Laila Arain & Leena Barakat | How'd You Do It & Why Should I Care?

Laila Arain: 0:00

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the next episode of the Bay Street Capital Holdings podcast titled, How'd You Do It& Why Should I Care? This series aims to highlight women doing amazing work in various industries. So today, we are so lucky to be joined by Leena Barakat, who is Director of Strategic Partnerships at tight. Hi, Leena, lovely to have you on the show.

Leena Barakat: 0:19

Hi, Laila. Good to be here.

Laila Arain: 0:21

So I guess we can start off with a quick introduction about yourself and perhaps an answer to the main question of the podcast, which is how'd you do it and why should I care?

Leena Barakat: 0:30

Ah, how did you do it? Why should I care? Um, you know, my journey. To where I am today, I'm the Director of Strategic Partnerships at tides. I've been here for five years. And I oversee the growth of our ecosystem of partners across all our lines of business. And tides is a foundation. It's a global foundation that really seeks to build towards a world of shared prosperity and social justice by providing all the tools resources and infrastructure, that social change leaders, Mission land companies, foundations, individuals, the entire social sector need to accelerate their mission faster and more effectively than they would on their own. And how did I get to this position? My passion in life and I figured this out early on, are my values. And I learned very early on that social justice was something that I could never do on the side, it was my life's purpose. And this was something that I discovered, by way of my identity, it's I'm Palestinian American, I'm born in Los Angeles, California, being Palestinian it is in your eyes, it is in your DNA, to really understand social justice and to understand, you know, these issues in a in, you see it in everything, you can't unsee it. And from a young age, I wouldn't, you know, my mother and father would take me to protests and teachings and all of these things. And I had, I had the chance when I was 18 years old, to travel abroad and to travel abroad, and actually, you know, spend some time there. And I really got to experience really life firsthand. And it changed my life, because I really recognized my privilege in that moment. To know that, you know, I, you know, I watched the occupation in full effect impacting the daily lives, the land, the air, the water, the control of women's bodies, the control of education, all of these things, you know, the occupation was controlling the daily lives of Palestinians and putting them in cages just to travel from one city to another, putting a siege on them, not allowing them in or out of their own villages. And I thought to myself, How lucky am I get to go home, you know, at the end of the summer, and, and this is their everyday life, and I felt I really saw my privilege and needing to do something to raise awareness about this. And from then on, I made a decision that I was never going back. I was never not going to make this my career. Of course, I became an activist in college. I was a grassroots organizer I launched you know, nationwide campaigns, what started on my university went to nationwide campaigns, with other universities to divest from companies that were profiting from human rights violations and war crimes over there. And I remember being told, you know, when when all of the interviews I was being asked and articles that we were writing, Lena, do you want to change your name? Do you want an alias? And I said, Why would I want an alias? And I said, Well, it might impact your ability to get a job. This is a really tough issue. And that was the moment I it was like a decision moment for me. I said, if a company I work for does not in line with my values. I don't want to work for that company. I have no idea what kind of what the impact that would have on me. And it did. I had two job offers rescinded. Only one of them came back to this issue. The other I don't know. But I suspect because my name on Google was very clearly associated with it. I found tides I, you know, later on I from grassroots organizing, I went to nonprofit management. From there, I co founded a social enterprise that focused on data visualization for human rights issues. So it was a really nice ability to blend business and impact which I was really curious about. And then from there, I found tides and the reason I was drawn to tides was because I got really frustrated trying to understand like, who makes decisions on funding and where money is going. And for me, I wanted to be I wanted to be on the other side of the table. I was so sick and tired of the same 12 You know, with all due respect to white LED organizations getting the funding and I wanted to see you know, more diverse groups getting funding and So I made an intentional shift into philanthropy, and why should you care? You should care because we are all better for it when we're when we're living our best versions of ourselves. And in a world where everyone can thrive. And I don't believe you get to be, especially in 2021, you don't get to be selective about the human rights you support, you don't get to be, you know, it's this is not this is not an ala carte option. And you know, and I think we are so lucky, we are in a in a place in time where there's more awareness, and you're able to align your values, your passion, and your career can all live in the same place. You don't have to separate those things if you don't want to.

