Knowledge Sharing & Being the Change we want to see: How Adib made a huge positive impact on me and my career

 

Whoa.. has it really been 15 years? 

This week is Adib's last day at PCSB Sarawak Assets (SKA), and will be continuing his career in KL.

Adib & I, we go way back - We both reported duty the same year in 2008 here in Miri, formerly known as SKO. 

Adib has played a very important role and had a huge impact to my career, and as a tribute to him, I’d like to share how he influenced my thinking, attitude, and aspirations. 

1. Knowledge Sharing Role Model 

Although he joined later, Adib actually got promoted to senior engineer before me. But he doesn’t keep the knowledge to himself - he puts in the effort to go the extra mile in upskilling and teaching others. 

And I can clearly remember the defining moment:

The year is 2016. I was desparate, and my self-esteem was at an all-time low. Still a junior engineer after 8 years, I was severely demotivated from my consistently poor performance in my ACD technical competency, as I was witnesssing my peers - and even juniors - getting promoted to managers and TPs. At that point, the Capability teams were about to revise the competency ruler again which would set my progress back even further, unless I made a progression in this one final assessment. This assessment in March 2016 would be the turning point that would either make or break my career. 

Seeing my troubled circumstances, Adib, recently promoted to senior, reached out to me and offered: why not, let’s spend this Saturday for a coaching and ACD? I can guide you in some of the basic concepts. Perhaps that would help.

We spent the entire day on a Saturday - from morning to evening - doing thorough coaching and study group. We covered topics like phase envelope, crude stabilization, separator adequacy, Stoke’s Law.

Thanks to his weekend coaching, I scored the best ACD result I've ever received. It gave me such a strong understanding on process engineering that it grounded my fundamentals the helped in so many other aspects, that eventually I ended up teaching these subjects to others, conducting classes of my own, and even developing in-house engineering tools.

In that one day, this guy, more than any other TP or SME at that point, had inspired me that teaching others, sharing knowledge, it can make a whole world of difference to someone's career and life. He didn't have a rank or authority. Neither did he get any credit or reward. 

All it takes is sincere drive and passion to develop others.

This is the legacy I want to leave behind: One that helps develop and amplify others around me, long after I leave. 

He inspired me to constantly step up my game to carve out opportunities to share knowledge and teach others, and as I stepped into the Managerial role, drive the team to conduct knowledge sharing sessions and platform for the engineers to help and develop each other.  

Whatever good that comes from these sessions, this is definitely his legacy. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever introduces a good practice that is followed, he will receive its reward and a reward equivalent to that of those who follow it, without that detracting from their reward in their slightest.” (Ibn Majah)

“When a person dies, all of his deeds are cut off except for three: a continuous charity, knowledge that is benefitted from, and a righteous child who supplicates for him” (Muslim)

 

2. Be change that we want to see: The seniors and TP's we've never had

Have you ever heard of, or been in a toxic work environment where the seniors trash the juniors, because that’s how they were treated by THEIR seniors. They perpetuate the toxic cycle, with the excuse that “that’s how I was treated by MY seniors, and I survived. And now it's your turn"

Adib is the opposite. His philosophy, if you’re in a toxic work environment: Break the cycle. Take the high road. Be the change you want to see. 

Recently, he said something that surprised me: “Let’s be honest la Faisal, back in our early years, our seniors didn't really do a good job (in terms of guidance).”

His statement surprised me. It was a hot take, but I totally agree with him. With all due respect to our seniors, I’ve always felt that they didn't really bother about us in our early years. They worked in silo, focused on their own deliverables, and we're left to figure stuff out by ourselves. 

But here’s the twist: When he made that statement, he wasn’t just whining. He was saying it to emphasize an important point: “Now this is our time to step up. To be the seniors we've always wanted and needed.”

And it wasn't just idealistic talk. He walks the talk. When he was given more autonomy to lead his team, he really embodied that aspiration. 

He consistently assists the juniors - including those outside of his team - to ground them in the basics, the fundamentals, grasp the big picture of the "why" we do our engineering work. He prompts them, proactively inquiring progress, organizing "focused discussion" sessions: to go through the work together. He proactively prompts other juniors on what they are working on: which eventually ends up becoming mentoring sessions. I remember walking pass by a junior engineer’s desk and seeing papers with scribbles of some graphs, formulas, and diagrams, and I immediately said, “this looks like Adib’s work”. The junior confirmed, “yup, that’s him alright”. 

But what’s inspiring is that his guidance goes even beyond that. He doesn’t just spoon-feed them: he challenges them, gets them thinking, grants opportunities to step up, take the lead, make presentations to high-level leaders, and gives them the spotlight to take the credit. 

I’m glad we could provide these opportunities to our young engineers, and to stay long enough to spark the change we’ve always wanted. Here’s hoping that they, too, return the favor to their juniors when they become leaders in the years to come.

During staff farewells, people often mention that we “lost” someone. Some have expressed their sadness that we lost Adib. But I prefer to see it differently: He is graduating into another phase of his career and life. And after 15 years, it’s about time. As for us here, it’s time to make space for new Adibs to rise, as we honor his contributions by carrying the torch of his legacy.

Adib will be missed, indeed. At the same time, we are happy for him, and wish him well, and all the best for his future endeavors.