Day in the Life of a Head of Learning and Development: Perihan El Gohary

Perihan El Gohary has been working as Head of Learning & development (L&D) since 2010 in several multi-national organizations. She accumulates a total of 16 years of a well-diversified experience in the fields of sales, L&D, training, retail banking and wealth management. Although she started as a professional freelance trainer in 2000, Perihan had the opportunity throughout her career to work in several reputable, multi-national organizations and quickly move up the ladder. Having headed many HR projects and initiatives, Perihan was able to enrich her professional experience and add value to her organization along the way. Her passion for Human development pushed her to participate in many conferences and summits to help develop other talents.

Perihan holds a Bachelor degree in Business administration coupled with an unending self-education process. Perihan was certified from ATD for “Human Performance improvement” in 2013. She was also certified from assessor & assessment center design at SHL in 2014. Additionally, Perihan studied personal and professional development from the University of east London in 2011. Beyond L&D, Perihan was awarded several certifications in banking and wealth management during her career in banking services.

Perihan’s agenda:

7:00 AM – 8:00 AM

By this time, I am ready to wake my kids up for school. Once they are gone, I get to watch the news and know what is happening around whether internationally or locally. Sometimes, if I can’t find anything interesting or new, I check my personal emails and reply to the ones I wasn’t able to during the previous day.

8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

At this time, I arrive at work and start my day with a quick check to my email high-line. Then, I start planning my day and preparing a to-do list with the most important tasks that I need to accomplish before leaving the office.

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

My day is typically full of meetings, presentations, and one-on-one consultations, which require a lot of attention and concentration. During this part of the day, I tend to focus on accomplishing activities that require a high level of energy as it is the part of the day when I am in full power.

1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

I follow up on my team day to day activities and I focus on the activities that require less concentration as this part of the day is when my energy starts to slow down. It is the time where I aim to finish my paper work and similar less engaging tasks. Without doubt, this entire schedule will change if I have a training day where I spend the whole morning delivering and engaging with others.

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

At this time of the day, I might still be at the office. Most of the time, however, I should be getting home to see my kids and husband and enjoying some quality time with my family. I always make sure not to skip my family time as it represents an important pillar of my life. I base my life on 3 Main important pillars, though it is often a struggle to keep them up: The Family Pillar, The Career & success Pillar, and The Self Pillar

7:00 PM – 11:00 PM

During this time of the day, I am either spending more time with my family or starting my own part of the day, during which I dedicate at least one or two hours to athletic activities. Alternatively, this is a good time for some self-learning or some readings to end the day with.

To conclude my daily activities, I am always very aware of balancing my day and not allowing work to take over my personal or family pillars. As I remember well from a book I read about work-life balance and time management, the quote said “on the death bed, no one will ever regret missing on a meeting that he didn’t attend or not spending more time in the office.” This quote represents my life slogan. That doesn’t mean that I do not aim for effectiveness and high performance; on the contrary, I do, but in my own unique way.

Roba Al-Assi
  • Posted by Roba Al-Assi - ‏19/09/2016
  • Last updated: 14/03/2019
  • Posted by Roba Al-Assi - ‏19/09/2016
  • Last updated: 14/03/2019
Comments
(0)