives decide your future from memory not output, why work done in silence never happened, and why your manager is a filter, not your promoter. Then the practical system: building three communication channels so your work travels upward, reading your manager's visibility tax, and the digital paper trail that turns "she handled something" into "she owns the migration." If you're smart, hard-working, and keep getting passed over, this is the one for you.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: which rule hit hardest?Chapters:0:00 The rules nobody wrote down0:29 Inside the room where futures get decided1:00 The seven unwritten rules1:33 Rule 1: merit is only 10%2:20 Rule 2: executives decide from memory2:43 Rule 3: silent work never happened3:16 Rule 4: visibility is mandatory, not bragging3:37 Rule 5: your manager is a filter, not a promoter4:06 Rule 6: public problem-solving is positioning4:19 Rule 7: day one sets everything5:10 Move 1: build three communication channels6:24 Move 2: learn your manager's visibility tax7:19 Move 3: the digital paper trail7:57 Why it all starts on day one8:35 Two people, same start, different outcomes━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#UnwrittenRules #OfficePolitics #GetPromoted #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

I stood alongside Simon Squibb, the entrepreneur and investor behind HelpBnk and author of the Sunday Times bestseller "What's Your Dream?", for an unscripted conversation about where careers are actually heading, and why the word "career" might not survive the next 20 years.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. Simon went from homeless at 15 to selling his agency to PwC, and now backs people's dreams for a living; I spent two decades inside the corporate machine. Our missions overlap, so this is a raw chat about the future of work, AI, and honest career advice for a generation walking into a job market that's disappearing under them. 716,000 students leave university every year chasing a good career, and there aren't enough jobs for them.So we get into the real questions. If AI takes the graduate jobs and the high-end ones (lawyers, maybe even doctors) what do you teach a 16-year-old? Why "go to uni to get a job" is broken, and why Simon and I both think the answer is agency, personal development, and learning to build something yourself. We also hit the stuff I care about most: the fake meritocracy where good work goes unseen, why hard work is only one part of the formula (Harvey Coleman's research puts performance at 10%, perception at 30%, and exposure at 60%), why your judgement is the one thing AI can't replace, and the human cost of being treated as a number when the redundancy call lands. If you're thinking about your kids, your own next move, or what work even means now, this one's for you.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 Two missions that overlap0:15 Helping a billion people through their careers0:50 What I'd tell my 16-year-old about university1:30 Why "career" and "entrepreneurship" are dying words1:46 Chase the problem you want to solve, not a job title2:21 The one thing AI can't take: your judgement3:24 This is going to get serious, and we can't do it in silos4:32 The fake meritocracy nobody warns you about4:57 The 10-30-60 rule5:45 The shortest route vs the fastest route6:08 The human cost of being just a number6:52 Rebuilding the school system around agency7:19 Which jobs AI takes next7:46 Teaching people to build their own support system━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#SimonSquibb #FutureOfWork #AIandCareers #WhatsYourDream #WinAtWork

Nobody ever tells you you're being frozen out. There's no email, no conversation. The meetings just start happening without you, the messages go quiet, and one day you're standing outside a room you used to run.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. Consider this the career advice on office politics nobody hands you: being frozen out at work is one of the oldest tools in the organisation, how companies move people without a process, a payout, or a paper trail. But I've also watched good people misread normal chaos as a campaign and torch their own reputation over something that wasn't there. Knowing the difference is the whole game, and this video gives you the workplace visibility and self-protection to handle it.It happens in three moves, and the order matters. The signal: how to tell drift from design with one meeting proposal, so you know if it's real. The re-entry: how to get back in through usefulness, not by asking to be let back in, because that reads as grievance and grievance is exactly what a freeze-out is built to produce. And the counter, the one nobody teaches: what to do when it's coordinated (this is mobbing at work), how to document it, find one witness, and speak to HR in the only language they answer, business risk, not feelings. If you feel pushed out, sidelined, or managed out, this is the one for you.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: have you ever been frozen out of a room?Chapters:0:00 Nobody tells you you're being frozen out0:16 What's actually happening to you0:51 When it happened to me1:32 The three moves, and why order matters2:04 Move 1: the signal (drift or design?)2:40 The one-meeting test3:05 Move 2: the re-entry through usefulness4:08 Why you must never campaign4:32 Move 3: the counter (when it's coordinated)4:56 Document, find a witness, understand HR5:45 When to take control of your own exit6:15 Why you need all three, in order6:25 Your homework tonight━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#FrozenOut #OfficePolitics #ManagedOut #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

