The Yasar Ahmad Podcast

Yasar Ahmad
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Work isn’t a meritocracy and playing nice won’t get you promoted. I’m Yasar Ahmad, one of the world’s leading HR voices with over 15 years in the boardroom and 550,000+ professionals following my work. Each week, I cut through workplace noise with blunt truths, proven strategies, and unfiltered advice to help you earn more, influence faster, and build a career that actually pays off. If you’re tired of being underpaid, overlooked, or underestimated — this is your playbook to win at work.

  1. Sep 29

    The 7 Unspoken Rules of Corporate Success (That No One Tells You)

    You paid tens of thousands for a degree that taught you nothing about how corporate decisions actually get made. From day one, executives are forming opinions about your future based on rules nobody ever wrote down, and if you're working hard in silence, you're already losing.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. This is the career advice on office politics and workplace visibility that no induction ever gives you: the seven unwritten rules that decide whether you're the person they promote or the person they forget. I've sat in the calibration rooms where these decisions happen, watched 74 names go by in three minutes, and seen a promotion come down to "remind me which one she is." This video hands you those seven rules and the exact frameworks to start using them on day one.You'll learn why merit is only about 10% of the equation and strategic exposure is 60%, why executives decide your future from memory not output, why work done in silence never happened, and why your manager is a filter, not your promoter. Then the practical system: building three communication channels so your work travels upward, reading your manager's visibility tax, and the digital paper trail that turns "she handled something" into "she owns the migration." If you're smart, hard-working, and keep getting passed over, this is the one for you.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: which rule hit hardest?Chapters:0:00 The rules nobody wrote down0:29 Inside the room where futures get decided1:00 The seven unwritten rules1:33 Rule 1: merit is only 10%2:20 Rule 2: executives decide from memory2:43 Rule 3: silent work never happened3:16 Rule 4: visibility is mandatory, not bragging3:37 Rule 5: your manager is a filter, not a promoter4:06 Rule 6: public problem-solving is positioning4:19 Rule 7: day one sets everything5:10 Move 1: build three communication channels6:24 Move 2: learn your manager's visibility tax7:19 Move 3: the digital paper trail7:57 Why it all starts on day one8:35 Two people, same start, different outcomes━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#UnwrittenRules #OfficePolitics #GetPromoted #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

  2. Sep 29

    EP1 - Are Careers Dead? (with Simon Squibb)

    I stood alongside Simon Squibb, the entrepreneur and investor behind HelpBnk and author of the Sunday Times bestseller "What's Your Dream?", for an unscripted conversation about where careers are actually heading, and why the word "career" might not survive the next 20 years.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. Simon went from homeless at 15 to selling his agency to PwC, and now backs people's dreams for a living; I spent two decades inside the corporate machine. Our missions overlap, so this is a raw chat about the future of work, AI, and honest career advice for a generation walking into a job market that's disappearing under them. 716,000 students leave university every year chasing a good career, and there aren't enough jobs for them.So we get into the real questions. If AI takes the graduate jobs and the high-end ones (lawyers, maybe even doctors) what do you teach a 16-year-old? Why "go to uni to get a job" is broken, and why Simon and I both think the answer is agency, personal development, and learning to build something yourself. We also hit the stuff I care about most: the fake meritocracy where good work goes unseen, why hard work is only one part of the formula (Harvey Coleman's research puts performance at 10%, perception at 30%, and exposure at 60%), why your judgement is the one thing AI can't replace, and the human cost of being treated as a number when the redundancy call lands. If you're thinking about your kids, your own next move, or what work even means now, this one's for you.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 Two missions that overlap0:15 Helping a billion people through their careers0:50 What I'd tell my 16-year-old about university1:30 Why "career" and "entrepreneurship" are dying words1:46 Chase the problem you want to solve, not a job title2:21 The one thing AI can't take: your judgement3:24 This is going to get serious, and we can't do it in silos4:32 The fake meritocracy nobody warns you about4:57 The 10-30-60 rule5:45 The shortest route vs the fastest route6:08 The human cost of being just a number6:52 Rebuilding the school system around agency7:19 Which jobs AI takes next7:46 Teaching people to build their own support system━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#SimonSquibb #FutureOfWork #AIandCareers #WhatsYourDream #WinAtWork

  3. Sep 29

    Is your team trying to get you fired? The warning signs

    Nobody ever tells you you're being frozen out. There's no email, no conversation. The meetings just start happening without you, the messages go quiet, and one day you're standing outside a room you used to run.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. Consider this the career advice on office politics nobody hands you: being frozen out at work is one of the oldest tools in the organisation, how companies move people without a process, a payout, or a paper trail. But I've also watched good people misread normal chaos as a campaign and torch their own reputation over something that wasn't there. Knowing the difference is the whole game, and this video gives you the workplace visibility and self-protection to handle it.It happens in three moves, and the order matters. The signal: how to tell drift from design with one meeting proposal, so you know if it's real. The re-entry: how to get back in through usefulness, not by asking to be let back in, because that reads as grievance and grievance is exactly what a freeze-out is built to produce. And the counter, the one nobody teaches: what to do when it's coordinated (this is mobbing at work), how to document it, find one witness, and speak to HR in the only language they answer, business risk, not feelings. If you feel pushed out, sidelined, or managed out, this is the one for you.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: have you ever been frozen out of a room?Chapters:0:00 Nobody tells you you're being frozen out0:16 What's actually happening to you0:51 When it happened to me1:32 The three moves, and why order matters2:04 Move 1: the signal (drift or design?)2:40 The one-meeting test3:05 Move 2: the re-entry through usefulness4:08 Why you must never campaign4:32 Move 3: the counter (when it's coordinated)4:56 Document, find a witness, understand HR5:45 When to take control of your own exit6:15 Why you need all three, in order6:25 Your homework tonight━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#FrozenOut #OfficePolitics #ManagedOut #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

