018: You Cannot Outsource Accountability: Inside a $30B Infrastructure Portfolio with Omer Iqbal

Orion Matthews: Do you have, like, one takeaway that you would want your audience to get from our chat today?

It doesn’t have to be about AI, but just everything in general that we’ve covered here about executive portfolio management. Is there, is there a single thing that you’d hope people take away?

Omer Iqbal: I think stay curious. Stay curious. Ask questions. Understand the underlying value, why business needs it, why your society needs it.

What is the benefit of this particular project into the community? Stay curious. Start and, and hone your critical thinking way more than what it is right now. It’s, it c- you can never be too critical thinker. So I would say hone those skills and keep, uh, stay curious, and never confuse an activity with a value.

So value generating outputs, uh, and activities could be you would be doing so many [00:01:00] things, but not in the right direction. So always concentrate your effort, make the best and most efficient use of your time in project management, in your personal life, in your studies, in whatever you’re trying to achieve in your life.

Try to, uh, always take this moment to step back and re- uh, reorganize your thoughts and your activities, your decisions, and see are they, are they achieving the goal you want to achieve? Yeah. Be it journaling, be it have a friend or a mentor. I’m a big fan of mentoring. I think that… And, and journaling.

These two things I think can transform anyone’s life. Uh, so if you’re a young listener or even a veteran listening to me and you think that you are stuck where you are at, it’s most likely because you have stopped measuring yourself. So the way you measure yourself is by journaling. So you record your state, and six weeks or a month or two months down the line, you look [00:02:00] back those documents and you see where you have been and the, what the problem is.

Probably you could identify, and if you couldn’t identify, then that’s where the mentor comes into play. He can look at the patterns. He can identify or she can identify those patterns for you and give you a better direction. So never underestimate, um, and give it a try. Journaling and mentoring, it can do miracles for you

Orion Matthews: Yeah, it reminds me of that story from, um, Dale Carnegie’s famous book. Uh, he talks about, I don’t remember who it was, like Winston Churchill or somebody, that spent every Sunday they had four hours that they would spend journaling everybody that they met the, of the week, and, like, all their thoughts. And it was this sacred time that this really famous, successful person, whose name I’m forgetting, was, was able to, you know, take.

And I was just like, that sounds like one of the best activities, like, in… The time uses that I’ve ever heard of. Just taking that- Yeah … moment and making a habit out of it, an [00:03:00] atomic habit out of it.

Omer Iqbal: Atomic habit. That’s a good way to put it. I think we take it for granted. We take it- Yeah … take these interactions for granted, and, um, yeah, 100%, yeah.

Uh, I do recall that, but I’m also struggling to, uh, recall the name of the individual. I do recall that, uh, book and the story, yes. Um-

Orion Matthews: Well, so, you know, bridging into this, um, are there any… For, for those junior career shifters out there, do you have any advice that you might give someone that’s looking to get into project controls that is, um, you know, maybe moving from, uh, a different industry, or just coming out of college, or maybe trying to think about the degree that they want?

What kind of advice would you give them for how to get involved?

Omer Iqbal: If you like challenge, if you like connecting the dots, and if you want every day to be a brand-new challenge and opportunity in your life, well, project control’s the space for you. Wow. 100%. It gives you that, that view of, uh, of project in an organization’s, uh, capabilities that even [00:04:00] sometimes many executives don’t have it.

Because you could see… You, you’re literally seeing under the bonnet how the engine works, and that sometimes, uh, makes you more informed person than the driver himself. So it’s a great area to start, uh, in c- your career. Uh, how do you start? There are a few certifications out there. You can tap into that.

Um, could be pr- uh, uh, PMI certifications. I think there’s one, uh, American Association of, uh, Costing Engineers. You can kickstart that one as well. Uh, yeah, uh, find a, find a mentor, uh, find a, uh, find someone who can walk you through. I think Orion is very welcoming to connect with the LinkedIn. So am I.

Reach out to us. We are happy to give you advice, you know.

Orion Matthews: Mm-hmm. And is there any mistake that you can think of that you would like to warn, uh, new junior folks about? Like, some early mistake that you wish, uh, you had perhaps gotten a little advice on that you could share?

Omer Iqbal: Oh,

that’s heaps. [00:05:00]

Orion Matthews: We’re- I,

Omer Iqbal: I think what I learned that, uh, being right or doing everything by the book was not enough.

That I learned in the career. So you sometimes, um- Or- organizations don’t work like that. So being an engineer, being, being, uh, the bookish people as we are, we tend to finish our homework as soon as possible. We, we like to finish the task at hand very quickly, and here you go, we’ve finished it. But that’s not how you’re going to get promotions.