Laila Arain: 5:44

Definitely Well, what an amazing life you've had, and some amazing experiences, which have really shaped you. So I can definitely see your heritage comes into play, which, you know, especially I can see through what made you want to join this industry. But I'm curious, what were the best resources that helped you become, you know, more involved with social justice? And, you know, spearhead those initiatives as well.

Leena Barakat: 6:07

Tim, great question, I think, honestly, speaking up about what you want, and where you want to go, the more you're able to articulate it, the more you're able to, you're able to manifest that. And people I believe, want to conspire to help you do that. And I'm someone who has never been afraid to ask questions. I'm not afraid to try new things. So I often found opportunities, and would be the first to raise my hand, even though I had no freaking idea what I was doing, or how I was going to do it, I would offer myself in there because I always knew, I think I have a growth mindset. And so I always knew, the more I learn, the more I have experience, the more I'll be able to accomplish and do and excel and be successful. And so it was asking for help. It was being very honest about what I know, and what I don't know, in my career, but where I want to know and where I want to be. And the right people around me and I don't even use the word mentors, because mentors has this sort of idea that that person is a mentor in your life, right? Like they they stay with you for a period of time. I think I sought out mentorship moments like mentors in certain moments. And it was sort of different people helping me along the way. But I think the resources is asking for help, not being afraid to name what you want, where you want to go. And, you know, figuring out one of the one of the best things I did early on in college is I was confused about what I wanted to do in my career, I had no clue, you know, I was an organizer, you don't get paid doing that. I also knew I wanted to have I wanted to be financially independent. I knew that too. So organizing an activist financial independence felt like very different trajectories. And I didn't know how to converge them. So a professor of mine took me through this interesting exercise where he said, Who Who are the people in your life that you look up to the role models? Who are the people that you know, you wish, you could say you would be like, what title attracts you in the future? Like, what are those titles, and once you name, what they are, go read what their backgrounds were to getting there. And for me, at the time, it was human rights law, because I thought I wanted to work on the Palestinian human rights issue through a legal illegal lens. And that's how I was going to do it. And, you know, I ended up shifting over time. But essentially, I went and I found, you know, all of this sort of looking at people who are in those profiles, I actually found that people have very different trajectories to getting there, which opened my mind to say there's more than one way to get to where you want to be. So I think being able to look at people you admire, and you look at and understand what their stories were feeling. Do what feels right to you ask for help. Be vocal, be articulate about your needs, and have faith in yourself. You're gonna get there, it's time it's patience. And yeah, and overtime, things, things, things start to sort of fall into place for you.

Laila Arain: 9:05

Definitely. And that's some really great advice you gave there. But I'm curious before you entered the social justice field, were there any lessons that you wish you would have known? Oh,

Leena Barakat: 9:17

um, you know, it's so strange to say this. So I went and did a master's in global development in social justice, because I wanted the credentials and all you know, young women are told that they have to go through all these like loopholes and young people to that they have to get these degrees and whatnot. But I felt like I forced that myself into grad school because it was something I had to do. And, you know, and I don't discourage that. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of that pedigree. But I feel like I did it for the wrong reasons. I wish I trusted my own gut instincts and my own have intelligence in a way to know that there are you don't have to go through that sort of linear path to get to where you want to be. There are like your experience, your experiences brought experiences are valuable. And I think we like I, you know, I'm 32 years old, so I'm not old. But I sort of, I think definitely grew up in a time where you followed a cookie cutter path to success. And I think it's time and I'm really proud of this sort of newer generation, the Gen Z generation that really understands that there's so many ways to get there. And so I think that's one thing I wish I knew. Another thing that I wish I knew before going into the space is that how valuable I felt like I compensated a lot. Because of my identity. Because of my gender. I actually you don't know I wore that I wear the hijab, I wear the headscarf for 11 years, I was very proud of it. I wore it with such fierce pride. And, but I also compensated for it in spaces where I felt like I wasn't taking us seriously, I wasn't, you know, or I was always the youngest one in every room. And so I, I wish I had more of that sort of confidence and self esteem to not overcompensate in acting certain ways. And just to know that, you know that, that your voice, what you bring to the table is enough and is valuable, you always have a lot to learn from where you are. But you also have a lot to give.