The fastest way to lose a senior room is to bury your point. This is the bluff technique: bottom line up front, the military habit of getting to the point before you lose them.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. This is practical career advice and communication skills training built on one hard lesson. Early in my career I was presenting to an executive who stopped me halfway through and said, "Can you get to the point?" Then he added the line that stuck: "That could have been an email." This video breaks down how to fix that, so you build the kind of executive presence and clear communication that gets a yes instead of a glazed-over room.You'll get the exact structure I use for any proposal or presentation: open with "we're here to discuss X because Y is costing us Z" for instant context, follow with an agreement line that surfaces who disagrees, then address concerns head-on before questions. I also cover my rules for better emails: the 175-word limit, why a TLDR at the top now beats a wall of text, and how to write a subject line that says exactly what you're asking for. If you want workplace communication that makes you sound senior instead of junior, this is the one for you.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 The bluff technique: bottom line up front0:08 The presentation that taught me the lesson0:54 "That could have been an email"1:17 The perfect way to open any presentation1:41 The agreement line and addressing concerns2:23 Why people take 10 minutes to make a point3:04 Should emails have a TLDR?3:49 My 175-word email rule5:06 Write a subject line that asks clearly━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Communication #ExecutivePresence #CareerAdvice #EmailTips #WinAtWork

10 career questions HR would never answer honestly, so I will. No corporate script, just how it actually works from someone who ran those departments.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR, director in my early 20s and VP by my 30s. This is blunt career advice and honest career coaching on the questions that decide your career growth strategy more than any degree. Does your degree matter after a few years. Do the best people become CEO, or is it proximity dressed up as merit. Is success just luck, or a success mindset plus action. Should you be honest at work, or is diplomacy how promotions really work. Is imposter syndrome real and even useful. Is job hopping the fastest route to a pay rise, or does salary negotiation from the inside win. Is "it's who you know" an excuse (no, and here's why workplace visibility and office politics decide it). Is work-life balance a scam. Will AI take my job. And why listen to any career coach at all, including me. If you want professional development, leadership development, and personal development advice that goes past "work harder," this is the honest version on how to get promoted.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And drop your own question in the comments, I answer them in the next part.Chapters:0:00 10 questions HR would never answer0:07 Does your degree actually matter?0:46 Do the best people become CEO?1:45 Is success just luck?2:30 Should you be honest at work?3:16 Is imposter syndrome real?3:56 Is job hopping the only way to get paid?4:53 Is "it's who you know" just an excuse?5:25 Is work-life balance a scam?6:29 Will AI take your job?7:18 Why listen to a career coach at all?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#CareerQuestions #HRSecrets #CareerAdvice #OfficePolitics #WinAtWork

I teach people how to lobby at work, and I won't apologise for it. This is how decisions really get made: every decision about you happens in a meeting you're not in, so office politics isn't optional, you're better off getting there first.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. Someone probably told you to let your work speak for itself. It's the most expensive advice you'll ever take, because work doesn't speak. It sits in a folder while someone else describes it in a room you're not in. This video is a practical guide to influence at work and managing up: what actually happens in the pre-wire (the pre-meeting some call socialising the paper), the one rule that keeps stakeholder management clean instead of sleazy, and a 72-hour protocol you can run before your next big decision.Here's the uncomfortable part. The real decision rarely happens in the meeting. It happens on the Tuesday and Wednesday before, in 15-minute one-to-ones where someone walks the one person who could kill their idea through the objection and gets a quiet "yeah, I could live with that." Sitting it out doesn't make the meeting fairer, it just means someone else did your briefing, often someone with a view about you. If you want the kind of career advice that explains how promotions really work instead of telling you to work harder, and how to get buy-in through persuasion and workplace visibility, refusing to play is playing badly with extra steps.So you'll get the whole system: how to find the one person who can stop your idea, the exact script to use 48 hours out (ask, don't pitch), how to write your own introduction so a stranger doesn't invent your credibility on the spot, and the one-sentence test that keeps all of this honest rather than turning you into a snake. If you're brilliant at the work and keep losing decisions anyway, this is the one for you.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: has a decision about you ever been made before you walked in the room?Chapters:0:00 Why I teach people to lobby at work0:20 "Let your work speak for itself" is a trap0:50 What really happens before the meeting1:23 Pre-wire, pre-meet: every company has a word for it1:52 The behavioural scientist who walked in preloaded2:39 You get 90 seconds and a made-up mind2:47 "But this is just politics"3:08 The one rule that keeps it clean3:40 The 72-hour protocol: find your one killer4:01 48 hours out: ask, don't pitch4:36 24 hours out: write your own introduction5:08 Why the pre-wire got harder to see5:36 Do the work, then stop handing it over━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#OfficePolitics #Influence #CareerAdvice #Stakeholders #WinAtWork

