It’s been a while since the winners of the SDI Awards 2022 were announced, and it’s time to catch up with the successful award entries!
The SDI Awards recognises, promotes and acclaims excellence, professionalism, innovation and the outstanding achievements of the people and teams to the success of their organisation. Through our downloadable case study, we're reviewing Fouzia's award-winning award entry and learning how receiving an SDI award has impacted her.
Read Fouzia's heart-felt case study on her award-winning entry.
Thinking of a good way to start your award entries? Gather insights into how each entry’s submission criteria were addressed to help inspire your award entry drafts.
How was your experience of winning an SDI award?
“I was completely surprised when I was told by my company they had put me forward for this, and following success at getting through the shortlist phase, I was considering it a huge achievement at reaching the finalists among a group of people who had achieved so much. I had no real expectations of winning.
Just being selected in itself was an honour and processing the feedback I had received from within my team and, organisation at large was quite an emotional experience.
To have your name called out after being assessed by a panel of judges that only had your testimony to go by was a little overwhelming. It made me feel that all the work I had put into the role represented what I believed was the core attributes needed to be the best team lead I could be.
To see that ratified in this way and to see the appreciation from within Serco so visibility takes a bit of time to reflect.”
Has winning an SDI Award benefitted you in any way?
“It has helped enforce my belief that there are so many ways, styles, methods to manage people. There is no one fits all approach. It allowed me to be doubled down on what I believed was right when building the relationships needed to interact with a team of people with diverse backgrounds and needs.
It helped to confirm that while my approach could be seen in some quarters as unconventional, that is could be universally accepted as being effective.
Winning this award shone a light on why it is important to believe in the principals you hold true and how if they are developed with the right intent how universally relatable, they are.”
How does it feel to be invited as a judge to the 2023 Awards?
“It is a huge honour to be invited to be a judge this year and a responsibility I take very seriously. To have the opportunity to assess another candidate’s submission, taking into consideration how I felt while going through this process, gives me the opportunity to input in a new, but exciting, capacity. I feel a certain burden of responsibility and understand that this level of scrutiny can be daunting to say the least. I hope that I can bring a slightly different view to the table and look for attributes that stem from my own experiences. I would like to think that having this opportunity to input into the process will help us continue to improve how we shape the concept of ‘manager’ in the future.”
For more information about SDI 2023 Awards visit here. Good luck!