Laila Arain: 11:27

Definitely very useful advice and thinking across the span of your career. What would you say was your biggest failure? And what did you learn from it?

Leena Barakat: 11:36

Yeah, my biggest failure in my career. When I co founded when I was part of a founding member of the social enterprise, with that the data visualization firm that worked on social justice issues, I allowed myself to I think I undervalued my worth, is what it was, I often never. And so I think in terms of independence, negotiating, accepting very little to no pay for a long time, I think is one failure. And, hmm, sorry, you're gonna have to edit this one out, I have to think of it. I think for me. I'm gonna start over and pause so you can edit that.

Laila Arain: 12:30

So I'll ask the question again.

Leena Barakat: 12:32

Let's do that. Yeah.

Laila Arain: 12:33

So thinking about the span of your career, what would you say was your biggest failure? And what did you learn from it?

Leena Barakat: 12:41

Yeah, it's a great question. It's also a hard one, I'm going to flip a little bit because I don't believe in failure, there's mistakes, lots of mistakes, but I don't believe in failure there ever. You either you either learn or you grow right from days. And, and so I can't think of a failure because everything and any mistake I ever made, I learned from but missed, I learned from it I grew as a result of, and, you know, I manage a team of five people. And just just like yesterday, we had, you know, a pretty challenging client situation. And, you know, we dropped the ball on something and, and it came back to bite us later on. And my team was feeling really down because they're such high performers, they can't, you know, their, their name and put their name on something. They're, they're all in on it. So it's, they're not used to not not being at the top of their game. And they felt were feeling really down and I said, Listen, even that, like you don't grow, unless you go through these really tough, like, challenging moments, you just don't like you wouldn't be the best version of yourself, how could you grow? If you were, if you were always sort of, you know, doing doing the best at what you do. And so, the mistakes I've made along the way are, you know, on, you know, there's challenging communication issues with with with partners that have led to lost partnerships early on in my career that taught me how to be overly communicative with with with clients, I learned from that. I'm not negotiating my salary, I was always so grateful to have a job, I was so grateful to be accepted. I was so grateful that like I undervalued my own worth, early on. And so for the first parts of my career never negotiated and now that's just a must. And other failures I've had I would say, I big learning moments around people management, you know, working with very different type which is is a skill of mind working people dynamics, but managing is a whole different thing. And, and I've been really fortunate to have such a dynamic team that I think they learn a lot from me, but I've really learned a lot from them.

Laila Arain: 14:56

So that's great. That's really really good to hear. And following all From that, you've been dropping some really, really great pieces of advice throughout this whole call. But what is one piece of advice that you would give to somebody who is wanting to pursue a career similar to yours?

Leena Barakat: 15:11

Do it, do it and ask yourself, always maintain the question in the back of your mind. I'm sorry, I just lost my train of thought, because I heard my daughter talking at this park one more time. What is the piece of advice you would give the wind to pursue a similar? Yes. So the advice I Okay. So the advice I would give is, you know, have a growth mindset. Have a growth mindset because you every experience you have, as we just talked about is one that allows you to build on your on your, on your report, on your experience or on your skill sets. And every every opportunity. The setbacks are not just setbacks, I think there are opportunities to be accelerants for you. And let allow these experiences to bring out the best in you. It's not easy being in the field of social justice, and philanthropy, I think you have to maintain, it can be exhausting, and it can be draining. To be in a field where, you know, human rights are just read the violations and environmental issues are just in your face all the time. So I guess the other piece of advice is find and create space for yourself to decompress to prioritize your mental health. It is it is an exhausting field. And I would also say ask yourself, what and this is, in any career in any sort of thing? What, how can we do this better. We, as young young women are often made to feel like we need to get in line and we need to, you know, follow the way people are doing things when oftentimes your value is actually what you bring to the table that the line doesn't have. And I want you to lean I want young girls to lean into their power to lean into their voice and lean into their value and which is hard when you know, we're told otherwise, of course, but to know that you have something to offer as just as much as you have something to gain. And so to be in this industry, it takes a lot of it takes a lot of you have to really create the right boundaries for your own self and space, but also know that there's always ways to do things better, and that you have something you can bring as well.