  4. Sep 29

    Why You're Losing Their Attention (And How to Fix It)

    The fastest way to lose a senior room is to bury your point. This is the bluff technique: bottom line up front, the military habit of getting to the point before you lose them.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. This is practical career advice and communication skills training built on one hard lesson. Early in my career I was presenting to an executive who stopped me halfway through and said, "Can you get to the point?" Then he added the line that stuck: "That could have been an email." This video breaks down how to fix that, so you build the kind of executive presence and clear communication that gets a yes instead of a glazed-over room.You'll get the exact structure I use for any proposal or presentation: open with "we're here to discuss X because Y is costing us Z" for instant context, follow with an agreement line that surfaces who disagrees, then address concerns head-on before questions. I also cover my rules for better emails: the 175-word limit, why a TLDR at the top now beats a wall of text, and how to write a subject line that says exactly what you're asking for. If you want workplace communication that makes you sound senior instead of junior, this is the one for you.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 The bluff technique: bottom line up front0:08 The presentation that taught me the lesson0:54 "That could have been an email"1:17 The perfect way to open any presentation1:41 The agreement line and addressing concerns2:23 Why people take 10 minutes to make a point3:04 Should emails have a TLDR?3:49 My 175-word email rule5:06 Write a subject line that asks clearly━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Communication #ExecutivePresence #CareerAdvice #EmailTips #WinAtWork

  5. Sep 29

    Ex-VP of HR - HR Will Always Lie To You When Answering These Questions

    10 career questions HR would never answer honestly, so I will. No corporate script, just how it actually works from someone who ran those departments.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR, director in my early 20s and VP by my 30s. This is blunt career advice and honest career coaching on the questions that decide your career growth strategy more than any degree. Does your degree matter after a few years. Do the best people become CEO, or is it proximity dressed up as merit. Is success just luck, or a success mindset plus action. Should you be honest at work, or is diplomacy how promotions really work. Is imposter syndrome real and even useful. Is job hopping the fastest route to a pay rise, or does salary negotiation from the inside win. Is "it's who you know" an excuse (no, and here's why workplace visibility and office politics decide it). Is work-life balance a scam. Will AI take my job. And why listen to any career coach at all, including me. If you want professional development, leadership development, and personal development advice that goes past "work harder," this is the honest version on how to get promoted.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And drop your own question in the comments, I answer them in the next part.Chapters:0:00 10 questions HR would never answer0:07 Does your degree actually matter?0:46 Do the best people become CEO?1:45 Is success just luck?2:30 Should you be honest at work?3:16 Is imposter syndrome real?3:56 Is job hopping the only way to get paid?4:53 Is "it's who you know" just an excuse?5:25 Is work-life balance a scam?6:29 Will AI take your job?7:18 Why listen to a career coach at all?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#CareerQuestions #HRSecrets #CareerAdvice #OfficePolitics #WinAtWork

  6. Sep 29

    The 72-Hour Rule - How to Make Your Boss Actually See You

    I teach people how to lobby at work, and I won't apologise for it. This is how decisions really get made: every decision about you happens in a meeting you're not in, so office politics isn't optional, you're better off getting there first.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. Someone probably told you to let your work speak for itself. It's the most expensive advice you'll ever take, because work doesn't speak. It sits in a folder while someone else describes it in a room you're not in. This video is a practical guide to influence at work and managing up: what actually happens in the pre-wire (the pre-meeting some call socialising the paper), the one rule that keeps stakeholder management clean instead of sleazy, and a 72-hour protocol you can run before your next big decision.Here's the uncomfortable part. The real decision rarely happens in the meeting. It happens on the Tuesday and Wednesday before, in 15-minute one-to-ones where someone walks the one person who could kill their idea through the objection and gets a quiet "yeah, I could live with that." Sitting it out doesn't make the meeting fairer, it just means someone else did your briefing, often someone with a view about you. If you want the kind of career advice that explains how promotions really work instead of telling you to work harder, and how to get buy-in through persuasion and workplace visibility, refusing to play is playing badly with extra steps.So you'll get the whole system: how to find the one person who can stop your idea, the exact script to use 48 hours out (ask, don't pitch), how to write your own introduction so a stranger doesn't invent your credibility on the spot, and the one-sentence test that keeps all of this honest rather than turning you into a snake. If you're brilliant at the work and keep losing decisions anyway, this is the one for you.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: has a decision about you ever been made before you walked in the room?Chapters:0:00 Why I teach people to lobby at work0:20 "Let your work speak for itself" is a trap0:50 What really happens before the meeting1:23 Pre-wire, pre-meet: every company has a word for it1:52 The behavioural scientist who walked in preloaded2:39 You get 90 seconds and a made-up mind2:47 "But this is just politics"3:08 The one rule that keeps it clean3:40 The 72-hour protocol: find your one killer4:01 48 hours out: ask, don't pitch4:36 24 hours out: write your own introduction5:08 Why the pre-wire got harder to see5:36 Do the work, then stop handing it over━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#OfficePolitics #Influence #CareerAdvice #Stakeholders #WinAtWork