After decades in senior leadership, these are the seven rules I run my work life by. Not motivational fluff, the operating principles I use for clearer decision making, faster action, and getting people to back my ideas.I'm Yasar Ahmad. Treat this as practical personal development for your career, the kind of career advice that hands you a system instead of a pep talk. Rule one is relentless prioritisation: not a longer to-do list, but ruthlessly finding the one thing that moves the needle. Rule two is bias for action, the say-do ratio that kills analysis paralysis and makes productivity real. Rule three is the question that reframes any disagreement: what needs to be true for you to agree with me? Then the four types of unknowns and why the unknown unknowns keep you humble, why being a fast follower beats being an early adopter, how to make yourself genuinely valuable by selling time and effort saved, and respect for reality, the Stoic move of naming the risk out loud so people trust you more.Whether you're after professional development, a career change, or just better goal setting and self improvement, these seven give you leadership skills and executive presence you can use tomorrow. Steal them, keep what works, build your own.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: what rules do you hold close at work?Chapters:0:00 My seven rules for success at work0:25 Rule 1: relentless prioritisation2:30 Rule 2: bias for action4:06 Rule 3: what needs to be true5:18 Rule 4: unknown unknowns7:12 Rule 5: be a fast follower8:00 Rule 6: be values obsessed10:46 Rule 7: respect for reality12:16 Recap: the seven rules━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#CareerRules #PersonalDevelopment #Leadership #SelfImprovement #WinAtWork

In executive and board meetings, the best idea almost never wins. The best delivered idea wins. This is the communication skill that decides who gets listened to, and almost nobody teaches it, because the people who have it like to pretend it's a personality.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. I've spent decades in board meetings and exec sessions at companies like Zalando, HelloFresh, and Wipro, and the person who got listened to was never the smartest in the room. It was the clearest. Clarity is a learnable communication technique, not a gift, and it sits at the heart of leadership communication, executive presence, and how to speak like a leader. So this is practical professional development for anyone who has ever walked out of a meeting thinking "that was the point I was trying to make."You'll get three moves to improve your communication and speak with authority. The point: lead with your conclusion, because junior people speak in context and senior people speak in conclusions. The pause: how to buy three seconds under pressure so silence reads as confidence instead of panic. And the landing: why your credibility is decided by your last sentence, not your best one, and how people talk themselves out of agreements they'd already won. Stick around for the reframe at the end that turns a "no" into a "yes" with senior stakeholders.If you're serious about leadership and career growth, not just surface-level communication tips, this is the one for you.📬 Get the stuff HR never puts in the handbook. My weekly newsletter is written for people navigating exactly this: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/🎯 Work on it properly with me inside the OVD Labs cohort: 12 weeks, live, on positioning and visibility. https://www.ovdlab.comSubscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: what's the worst ramble you've ever done in a meeting? I read every one.Chapters:0:00 Why the best-delivered idea wins1:04 The ramble that taught me the lesson1:48 The three moves: point, pause, landing2:06 Move 1: the point (conclusion first)2:46 The 15-word test3:13 Move 2: the pause under pressure3:53 Why silence reads as confidence4:11 What to say when you don't know4:31 Move 3: the landing (your last sentence)5:03 How people talk themselves out of a win5:40 Why you need all three together6:04 Your homework tonight6:38 Bonus: reframe risk, not gain━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Communication #ExecutivePresence #Leadership #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

