Subi Akbar
Turning Years of Experience Into Visible Leadership
With 16+ years of experience, Subi had built her career through knowledge, responsibility and consistent contribution. But when her role was made redundant, she began questioning her professional value. She learned to own her contribution, communicate it clearly and step forward even when the outcome was uncertain.
From Being Recognised to Being Visible
Communication Intelligence Alumni
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Leadership Milestone
Communication Intelligence Alumni | Zenith Leadership Circle
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Joined Zenith
July 2025
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Designation
Management Subject Matter Expert
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Country
UAE
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Leadership Milestone
Communication Intelligence Alumni | Zenith Leadership Circle
-
Joined Zenith
July 2025
-
Designation
Management Subject Matter Expert
-
Country
UAE
“I entered Zenith believing my time in the organisation was ending. I learned to stop behaving as though my contribution had already ended with it.”
- Subi Akbar
Her Role Was Made Redundant. Then the Same Organisation Chose Her Again.
How Communication Intelligence helped a senior supply-chain professional reclaim her authority, earn a one-year extension and secure a new role in an unfamiliar field
For more than 16 years, I had built my career in supply-chain planning and management. Over 13 of those years were with Mars GCC, where my work contributed to end-to-end supply-chain operations connected with more than USD 50 million in monthly gross sales across the Middle East and Africa.
I had worked across procurement, demand planning, inventory optimisation, warehousing, transportation and distribution. I had helped remove bottlenecks, manage risk and improve operational efficiency.
Then, in May 2025, I received a redundancy letter.
My professional experience did not disappear that day, but my belief in its value began to. When I joined Zenith in July, I was serving my notice period and questioning whether others were more deserving of the opportunities ahead.
I thought I was preparing for the end of a role. Communication Intelligence helped me recognise that I was still deciding how this chapter would be remembered.
When Redundancy Became a Judgment on My Worth
My first response was practical: I needed to apply for jobs and determine what came next. Beneath that activity, however, was a more painful question. If an organisation no longer had a place for me, what did that say about my professional value?
I began thinking that perhaps I was not experienced enough or that I would have to begin again. Instead of drawing authority from my experience, I behaved as though I had to prove that it still counted.
My husband could see what I could not. He told me, “You’re not seeing how powerful you are. You’re overthinking everything.”
I had become so focused on what I might lose that I stopped seeing what was still mine: the judgment, resilience and knowledge built over 16 years.
I Was Waiting for the Organization to Recognize Me
Through my conversations with Gurleen Ma’am, I began to recognise a pattern that extended beyond the redundancy. I cared deeply about my work. I was warm, conscientious and willing to help people get the job done. I possessed depth in my thinking, but I was not fully claiming the position from which that thinking deserved to be heard.
Part of me wanted the organisation to identify my value without my having to make it visible. I wanted to belong at the top, but I was waiting for permission to own my place there.
Gurleen Ma’am shifted my attention away from the approaching final date and asked me to consider a different question:
“What contribution can you make now that people will remember even after you are gone?”
My notice period no longer had to be time spent waiting for an ending. It could become evidence of how I lead when the outcome is uncertain.
Stop Blending In. Start Contributing at Your Full Level.
I continued pursuing external opportunities without mentally leaving my present organisation before my final day. My responsibility was to give my best, take the lead and stop allowing fear to decide how visible I should become.
Internal Decluttering helped me separate facts from fears. The fact was that my role had been made redundant. The fear was that this meant I was no longer valuable. Once I stopped treating those statements as the same, I could direct my energy towards contribution.
Morning practices helped me begin each day with intention rather than anxiety. The TRIAD Principle gave my communication a clearer structure, helping people follow my thinking, recognise what mattered and understand the outcome more easily. I began preparing more deliberately for meetings, expressing my perspective and taking responsibility beyond what might have been expected from someone serving notice.
I stopped asking, “Why should I step forward when I may be leaving?” and started asking, “What becomes possible if I give this everything I have?”
The Organization Began Seeing a Different Subi
The change became visible quickly. Within the first three months, my ideas and perspectives began receiving greater attention. I was invited to present my work and achievements in senior forums. Internal development spaces recognised the way I was learning and contributing.
People were seeing more because I was finally allowing more of my leadership to be seen.
I had previously tried to blend in, hoping that good work would speak for itself. I now understood that visibility required ownership. I had to articulate the thinking behind my work, stand behind my contribution and become comfortable taking the lead.
Before I could ask whether there might still be a place for me, the organisation approached me. My employment was extended for another year.
I had entered Zenith feeling that I had no future in the organisation. I earned the extension while learning that my authority could not depend on an organisation guaranteeing my future.
One Year Later, the Lesson Was Tested Again
As the extended year approached its end, uncertainty returned in a new form. There were no openings aligned directly with my established experience. One opportunity existed within Mars, but it was in a different field. I understood approximately half of the work through previous coordination with the team, yet other candidates had more direct experience.
When I approached the supervisor, I was told that stronger candidates were already being considered and my chances appeared limited.
This time, I did not interpret limited experience as a final verdict on my ability. Gurleen Ma’am asked me whether I could learn what I did not yet know. My answer was yes.
There were 21 days before the interview.
Together, we built a focused preparation system. I identified the knowledge gap, educated myself, organised my existing transferable experience and prepared to communicate why I could succeed in the role. The work demanded far more than positive thinking. It required discipline, structure, practice and the willingness to enter an evaluation where I was not the obvious choice.
Twenty-one days later, I cleared the interview. Despite competing with people who had more direct experience, I was selected for the position.
I continue to work at Mars today.
When we strengthen the person behind the communication, every conversation begins to create a different future.
When Subi came to me, I saw someone with depth, warmth and a strong instinct to contribute. Yet she was waiting for the organisation to recognise a place she had not fully claimed for herself.
Redundancy had made her question the value of 16 years. I helped her separate that decision from her professional identity and focus on what she could still control: the quality and visibility of her contribution.
I encouraged her to stop waiting to be noticed and become comfortable owning her value. Her one-year extension showed the impact of that shift.
A year later, she faced a role outside her direct experience with only 21 days to prepare. This time, uncertainty did not make her retreat. She learned, prepared and secured the role.
Subi did not eliminate uncertainty. She stopped allowing it to decide how fully she would show up.
Communication Intelligence Mentor
I No Longer Wait for My Value to Be Discovered
I once thought losing my role meant starting again. Today, I understand that experience remains mine, even when a designation, contract or circumstance changes.
Confidence now means trusting that I can learn what I do not know, communicate what I already bring and step forward before certainty gives me permission. I no longer wait for someone else to complete the picture of who I am professionally.
Zenith did not decide my future for me. It gave me the internal clarity, communication structure and disciplined support to participate in creating it.
The journey of Subi Akbar continues, with a role she was once told appeared beyond her experience and a professional authority she no longer asks others to recognise first.
It grows when the person behind the words becomes clearer.
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Frequently Asked
It helped Subi separate the loss of a role from the value of her experience. Internal decluttering, structured communication and deliberate application allowed her to redirect attention from fear about the future towards the contribution she could make in the present.
During her notice period, Subi began taking greater ownership, communicating her ideas more clearly and making her contribution visible in senior forums. The organisation approached her and extended her employment for another year.
Subi used the 21 days before the interview to close her knowledge gaps, translate her existing experience and prepare systematically. She competed with candidates who had more direct exposure and was selected for the position.
Subi moved from waiting for her value to be recognised to actively demonstrating it. She became more comfortable standing out, taking responsibility and trusting that uncertainty did not diminish the experience she had already built.
