"One challenge will be to find validated knowledge, recommendations and information that empower people to make the right decision for themselves."
Samin Saadat Tweet
The human brain, behaviour and interactions with their environment never fail to intrigue Samin Saadat. After spending long hours in psychology labs at UBC and completing her Masters at the Sauder School of Business, she entered the workforce and observed a gap between what research suggests and what companies actually do to increase productivity and profitability.
Also, Samin strongly believes every single individual, regardless of their race, age, status, gender, position, mental health matters and physical conditions deserves to reach their full potential and they all have something unique to offer! Now, Samin is on a mission to bridge this gap and support individuals and companies to reach their full potential through Jalapeño Employee Engagement—leveraging technology and professional human services to bring research findings to life to help companies save invaluable dollars and to help individuals enhance their quality of life
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Samin Saadat: During my first year of university, I was very intrigued by the concept of a parenting license. This is the idea that people should become parents only if they go through a series of basic training, not only for physical education (sexual health, eating habits, etc.) but for teaching how to foster healthy mental development in children as well.
As I kept pursuing this concept at UBC and discussing it with government agencies, I realized this idea would be repeatedly met with resistance. While the concept is intriguing and well-meaning in nature, the idea as it currently stands risks violating or being perceived as violating basic human rights. I continued my education on learning more about Human Psychology as the human brain, behaviour and interactions with their environment never fail to intrigue me.
After spending long hours in psychology labs at UBC and completing my Master’s at the Sauder School of Business, I entered the workforce and observed a gap between what research suggests and what companies actually do to increase productivity and profitability. Now, as I learn and advance more into organizational behaviour and leadership while working with different leaders and employees, I realize how the concept of parenting and leadership concepts are similar and how my early interest in a parenting license applies to leadership and organizational development.
Now, I am on a mission to bridge this gap and support individuals and companies to reach their full potential through Jalapeño Employee Engagement—leveraging technology and psychology to bring research findings to life to help companies save invaluable assets and to help individuals enhance their quality of life
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Samin Saadat: What we noticed was that companies that actively practiced high integrity and had thriving culture could turn this crisis into growth opportunities for them much easier than those who were struggling with workforce culture pre-covid. There was more awareness and understanding of the significant impact of culture on business performance and the culture shielded and uplifted their persona and spirit individually and as a corporate unit.
The paradigm in business has changed. We need more psychologists, philosophers and sociologists in our businesses to guide us throughout our journey. It needs to integrate these pillars to avoid the roof coming down due to snow load and black swan events!
In addition, our educational institutions have not evolved fast enough to bridge the gap between school programs and workforce needs. This is an era to really revisit this or education will suffer. The current workforce shortage is a by-product of the previous misalignments and under-investments.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Samin Saadat: Inflation is going to be a challenging one along with moving to green technologies and lower carbon emission. Having said that, it is extremely important for a business to increase its value proposition to clients and customers in the age of inflation. Companies won’t afford to keep going without checking on the integrity of their services and products.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Samin Saadat: We are in people’s businesses. As soon as the pandemic hit, we started doing market research as we are about to restart the entire business.
There were a few changes we made that helped us to come out of this pandemic much stronger:
- a) Adding counselling services in addition to our coaching and consulting services
- b) Upgrading our software to take the pulse of the company and its individuals at different levels and in different areas such as Wellbeing, DEI, agility, Change readiness, Onboarding and etc.
- c) Adding extra features to our software that will create a 50-50 mentality between employee and employer. Culture building and managing crises require everyone in the company to be accountable in order to remain sustainable.
- d) Adding Spicy Hotline which is a resource designed to be ongoing HR, people and Culture “workplace 911” support for navigating through different ad hoc internal team incidents.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Samin Saadat: You cannot hold the bus for one person.
For founders, It can be a lonely journey! Take care of yourself first, and then your business and your people
Eliminate media noise and focus on your own long-term goals. Don’t try to keep switching your entire vision based on a few hype and trends that won’t be sustainable. Don’t panic, this too shall pass! Hang in there.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Samin Saadat: First of all, don’t over-use the strength of the virtual world, so it becomes a weakness. My expectation for 2022 will be to see a more balanced approach between the online and offline world.
Second of all, I expect businesses to focus more on humanity, the environment and purpose rather than profit.
Lastly, taking mental well-being more seriously. We constantly add tools and services such as our workforce counselling services, spicy hotline as well as wellness training in the workforce to ensure we help individuals to be their own heroes while we are laying the foundation for a thriving work environment in companies.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Samin Saadat: 8-10 hours on weekdays and 2-3 hours on weekends. Having said that I don’t spend too much time on my phone or TV . I do the majority of my readings on physical copies.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Samin Saadat: I was 24 years old when I started Jalapeno which is a B2B business but really is a B2E (Employees). The majority of the time I had to convince mature male CEOs to consider Jalapeno. As being a young woman with a smile in the corporate world and an immigrant with a Persian accent, you can imagine it is a tough sell.
What I learned from such an experience, is that it is a skill to know how to be listening, confident, humble and authentic!
I may not know what the best way is to tell a story but I know stories full of “hot air” won’t influence others. Indeed it is the integrity and genuine that pursues real client relationship building
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Samin Saadat: There are alot of misconceptions, misleading information and buzzwords in the media and the online world that confuse and overwhelm people. One challenge will be to find validated knowledge, recommendations and information that empower people to make the right decision for themselves.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Samin Saadat: I have been always fascinated by the human brain and behaviour and its interactions with the environment. Whether you are learning about marketing, globalization, religion, politics, history, culture, business and etc. In the end, you are learning about human psychology. This is a deep ocean with a never-ending exploration for me.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Samin Saadat: Based on our data and experience, actually many bosses spend a lot of resources on employee engagement and leadership development. The biggest issue is that their solutions are painkillers with short-term benefits and long-term detrimental impacts.
The tactics and practices leaders use are not science-based nor target-based with interval measurements and calibration. Therefore at Jalapeno, we leverage our technology and psychology to increase retention and productivity through the calibration and understanding throughout the entire journey with detailed analysis. In other words: Qualifications and quantification with mid-terms
This goes back to my purpose of launching jalapeno which is to bridge the gap between the science of psychology and workforce practice to ensure companies get an acceptable ROI of their investments in their people and culture. A real practical and engaging process by itself for all teams and groups.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Samin Saadat: For me would be understanding every single language and culture in the world and experiencing diverse lifestyles. So I can truly increase adding value to that specific company and individual.
We are actually on our path towards this business superpower by:
1) building a diverse and inclusive team
2) growing globally through franchise models. In this way, our products and services are tailored to each culture.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Samin Saadat: When Covid hit, unlike the majority of businesses, I actually increased our investment amounts. I used loans, personal savings, and other resources to enhance our people, our technology, and our delivery team. As a result, we have very powerful and validated software, professional services and a team that is giving us a sustainable and a fast growth
For me 2022 success is as we are growing, we don’t forget where we come from and we remain value and purpose-driven with strong integrity and team.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Samin Saadat for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Samin Saadat or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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