  7. Sep 29

    I Live by These 7 Radical Rules (And They Changed My Career)

    After decades in senior leadership, these are the seven rules I run my work life by. Not motivational fluff, the operating principles I use for clearer decision making, faster action, and getting people to back my ideas.I'm Yasar Ahmad. Treat this as practical personal development for your career, the kind of career advice that hands you a system instead of a pep talk. Rule one is relentless prioritisation: not a longer to-do list, but ruthlessly finding the one thing that moves the needle. Rule two is bias for action, the say-do ratio that kills analysis paralysis and makes productivity real. Rule three is the question that reframes any disagreement: what needs to be true for you to agree with me? Then the four types of unknowns and why the unknown unknowns keep you humble, why being a fast follower beats being an early adopter, how to make yourself genuinely valuable by selling time and effort saved, and respect for reality, the Stoic move of naming the risk out loud so people trust you more.Whether you're after professional development, a career change, or just better goal setting and self improvement, these seven give you leadership skills and executive presence you can use tomorrow. Steal them, keep what works, build your own.Start with the free career diagnostic. It takes 5 minutes and scores you on the six things that actually move your career: visibility, communication, influence, political navigation, positioning, and compensation. Most people come out under 60, and almost nobody's weakest score is the one they guessed. Head to https://www.ovdlab.com and click Assessment.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: what rules do you hold close at work?Chapters:0:00 My seven rules for success at work0:25 Rule 1: relentless prioritisation2:30 Rule 2: bias for action4:06 Rule 3: what needs to be true5:18 Rule 4: unknown unknowns7:12 Rule 5: be a fast follower8:00 Rule 6: be values obsessed10:46 Rule 7: respect for reality12:16 Recap: the seven rules━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#CareerRules #PersonalDevelopment #Leadership #SelfImprovement #WinAtWork

  8. Sep 17

    Why You're Ideas Are NOT Being Heard (And How to Fix It In One Meeting!)

    In executive and board meetings, the best idea almost never wins. The best delivered idea wins. This is the communication skill that decides who gets listened to, and almost nobody teaches it, because the people who have it like to pretend it's a personality.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR. I've spent decades in board meetings and exec sessions at companies like Zalando, HelloFresh, and Wipro, and the person who got listened to was never the smartest in the room. It was the clearest. Clarity is a learnable communication technique, not a gift, and it sits at the heart of leadership communication, executive presence, and how to speak like a leader. So this is practical professional development for anyone who has ever walked out of a meeting thinking "that was the point I was trying to make."You'll get three moves to improve your communication and speak with authority. The point: lead with your conclusion, because junior people speak in context and senior people speak in conclusions. The pause: how to buy three seconds under pressure so silence reads as confidence instead of panic. And the landing: why your credibility is decided by your last sentence, not your best one, and how people talk themselves out of agreements they'd already won. Stick around for the reframe at the end that turns a "no" into a "yes" with senior stakeholders.If you're serious about leadership and career growth, not just surface-level communication tips, this is the one for you.📬 Get the stuff HR never puts in the handbook. My weekly newsletter is written for people navigating exactly this: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/🎯 Work on it properly with me inside the OVD Labs cohort: 12 weeks, live, on positioning and visibility. https://www.ovdlab.comSubscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works. And tell me in the comments: what's the worst ramble you've ever done in a meeting? I read every one.Chapters:0:00 Why the best-delivered idea wins1:04 The ramble that taught me the lesson1:48 The three moves: point, pause, landing2:06 Move 1: the point (conclusion first)2:46 The 15-word test3:13 Move 2: the pause under pressure3:53 Why silence reads as confidence4:11 What to say when you don't know4:31 Move 3: the landing (your last sentence)5:03 How people talk themselves out of a win5:40 Why you need all three together6:04 Your homework tonight6:38 Bonus: reframe risk, not gain━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Communication #ExecutivePresence #Leadership #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork

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About

Work isn’t a meritocracy and playing nice won’t get you promoted. I’m Yasar Ahmad, one of the world’s leading HR voices with over 15 years in the boardroom and 550,000+ professionals following my work. Each week, I cut through workplace noise with blunt truths, proven strategies, and unfiltered advice to help you earn more, influence faster, and build a career that actually pays off. If you’re tired of being underpaid, overlooked, or underestimated — this is your playbook to win at work.

Information

  • Creator
    Yasar Ahmad
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    45
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Yasar Ahmad
  • Show Website
    The Yasar Ahmad Podcast

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