Most career advice tells you to be less selfish. This one does the opposite: I'll show you how to be ruthlessly selfish in a way that actually builds your career strategy, your reputation, and your standing with the people who decide your future. Recorded on a plane, so bear with me.I'm Yasar Ahmad. I've scaled companies to billions, managed teams of hundreds, and coached first ministers and CEOs, and now I run OVD Labs, a behavioural science lab. Here's the reframe: everyone protects something already, budgets, headcount, status, so the question was never whether you're selfish. It's what you're selfish for. Get that right and workplace politics stops being something that happens to you.This episode is really a masterclass in professional growth and navigating office politics through three principles. First, clarity, the one sentence I owe my career to and the fastest way to build executive presence in any meeting. Second, "what needs to be true," the question that ends the human habit of trying to prove each other wrong, plus the workplace psychology behind what people actually protect. Third, be selfish about the outcome but selfless about the credit, the giving strategy that quietly builds the most power of all. If you want the kind of leadership and career advice that goes deeper than office politics tips, this is for you.Along the way: why the "lucky" people in a famous study finished in 4 seconds while everyone else took 2 minutes, what Indra Nooyi's letters to executives' parents can teach you about loyalty, why Satya Nadella's first move as Microsoft CEO was to give away the crown jewels, and the story of the cat and the fire that explains why you cling to habits that no longer serve you.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And if you're listening on Spotify or Apple, follow there too.Chapters:0:00 A podcast on a plane0:27 The real question isn't whether you're selfish1:15 Principle 1: clarity, the sentence I owe my career to1:31 The car park argument that changed everything3:10 The laser pen, the cat, and what people avoid4:14 The four things people protect at work5:18 How one sentence made clarity my superpower6:00 Principle 2: what needs to be true6:11 Hiring 1,000 people in a fragmented company7:08 The luck study: why peripheral vision wins8:39 Asking the right question instead of being right10:02 The value formula: time, effort, and sacrifice11:45 Building the system: the results it delivered12:25 Principle 3: selfish outcome, selfless credit12:36 Indra Nooyi and the letters to parents14:30 Why givers finish first (with boundaries)16:18 Satya Nadella surrenders to win18:21 The superstitions we build for ourselves20:12 The three steps of giving21:49 What could you give away to move faster?22:43 Given wins get retold in rooms you're not in━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#CareerStrategy #OfficePolitics #ExecutivePresence #Leadership #WinAtWork

When your manager calls you indispensable, they've usually already decided not to promote you. This is how promotions really work: I sat in the room where that decision gets made for almost two decades, and being overlooked at work while carrying double is quietly costing you about a pay band a year.I'm Yasar Ahmad. Here's the career advice nobody hands you on how to get promoted, and it starts with office politics you can't see. Promotions get decided in a calibration meeting: eight or nine people, a list of names, about 40 seconds each. Someone who half knows your work sums you up in one sentence to a room that doesn't know you at all. If your sentence is "he helps out everywhere," your promotion ends right there. So workplace visibility isn't a nice-to-have, it's the whole game, and this is the promotion strategy and career growth strategy for fixing it if you feel stuck in my career territory: how to stand out at work without saying no, where salary negotiation actually fits, and the managing up conversation that changes how your boss describes you.Consider this your quick course in dealing with corporate politics, the kind of thing Jennifer Brick's audience will recognise, aimed at the reliable person who keeps getting passed over.This video breaks down what your manager is really doing when they pay you in words instead of money, why "just set boundaries" gets you a reputation instead of a promotion, and the strongest case for staying indispensable (and why it still doesn't pay). Then the two moves that fix it: lead the work that builds your reputation and hand away the work that doesn't, and the one conversation almost nobody has, where you tell your manager the exact sentence you want said about you in that room.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 "Indispensable" is a decision, not a compliment0:24 Inside the 40-second calibration meeting0:52 The sentence that ends your promotion1:18 Why the word indispensable is a red flag1:41 Why your manager does it (and it's not malice)2:14 Why your workload doesn't touch your pay2:56 The best argument for staying indispensable3:31 Why being hard to replace keeps you stuck3:45 Why "just set boundaries" backfires4:13 Move 1: lead what counts, give away what doesn't4:52 Move 2: tell your manager your sentence5:23 Why indispensable feels safe but keeps you stuck━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Indispensable #GetPromoted #OfficePolitics #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

