Name: Ali Shayan

Title: Director-Principal Consultant

Organisation: Adowra Engineering

A father, husband, structural engineer, mindset coach, and visionary business mentor dedicated to helping others seize control of their destinies. Passionate about empowering individuals to unlock their untapped potential and achieve their aspirations.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Ali's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

What I’ve found most challenging as a leader is building trust with individuals and helping them recognise their potential. Encouraging someone to step out of their comfort zone and believe in themselves to become an effective team player can be difficult, especially when they are initially resistant. However, I see it as an opportunity to connect, inspire, and support their growth.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

Initially, I became a leader by position rather than through well-developed human skills. At the time, I leaned heavily on my technical expertise, as that’s often the focus of education systems. However, when I embarked on a new journey by starting my own company, I was faced with the full spectrum of leadership challenges—not just as a contributor, but as someone fully accountable.

That’s when I realised how naive I was in areas like leadership, communication, mental toughness, and emotional intelligence. This realisation pushed me to deconstruct who I was and rebuild myself internally with a focus on human skills: understanding people, fostering meaningful relationships, and learning the art of listening to understand, to be understood. I aspired to become a leader not just by position or intellect, but by heart, creating sustainable connections with those I work with.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I structure my days meticulously, with everything scheduled in my calendar from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM. Every weekend, I set aside time to plan and adjust my calendar for the coming week. My mornings begin with prayer and meditation, followed by reading books about leadership, business strategy, mindset, etc., exercise, listening to motivational or educational audio, a shower, and breakfast. I dedicate my morning hours to my engineering business until midday.

Around noon, I take a short break for meditation to refresh my mind and regain energy before continuing with my engineering work until about 4:00 PM. In the late afternoon, I transition to my true passion—business and mindset coaching. From 4:00 to 7:00 or 8:00 PM, I work with young entrepreneurs, helping them discover their path and unlock their potential. My evenings are a mix of meditation, volunteering, family time, and reviewing my calendar for the next day to make any final tweaks. Weekends are reserved for family and my volunteering commitments.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

A recent lesson I’ve been reminded of as a leader is that the quality of your heart determines the depth of your purpose, and the depth of your purpose shapes the height of your success. True leadership isn’t just about strategy or execution—it’s about leading with authenticity, compassion, and a genuine connection to your purpose. This understanding continues to guide me in fostering meaningful relationships and achieving sustainable success.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so

far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Intentional Living by John C Maxwell This book showed me how clarity in our purpose, believing in what we do, and more importantly, taking action with all we have and not waiting for the perfect moment is important. In his book Intentional Living, John C. Maxwell shares a personal story about receiving a gift from his assistant, Eileen Beavers. The gift was a book titled The Greatest Story Ever Told, which, to his surprise, contained blank pages.

Inside, Eileen had written a note: "John, your life is before you. Fill these pages with kind acts, good thoughts, and matters of your heart. Write a great story about your life." This message inspired Maxwell to view his life as a story he could author with intentionality and purpose. And this is applicable to all of us! "Purpose empowers significance. The sooner you know your why, the sooner you can shift your focus from yourself to others. The sooner you can get on with it, you can lose yourself in others. That is where significance lives and thrives!"

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

The farthest distance between where you are and where you want to be in life is the six inches between your ears—your mind. The only opponent you truly need to conquer is the person in the mirror. Your battleground is your mind and your greatest victories will be won within.

Imagine a tree: the size of its trunk, the spread of its branches, the abundance of its leaves, and the weight of its fruit. The bigger the tree, the deeper its roots. You are the root. And that is the only thing you can control—yourself. Invest in growing you, because the depth of your roots will define the height of your success. Nurture yourself, and the rest will follow as part of your story.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far? "One meaningful story that comes to mind as a leader in the time I realised there was an issue with the thought process and attitude of one of my team members. My initial response was overly critical, and while I thought it was justified at the moment, the team member became upset and eventually decided to leave. After reflecting on the situation, I couldn’t pinpoint anything blatantly wrong with my actions, but something still didn’t feel right.

It was only after reading John C. Maxwell’s Self-Aware Leader that I had a breakthrough. A particular passage struck me profoundly: 'We Are Harder on Others Than We Are on Ourselves Most people use two totally different sets of criteria for judging themselves versus others. We tend to judge others according to their ‘actions’ and ‘results’. We often see our observations as very cut-and-dried. However, we judge ourselves by our’ intentions’.

Even when we do the wrong thing or the results are terrible, if we believe our motives were good, we let ourselves off the hook. And we are often willing to do that over and over before requiring ourselves to change. That doesn't make us effective leaders.""

This insight opened my eyes. I realised that my approach lacked empathy and self-awareness. From that moment, I made two key decisions:

1. Avoid making decisions or reacting when emotional, especially in anger. There’s a saying that resonated with me: 'Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you’ll ever regret.'

2. Evaluate situations using similar criteria for both myself and others. I committed to putting myself in the other person’s shoes, striving to see the situation from their perspective before making judgments.

This experience taught me the power of self-awareness, empathy, and emotional regulation in leadership. It’s a lesson I carry with me to this day, and it has significantly shaped how I approach challenges and relationships as a leader."