Morgan Stanley Women’s Business Alliance and Emerging Women Leaders in the Community
In this article, we take a closer look at an ELBA-facilitated coaching/mentoring relationship and find out about the impact the experience has had on both participants.
December 2016 saw the launch of the second edition of ELBA’s Morgan Stanley Women’s Business Alliance and Emerging Women Leaders in the Community Executive Partnerships Programme. ELBA’s Executive Partnerships Programmes pair senior members of staff from our community partners with employees of similar standing at our business partners for a one to one coaching/mentoring relationship. In this case, Morgan Stanley employees from the Women’s Business Alliance were paired with some of east London’s finest female community leaders. The pairs have been meeting once per month to share learning, develop professional skills and overcome challenges. Whilst the programme aims to support the Community Leaders, we find that both participants tend to benefit greatly from the experience; this was certainly true for Nusrat Zamir of Chadwell Heath Asian Women’s Network and Jayne Kirby of Morgan Stanley. Here is the story of their relationship in their own words…
Nusrat Zamir, Chadwell Heath Asian Women’s Network
“In 2014 I founded a community organisation called Chadwell Heath Asian Women’s Network. With my new baby daughter in tow, I set up coffee mornings and workshops for local Asian women to access information and make new friends. It led to me winning Woman of the Year 2016 in London borough Barking and Dagenham.
Boosted by the confidence gained through my experiences with Chadwell Heath Asian Women’s Network, I decided to re-enter the world of law and began an LLM programme which I have just completed.
Despite my achievements, confidence has always been an issue. Negative childhood and early adult experiences meant that I found it extremely difficult believe in myself. My success always seemed pale and I saw myself as ‘never good enough’. When ELBA contacted me about the Morgan Stanley Emerging Women Leaders Programme I jumped at the opportunity to develop both personally and professionally. ELBA have since been instrumental in helping me to grow as a person by finding me the support that I needed to boost my confidence and enable me to believe in myself.
My first experience of ELBA was a hugely positive one. Alison [White] and Selina [Uddin] were understanding, accommodating and able to decipher what I was intending on gaining through the mentoring program. They did a fantastic job of matching me to my mentor, Jayne Kirby. Alison was able to quickly pick up on what I lacked and therefore what I needed most support with which was primarily my lack of confidence and assertiveness.
Over the past year, Jayne has been a really valuable source of wisdom and direction. She has been able to use her experiences in her role at Morgan Stanley to help me navigate various issues I faced within my organisation. Jayne is both positive and honest. Her feedback is always constructive and easy to follow which enables me to address the challenges that I am facing. Jayne’s support has had a profound effect on me and I am now able see how much I have changed and am continuing to change.
Visiting Jayne at Morgan Stanley has also been an eye opening experience. The atmosphere at Morgan Stanley’s offices is one of ambition and drive. Both are big parts of my personality and so it has been incredibly inspiring to access that environment.
I was delighted to share my news of being shortlisted in two categories for the National Diversity Awards with both ELBA and Jayne; without them, I would never have been able to do what I have done in order to be recognised in this way. The national diversity awards in Liverpool were an exhilarating experience and although I did not come home with a trophy, the recognition has boosted my self-belief immensely. It has given me the confidence to accept a public facing role and take on public speaking appointments.
ELBA and Morgan Stanley have been instrumental in my journey and I’m sure that everything I have learned through the mentoring programme will be extremely valuable in the next stages of my career”.
Jayne Kirby, Executive Director Morgan Stanley
“In December 2016, with some apprehension, I decided to register my interest as a volunteer for the “Supporting Emerging Women Leaders In The Community” programme in collaboration with ELBA (East London Business Alliance) to support emerging women leaders in local charities. I put the reason for my apprehension down to ‘The Imposter Syndrome’.
I was delighted to be accepted for the programme and I recall the first time I was introduced to my community partner, Nusrat. What struck me was the immediate connection we had (a testament to the matching process) and I knew there and then that I would be able to develop the capacity, performance and self-confidence of this lovely lady.
I am very proud to be a part of this programme and very proud of Nusrat’s journey and her achievements. I, too, have learned from this experience, one which I will cherish and will encourage others to volunteer for in future.
Nusrat and I will definitely keep in touch after the programme has officially come to a close at the end of November.
Thank you to all involved and thank you to Nusrat for her strength, ambition and desire for others to learn from her life experiences”.
ELBA are proud to have been able to find Nusrat the support she needed both to develop as a professional and to enable her to continue serve her community through Chadwell Heath Asian Women’s Network. We are about to launch the third edition of the Morgan Stanley Women’s Business Alliance and Emerging Women Leaders in the Community Executive Partnerships Programme and are really excited about the prospect of creating a new set of partnerships that have as much impact as Nusrat and Jayne have had on one another.