There's a particular kind of sting when someone steals your idea in a meeting. They say the thing you just said, the room lights up, and the credit lands on them. If you've felt it, here's how to make sure it never happens again.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. Over 20 years I've sat in the rooms where ideas get traded like currency, working with leaders from HelloFresh, Amazon, Google, and the NHS, and I've watched credit move around a table in real time. It isn't random. Credit is a system, and the people who steal your ideas understand that system better than you do. I learned it the expensive way: early in my career I made a point that died in the air, then watched a senior colleague make the same point ten minutes later and get a reputation off the back of it. I spent a year working out what he knew that I didn't.Stopping an idea thief isn't one move, it's three: the reclaim, the timestamp, and the source. The reclaim wins the moment, and it works because you extend your point instead of accusing anyone ("Yes, exactly the point I was making earlier..."), then keep talking. The timestamp wins the record: a two-line email before the meeting so your idea has your name on it before anyone can echo it. And the source is the one almost nobody does, the one that took me a year to understand, because it isn't about the thief at all. It's about becoming the person the room already credits before you open your mouth.If you're the one doing brilliant work and watching other people collect the credit, this is the video for you. Watch to the end for the source move, because it's the one that ends the problem for good.Chapters:0:00 The pain of having your ideas stolen1:44 Move 1: the immediate reclaim3:08 Move 2: create a paper trail3:52 Move 3: become the source4:51 Recap: why you need all three5:12 Your homework for tonightI send a weekly newsletter for people navigating exactly this, the stuff HR never puts in the handbook. And if you want to work on it properly with me, it's the core of what we do inside the OVD Labs cohort: 12 weeks, live, on positioning and visibility. Cohort 2 opens on 7 September 2026, and people from Google, HSBC, and the NHS were in cohort 1. Links below.An idea without an owner belongs to whoever says it last, so put your name on yours. If this was useful, tell me in the comments: has anyone ever repeated your idea in a meeting and taken the credit? What did you do?Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#IdeasStolen #OfficePolitics #MeetingTips #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

You can be the best worker on your team and still be invisible to the people who decide promotions and pay. This is the full masterclass on how to get promoted, how promotions really work, and how to stand out at work, without playing office politics or burning yourself out.Book a strategy call here: https://ovdlab.com/book/team/strategy-discovery-call/15minFind out about September cohort here: https://ovdlab.com/for/I'm Yasar Ahmad. I spent 20 years in senior leadership at companies like HelloFresh, Zalando, and Wipro, and as a global VP of HR I sat in the rooms where promotion and pay decisions actually get made. If "I'm stuck in my career" is the thought you keep having, this one is for you.Here's the uncomfortable truth: past a certain level, your performance is only about 10% of why you get promoted. The rest is workplace visibility and who's talking about you when you're not in the room. So this session is the whole promotion strategy and career growth strategy in one place: the 10-30-60 rule, where salary negotiation really fits, the career coaching and leadership development I give private clients, and a cold outreach method for your job search that beats firing off applications all day.You'll also get the visibility map that puts you in front of the right decision makers, the 90-day campaign that makes your next move feel inevitable, why a sponsor beats a mentor, and the three types of promotion ranked by how often they actually work. In the Q&A I take the hard ones: a boss who keeps you as their hidden brain, colleagues who take your credit, surviving a toxic manager, and building real executive presence with the PREP technique.If you're good at your job and serious about career growth, not the kind of career advice that just tells you to work harder, this is for you.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people, directors and VPs included, come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 Why your best work goes unseen4:59 Four things to understand first5:53 The hamster wheel effect7:12 My story: from £18k to global VP15:48 Why the traditional career path caps you18:01 The 10-30-60 rule21:23 A perception trick you can use this week24:16 Why being reliable is a cage25:25 Build an offer they can't refuse26:03 Sell the risk, not the gain28:36 Your real superpower: clarity30:29 The visibility map36:42 The 90-day campaign37:34 How to network when you hate networking44:04 The three types of promotion45:04 The four career blind spots49:00 The promotion master formula50:03 Why timing and the bell curve matter54:15 Recap: what changes now55:33 How to work with me1:06:46 Q&A: when your boss keeps you as the hidden brain1:10:17 Q&A: colleagues who take your credit1:13:07 Q&A: surviving a toxic boss1:17:03 The cold outreach method to land a job1:24:06 Executive presence and the PREP technique━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#GetPromoted #CareerMasterclass #WorkplaceVisibility #OfficePolitics #WinAtWork

