Nada Mallah Boustani, Adoption of
a Work-Life Balance Principle 

1. What helped you shape the woman you are today and how do you balance between family and professional journey?

The secret that shaped my actual status is the adoption of a Work Life Balance principle.

As a working woman, I recognized that the perfect balance between work and home life is an attainable myth. For that, I’ve always adapted my attitude by acknowledging my feelings-positive, negative, and neutral- where they are all valid and need to be expressed. I lowered my expectations as “perfection does not exist and I was fully convinced that it would be okay if sometimes I was not as productive as I should be.

You need to love yourself, be tolerant and self-compassionate with yourself and others, where mistakes should be within our appetite as we are simply humans. The work-life balance I mentioned is very delicate as you need to keep your eyes focused on different pillars at the same time. While talking about production and organization by structuring, planning and delegating, engagement in self-care is crucial. Said that definitely boundaries establishment is mandatory for not taking on extra burdens, also prioritizing relaxation or self-care activity, taking care of ones’ self, help function best in our roles. I tried so many times to involve my family and especially my children in some decision-making process, whereby I tried to seek their opinions on some working related matters as for me the view of an outsider could add up value despite his or her lack of knowledge in the field.

2. Education is a mission; how can you explain that?

Let’s first focus on every individual’s mission and ask this question “What is the mission of every creature on Earth?”. I guess the main goal here is to accept each other, love each other and live in harmony but the debatable question is “how is this achievable”?

For us to succeed in reaching these stages we need to get to know more our partners, neighbors, colleagues and accept them as they are. See! I said “we need to know each other first then accept or similarities and differences”. Knowing means more knowledge and knowledge is acquired through education. Hence there is a huge universal mission through Education, as it would be through education that our knowledge is expanded and the more we know, the more we understand, accept, tolerate and love.

We have many use cases for education as we see them in our everyday life. Every time we identify community clusters with low or lack of education, we deduce high rate of crimes, high illiteracy, community and social injustice, and low tolerance on accepting each other. This takes us to the conclusion that with Education, you can build better people, better societies and definitely better economies.

3. What’s the importance of Management in society?

The word ‘management’ is derived from the Latin word ‘Manus’ which means hands. Thus, management refers to handling a particular activity.

Management refers to the process of setting certain pre-determined objectives and achieving them through optimum utilization of resources.

According to Drucker, management is the dynamic life-giving element in every organization. It is the activating force that gets things done through people. Without management, an organization is merely a collection of men, machines, money and material. In its absence, the resources of production remain resources, and never become production.

Management improves people’s standard of living by – (i) using scarce resources efficiently and turning out profits; (ii) ensuring the survival of the firm in the face of continued changes; (iii) exploiting new ideas for the benefit of society as a whole; and (iv) developing employee talents and capabilities at work as well as prompting them to display peak performance.

The great economist, Schumpeter, referred to management, and entrepreneurs as the engine of growth. Drucker called management ‘the life blood’ of an enterprise. According to him, management is ‘the crucial factor in economic and social development’. Admittedly, firms can fail because of inadequate funds, improper marketing, incompetent product design, along with many other reasons.

They often fail because the basic management functions are performed poorly or not at all. Management is ‘the single most critical social activity in connection with economic progress. Physical, financial and manpower resources are, by themselves, only passive agents – they must be effectively combined and coordinated through sound and effective management if a country is to experience a substantial level of economic growth and development.

4. Tell us more about your experience as a member of different international research associations.

John Maxell is an American author, speaker, who has written many books, primarily focusing on leadership. In his book of “the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership” tackled a specific law called “The Law of the Inner Circle” that stipulate A Leader’s Potential Is Determined by Those Closest to Him. This is exactly explained by my experience as a researcher and member in different international research associations. The law of inner circle stipulates the fact of stepping into a circle with people that resemble me from a technical and talent aspects. The fact of having myself inside those associations define 100% the law of inner circle. 

Nobody does anything great alone, nor do researchers succeed alone. Therefore, as a researcher attributing myself into associations where inner circle members could bring a Complementary Gift to the Table and Add Value to each other and positively Impact Other Inner Circle Members is an indicator of success by itself.

5. You believe in the perseverance in achieving personal goals; how do you transmit it to your students?

Perseverance is one of the crucial elements that help us navigate the ship until reaching the shore. But perseverance requires a lot of positivity in the sense that even with failure we should see success. It is important to understand that sometimes failure is not a cause by itself but rather an effect due to external un-controllable circumstances or also the result of personal errors and mistakes executed. In all cases, we should always perceive victory. Therefore, when failure is viewed as a lesson to be learned it becomes success, and this could give perseverance a huge boost. Said that, I always try to spread out the messages to my students and explain to them that for you to have the power achieving victory, in your perspective there should be the followings:

Losing is unacceptable (as with loss you can learn a not and this turn into success)

Passion is unquenchable (Keep your expectations and love with what you do up high regardless of……)

Quitting is unthinkable (Never Quit although you know the end result. Take it till the end and learn from it)

Commitment is unquestionable (With high commitment you expand your perseverance)

Victory is inevitable (In all cases there should be a Victory somewhere)

6. What piece of advice would you give to young people struggling with limiting beliefs set by their societies and what’s your contribution to the research of Business & Management field?

As a research professor in business, management, and finance, I have a wide and large research contribution in these areas. I have published numerous researches in international journals covering a wide angle of latest business topics that are directly affecting our organization today, society and self. In addition to my international scientific papers and researches, I am an active economic writer in multiple Lebanese electronic and printed newspapers where I conduct thorough analysis and express scientific opinions on Lebanon current problems and crisis in finance, economics, corruption etc.…

My motivation to the research fields and knowing the importance of research to improve economic development, to innovate and to sustain, led me to conceive an NGO named AXISSED.

7. Could you tell us more about your newly conceived NGO “AXISSED”?

AXISSED” stands for “Association of Excellence for Innovation Studies, Sustainability & Economic Development”. Our organization relies and counts on Lebanese brains, think tanks and determination. 

AXISSED is established in 2022, with the aim and purpose to contribute to SMES’ transformation, economic reforms, and community development. And through its unique framework along with the commitment and engagement of its caliber human resources, AXISSED pledges to add value in providing the necessary talent and technical assistance for skills and country development purposes. It is a leading hub for creation, innovation, transformation, and development on the business, community, and country levels. The Organization is conceived to research, design and implement funded projects and programs aiding the private sector to create and innovate, assisting the public sector in its reform journey, and developing skills and talents through capacity building and overall contributing to the country’s economic and social development activities.

AXISSED appraises multiple values that as combined are considered the core soul of the organization, and it is through integrity and accountability that every member is valued and respected. We believe that without setting the foundation of solid ground, the organization cannot sustain and hold for its journey. Hence, the foundation of trust is our core of core values. All efforts shall be directed for the establishment of confidence among this organization stakeholders.

– Solidarity “AXISSED embraces the concerns and aspirations of its target groups”.

– Accountability “AXISSED is accountable to all stakeholders”.

– Partnership “AXISSED is committed to cultivating and building sustained collaboration and cooperation with other actors for innovative and sustainable economic development”.