The story of an HR executive from Kurdistan who wants to leave a fingerprint on the world
Dashti Ismael has a clear sense of what he is building toward. He calls it the two percent community — the small group of people in any field who become the source of information that others return to for answers. “A focal point for people to support people, to change people, to change your world — and to have a fingerprint in changing the world.”
That is why he enrolled in the Doctor of Business Administration program at Golden Gate University through upGrad. Not for a promotion or the title, which in his words “is not a priority”; for a place in that two percent.
Dashti is an HR manager at an international company in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He has been in human resources since 2009, when he joined a cement company and found that people management was where he could have real impact. He had already completed two master’s degrees and had seen what academic theory, applied to the ground, could do. “It’s not just a study actually. It’s something changing the world and changing the value.” He wanted more. The online structure of the DBA gave him a path without asking his family to relocate — his family, he says, has severe homesickness. A traditional PhD was not possible.
The path was not smooth. He traded weekends for study time and used vacation leave to write. When the first round of dissertation feedback came back, it was overwhelming. “I got a lot of comments from the reviewer — I realised it was a disaster. I felt very frustrated.” His brother, who heads a PhD program in the region, talked him back. First and second round, everyone sees the same, he said. Work on it. You’ll hit the target.
He did. And the research delivered a harder lesson than the feedback. His entire professional direction — everything he had assumed about improving employee satisfaction — was wrong. “When I started my study and read a lot of external studies, I realized that my direction was wrong.” The research corrected it, and corrected him.
The mindshift is now permanent. Before deciding on anything strategic, he researches. He solves problems through leadership rather than power. “You can influence people now easier and solve your problem much easier.”
Dashti Ismael is completing the Doctor of Business Administration through Golden Gate University’s online DBA program — a fully accredited, fully online doctorate for working professionals. Applications are open.
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