There's a 2-second window that tells you everything about someone's character. It's the 2 seconds after they're told they got something wrong, before the professional face goes back on. Most of us miss it because we're busy reading charm.I've hired and promoted people for the better part of two decades, and the same thing holds up every time: pressure, power, and the small moments show you who someone really is long before their results do. A study by Simply Hired found more than 41% of workers lie at work at least once a week to dodge extra work. So a warm manner and a clean CV tell you almost nothing. The real signal shows up in the seconds people think you've stopped watching.Chapters:0:00 The 2-second window0:27 Moment 1: the 2 seconds after "you got it wrong"1:33 Moment 2: where their pressure goes2:05 Moment 3: give them a little power3:03 Moment 4: people who can't help them3:39 Stop reading job titles as character4:14 What to actually do about it4:53 The hard part: run it on yourselfThis video breaks down the four moments that reveal someone's true character. The 2 seconds after they're corrected. Where their pressure goes at 4pm on a bad Friday. What they do with a little bit of power. And how they treat the people who can't do a single thing for them, which is the one I trust most. Then the habit to drop (stop reading a job title as proof of character) and what to actually do once you've seen it, because it isn't confronting them. If you manage people, hire, or just want to know who you can lean on, this is for you. The uncomfortable part comes at the end: running the same four tests on yourself.Here's the line to sit with. You'll spend more of your waking life with these people than with your own family, so it's worth being good at reading them. And in hundreds of exit conversations, almost nobody is ever surprised when it finally goes wrong. They say the same thing: I knew within the first month.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. If you want more of this inside-the-room thinking, my weekly newsletter is where I go deeper.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#ReadingPeople #Leadership #Character #Hiring #WinAtWork

Why do idiots keep getting promoted? Because they worked out what's actually being scored, and you didn't. I've sat in the calibration rooms where those decisions get made, and here's what really happens.Chapters:0:00 Why idiots keep getting promoted0:08 Inside the calibration room (90 seconds that decide you)0:34 Is corporate a meritocracy? The 10/30/60 maths1:02 Does hard work get you promoted? (why brilliance becomes your ceiling)1:28 Is HR on your side?1:58 Should you tell your manager you want a promotion?2:24 Is your boss's feedback honest?3:02 Is bias real or an excuse?3:50 Is loyalty worth anything?4:19 Mentors vs sponsors (who actually promotes you)4:51 Stuck in the same role for years? What to do5:09 Free career diagnostic + my WhatsAppEight people talk about you for about 90 seconds. Nobody reads out your performance rating. Someone says your name, and either a story comes up with it or it doesn't. "She's the one who fixed the retention problem." That person moves. The idiot had a story. You had results, and the story won. Corporate isn't a meritocracy, and there's maths behind it: past senior manager, 10% of your advancement is performance, 30% is how you're perceived, and 60% is exposure to the people who decide your future. That's Harvey Coleman's research, and it matches every promotion room I've been in. You're pouring everything into the 10% and wondering why the number won't move.This video answers the 10 blunt career questions most people are too polite to ask. Does hard work get you promoted (and why being brilliant becomes your ceiling). Is HR on your side. Should you tell your manager you want a promotion, or is that the worst room to start in. Is your boss's feedback actually about you. Is bias real or an excuse. Is loyalty worth anything. Are mentors a waste of time when what you need is a sponsor. And the big one: what to do when you've been stuck in the same seat for years. If you're good at your job and still overlooked, this is the one for you.Two things before you go. First, the free career diagnostic scores you on six things most people never measure: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. It takes 5 minutes, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Second, when your results come through you get my personal WhatsApp. Not a bot, not a sales team, me. Send me your score and I'll tell you what I'd do in your situation. Links below.And if one of those 10 answers annoyed you, put the number in the comments. I'll take them on in part two. Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Promotion #CareerAdvice #OfficePolitics #Leadership #WinAtWork

