Spotlight on Diversity
For Nehal Youssef, Maturity and Mentors Bring Balance
Nehal M. Youssef
Specification Sales Manager
Diversified Lighting
Twenty years ago it was more of a challenge for Nehal Youssef to fit in. Since then, she’s made the migration from Penn State graduate to lighting designer to factory rep to specification sales. “I’ll never burn a bridge in this industry, because people jump around to different jobs,” Youssef said. “You never know who you’re going to run into that says, ‘Oh gosh, I heard about you from so and so.’ It’s a very specialized, but very connected network.”
Youssef was born in the US, and because her parents are Egyptian she has a strong identification with Arab American culture. For this woman, the American business culture often conflicts with her Muslim identity. “This industry, and the sales path I’m on right now, have a large socializing aspect. Just entertaining clients, taking them out for dinner and drinks – it’s not something a female Muslim in more traditional cultures would do on her own,” she explained. “Growing up, I did not have female role models that were in those kinds of ‘public’ roles, like sales.”
Mentors matter
She recalls a lot of professional women: teachers, mathematicians, medical professionals, engineers, and more. Her mother was a neonatologist. “In charting my own path, I had to look outside of my cultural norms to shape the type of rep agent I wanted to be.” Youssef names a dozen mentors who helped her navigate the hard knowledge and soft skills she needed to acquire, starting with Stephen Bernstein, Francesca Bettridge, Alexis Arnoldi, and Marty Salzberg at CBB Lighting Design.
Meg Smith was with Lightolier in 2011 when she encouraged Youssef to make her first career-changing jump from lighting design to sales. “She was outspoken, very knowledgeable, and she didn’t have to speak loudly to be heard,” Youssef recalled. “You don’t have to be the center of attention, but if you know what you’re talking about and you’re not afraid to speak up, people will listen…. I looked up to her. That’s the kind of rep I wanted to be.”
Nehal’s first manager in sales, Gerard Blandino of Lightolier, demonstrated the importance of team-building and running successful sales teams. His focus on service above all else strongly impacted her. “I was lucky to add so many mentors to my network early in my career. I could go to them, even after I no longer worked with them, for advice or just to chat – to get out of my own circle for other points of view.”
Just a little consideration
The norm of consuming alcohol at business events was difficult to navigate for young Youssef. In the past, she felt “situational pressure” to have a cocktail in hand at IESNYC events, though “it’s not an Islamic thing to do.” She remembers feeling awkward having a tall glass of Coke or seltzer in her hand, while most everyone was having wine or beer. But that pressure to blend in abated as she grew older and established herself in the community. “And I have personally appreciated WILD’s push to serve mocktails at industry events. It makes it less obvious that you’re not drinking alcohol, and you feel included in the fun, social aspect… without that moral dilemma that I had, say, 10 to 15 years ago.”
Crowded calendars can also present challenges. “Islam has certain holy days, and I feel like planning committees do not always check for these dates before major events are planned. The dates of these holidays float year-to-year, but they are represented on major calendars online. One year the Lumen Gala occurred on, I think, Eid al-Fitr [the end of Ramadan] and I couldn’t attend. I chose not to attend to model that for my children, but I was sad…. It made me feel kind of small.”
Being taken seriously as a woman presents the expected challenges in certain situations with specific distributors and contractors. But Youssef does not recall any discrimination directed at her because she is Arab American.
The vulnerability of asking questions
COVID was another great teacher, presenting both challenges and blessings for working mothers across the country. “Growing up, there was a lot of focus on learning and understanding. So I still feel that desire to fully understand what it is I'm selling – to dig a little deeper, and have a full knowledge of it before I go in front of clients,” Youssef said. “Cameras are not good at showing contrasts and the distribution patterns of lighting fixtures. It's very hard to see the quality of a product or how it illuminates on a webcam. If you can’t show it off, you have to understand it thoroughly.”
There’s a vulnerability to admitting you don’t understand something fully. “It took me a while to be able to speak up. But now I’m never afraid to ask, ‘Can you explain this to me?’ ”
Being successful in sales requires working in a group, and different people learn and work in different ways. But they all need to be on the same page in order to collaborate. Youssef continued: “In a way, it was going from internally, individually focused work to a group focus. That was a hard cultural change for me. Growing up, individual effort was prized above all else. I personally still need to go to extra effort to feel valuable. But we all bring different strengths and perspectives to the table. How can we work as a group and best leverage what everybody knows?”
Maturity makes a difference
“My heritage is more important to me now than it was, say 10 or 15 years ago. In general, I was trying to understand how I fit into the world, in a way that makes sense to a young adult. I was kind of a blank canvas trying hard to blend in.
“Whereas today, I've come to the point where my identity is strong enough that I don't need to change it. It's definitely a factor of maturity. But I think the world has also become more aware of diversity. So it's OK if we're different. It's OK if our priorities are a little different. We're still all focused on the same goals. We’re just not all huggers.”