Laila Arain: 17:40

Definitely. And then finally, to sort of wrap up our conversation about your career. What is one common myth about the social justice feed field that you would like to debunk?

Leena Barakat: 17:55

That all impact is good.

Laila Arain: 17:58

Oh, that's an interesting one. I haven't heard that before.

Leena Barakat: 18:01

Yeah, but all impact is good. It's not all impact is good. There's a lot of you know, being in the field of philanthropy, it's this social good space right and and the truth is, if you're not examining your practices and how you are doing the work that you're doing, especially as an IF YOU If you're with an institution of privilege and power you may actually be enabling and harming some of the issues and communities then you are then you are empowering and helping and and I you know from my personal philosophy on on in this space is really around equity is around shifting power. If I'm not actively working on initiatives and funding programs and uplifting women of color and leaders in a way that allows them and centers them and their decision making in the work and actively shifting power to and to them then I feel like I'm wasting we're wasting time because this is if we you know at times we talk about a world of shared prosperity and social justice you can't have that world you cannot be in social justice. You can't talk about social justice without that shared prosperity peace and and in order to do that communities need to thrive and oftentimes traditional philanthropic, foundations and, and practices and industries are actually very much enabling white supremacist behaviors and practices and so not all impact is good. Ensuring that you're centering those who are most impacted in decision making is critical. And and and I think that and yeah, and I think and I think that there's not enough people in our industry really asking themselves those questions.

Laila Arain: 19:51

Definitely. And more about you. I'm curious, what have you read or listened to recently this really inspired you?

Leena Barakat: 19:59

I'm curious Are we in this sort of like, I'm going through a sort of personal journey moment right now around mindfulness and consciousness. So very cheesy. And I like a year ago would have been laughing at myself that I'm that I'm very much enjoying listening to podcasts. And actually, that was Deepak Chopra. I've been really been been pulled into mindfulness conversations and creating really creating space. So this is on that on a personal level, that's where I'm at right now and just really sort of learning about and diving right into the on a on a more stimulating level. But that's not stimulable The point of it is not to be stimulated, but on a more stimulating level. And in our, in our in the industry. I'm just reading Angela Davis's book on Ferguson, the Palestine, just understanding the sort of cross sections of black liberation and Palestinian Liberation Movements, and Mark Lamont hills. Progressive except for Palestine, which is a tremendous book.

Laila Arain: 21:03

Awesome. Thank you for those recommendations. On the next question. I know this could possibly be the toughest question of the whole podcast, but who are three people in your life who have been the most influential and I'm so sorry, I had to be three.

Leena Barakat: 21:15

Yeah, I'm the most influential people in my life. I'm number one, my mother my hands down I know that's me, but often said a lot that she has shaped so much of who I am, and really enabled my just my being and confidence and pushing me to every degree and I just so grateful to her because whenever I questioned and doubted myself, she re instated my vision for where I need, where I want to go and where I want to be, and never let me falter on that. So that's her. My college professor that I mentioned earlier, I think, I think that, you know, he's been a phenomenal mentor in my life. And we've stayed very much close in touch. He, I used to funny and I used to push him in classes. When when writing my thesis, I wanted to do a topic that was you know, very little research on and he was like, find another topic. And I said, No, that's the problem is that there isn't enough research we need to do this and, and ever since then we formed a very close relationship. And the third is my my personal group of friends, my my friends from college, they've really shaped my life and been incredibly influential.

Laila Arain: 22:31

Amazing. And then finally, to round up our conversation for the day. What is one piece of advice that you wish you gave yourself at any point in your life?

Leena Barakat: 22:40

One piece of advice that I wish I gave myself don't doubt your intuition. That's that's always the case. I tend to want to research the hell out of everything and overthink everything. And I've had different people in my life tell me that your first guess is your best guess. Um, and I wish I didn't spend so much time overthinking things. So my advice I would give to myself is to trust my gut.

Laila Arain: 23:08

Also know very, very important. So thank you so much, Leena for taking the time to speak with us. It was truly wonderful to have this conversation.

Leena Barakat: 23:15

Likewise, Laila. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Bye bye.