Can you take a conversation from threat to trust in one sitting? When a discussion turns heated, most people wing it, and that's exactly when it falls apart. This is the system I use to turn it around.There are two parts. First you regulate yourself, because none of the clever tactics work while your face is hot and your stomach's in knots. I use the Stoic sequence: notice the feeling, name it, normalise it, then choose how you respond. You can pour petrol on the fire or pour water on it, and that choice only exists once you're back in control.Then comes the five-step conversion, the part that does the real work with a difficult stakeholder. Diagnose what they're actually protecting, whether it's a CFO guarding the budget or a risk lead guarding the process. Acknowledge their view before you pitch yours. Name their fear out loud so they feel heard. Remove and reduce the threat with a reversible, two-way-door option like a three-month trial. Then give them a face-saving narrative so they can say yes while it still looks like their call. Do those in order and someone who started out guarded ends up trusting you a lot more. If you deal with hard conversations, pushback, or office politics, this one's for you.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 Can you turn threat into trust in one conversation?0:41 Part 1: The Stoic reset (Notice, Name, Normalize, Choose)2:30 Part 2: The 5-Step Conversion System2:45 Step 1: Diagnose what they're protecting (CFO vs Risk example)3:25 Step 2: Acknowledge before you pitch4:03 Step 3: Name their fear out loud5:06 Step 4: Remove & Reduce the threat (2-way door / 3-month trial)5:59 Step 5: The face-saving narrative (let them take credit)7:11 Recap - Diagnose, Acknowledge, Name, Remove, Save Face━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#DifficultConversations #Communication #Leadership #Stoicism #WinAtWork

Get my free RESUME template here: https://ovdlab.com/blog/my-resume-that-landed-me-my-vp-roleOver my entire career I rejected more than a million resumes. Almost every one failed for the same five reasons, and nobody ever told the person why.I ran hiring at companies like HelloFresh and Wipro, where we brought in thousands of people a month and sat on a database of 3 to 4 million resumes. Yours gets a 7 to 8 second look before someone decides yes or no. Most of the resumes I rejected belonged to people who could actually do the job. They were qualified. Some were brilliant. They just never showed it on the page, so they landed in the no pile and never found out why.This video walks through the five mistakes I saw most, and the exact fix for each: writing your duties instead of your results, burying your best line on page two where the 8 second scan never reaches it, sending one generic resume to every role so the screening software and the recruiter both pass, planting small cracks in your credibility that quietly kill senior candidates, and cluttering the page so a hiring manager has to hunt for the good bit. If you're great at your job but keep getting ignored, this one is for you.I built a free career diagnostic that shows you exactly where things are going wrong and where to focus to put them right. If you feel like an invisible expert at work, start there: head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment, and you'll have it within 5 minutes. Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#ResumeTips #JobSearch #CareerAdvice #Hiring #WinAtWork

The man hired to clean up FIFA just ran the biggest decision in sport as one man. That is the leadership and governance failure that quietly plays out in ordinary companies every week, and almost nobody catches it until it's too late.____As mentioned in the video:Complete my free career diagnostic. Learn about the secret rules holding you back and how to fix it! 5000 people have already completed it. Dont get left behind. 👉🏽https://ovdlab.com/assessment____In 2016 Gianni Infantino took over a governing body drowning in corruption. The brief was simple: end the one-man rule, make the money visible, build checks so no single person could run the sport like it belonged to them. Ten years later he is the one being asked to resign, after a $4 billion plan his own chief operating officer found out about from the press. This is how a reformer becomes the thing he was sent to fix, and why the real failure happened in 2016, not 2026.If you lead people, or you are watching someone brilliant slowly become the only person who decides anything, this one is for you. You will get the three moves that keep power honest: stress-test the plan against the people most likely to kill it, never let your senior team read your strategy in the news, and hand anything that touches your own legacy to someone else. The best leaders don't ask to be trusted. They build the thing that means nobody has to.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work actually works, from someone who sat on the deciding side of the table. Want it in your inbox? My newsletter breaks down one lesson like this every week.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Leadership #Management #FIFA #Infantino #WinAtWork