That’s not how you’re going to get identified and seen in an organization, and that’s actually low-key wrong way of doing the job. So it’s not politics. It’s not anything dirty or, uh, uh, something wrong we’re talking about here today. What we’re talking here is

If you are developing something, if you’re progressing on a project or a, or a task, engage the [00:06:00] stakeholders early. Walk them through. Identify their challenges. Identify what aligns with them. Um, build an alignment with the senior stakeholders as well as junior stakeholders. You need… It’s, uh, organizations are sometimes are a popularity contest as well, so you need to build that rapport about you, that presence of yours, uh, that vibe of yours.

And if you think your organization is suffering from a cultural, um, issues, et cetera, but this is your responsibility as well. You’re part of the organization, so you, you become that infectious, happy person, and then you spread it out. You engage with people, bring them to the journey, and connect them, and become that medium that everybody starts connecting in, and then, and then building that, uh, that, that vibe.

So yeah, I learned that slightly late in my career. Unfortunately, was working mostly as consultant, so never had an opportunity to stay at, uh, one project for considerable amount of time. Uh, but, uh, [00:07:00] now I look back and realize, wow, that’s such a gift. This, uh, this vision, this, uh, this way of working, if you understand that early in career, it can do a lot of good things for you.

Yeah.

Orion Matthews: Thank you for sharing that. Um, I think you mentioned Atomic Habits. Are there any other books- Yes … uh, podcasts, things that, people that you follow that you might wanna recommend?

Omer Iqbal: So this is definitely one of the good ones. Uh, yeah, Atomic Habits is there. I would say, um, this, um, Thinking Fast and Slow is definitely one, the big ones.

Orion Matthews: Yeah.

Omer Iqbal: Um, and there’s another book which was recommended to me by someone a long time ago. It’s called What Color Is Your Parachute? So it ha- they have a yearly edition. So what it means, sometimes you’re stuck in your career and your life, you don’t know what really moves you, right?

Yeah.

So you’re a controls guy for 10 years, is it something you wanna do?

Would I serve you like? So what is [00:08:00] really your passion about? So this What Color of Parachute is kind of, that book walks you through what excites you, what is your intrinsic and extrinsic, intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. It helps you align that with real-life job titles and work environments. And that’s how I ended up, uh, participating in the board rules because I was looking for something bigger.

How can I… And, uh, gi- giving makes me really, um, uh, happy. So I, I feel when, when I participate with the community that I’ve done something in my life. So that was my biggest, uh, motivator, uh, and picked up from this book and helped me, uh, change, um, a lot about my, me and my life. So that’s one. And, uh, definitely Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead, that’s one on the list as well.

Um, the traditional books I have is, uh, uh, Good Strategy and Bad Strategy by Richard. Uh, that [00:09:00] was good one. The other one is Why Big Projects Fail: Uh, What You Should Know About Mega Projects and Why by, uh, Ben Flebert. All of his books are good. All of his books are good. They’re really, uh… I think, I think he’s, he’s tapping onto some real good case studies there.

He’s got a really good collection. Um, yeah, I think that’s, uh… And There, there are a lot of resources out there. I don’t know. Keep, keep an eye out. Stay curious.

Orion Matthews: Yeah. Uh, uh, speaking of curious, last little comment I would have, I once saw a LinkedIn profile where someone put curious as their job title, and I was just fascinated by it.

I was like, “That is the best title I’ve ever seen.” And this was 10 years ago. I think today it’s m- more relevant than ever to be that bold. But to see yourself as, like, curiosity is my job, uh, just- Love it … our conversation reminded me of [00:10:00] that. Um, so for people’s curiosity, we’ll include all the links to those things down below in whatever comment, um, thing, and also, uh, LinkedIn for Omer and myself.

If you wanna get hooked up with a mentor, I’m sure that, uh, depending on which continent you’re on, uh, we can refer you in. Uh, although Omer, you have traveled quite a bit, so I think you could probably get, uh, someone in touch with someone on probably every continent, um, yeah, on this earth. Totally. But I just wanna say a huge thank you for joining us, sharing your expertise, uh, from the future.

It’s Friday here, and you’re, you’re, you’re sharing Saturday’s learning, so I feel ahead. Um, and I just really appreciate the time you took. So thank you so much for coming on the pod today.

Omer Iqbal: Thank you very much, really appreciate. Uh, always happy, always happy to participate in this, uh, c- c- conversations, and for you and everybody else, please feel free to reach out.

Uh, happy to, happy [00:11:00] to work together, happy to explore together, and happy to remain curious together. Thank you.

Orion Matthews: Great. Well, thanks again for joining us, and if you wanna learn more about project controls and project management, feel free to check us out or drop us a follow at themajorprojectpodcast.com.

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