Above & Beyond: Mindful Asian-American Leadership

Asian Americans are the least likely racial group to be promoted into Silicon Valley’s management and executive levels, even though they are the most likely to be hired into high-tech jobs — reported Harvard Business Review. This followed a study on “The Illusion of Asian Success” analyzing EEOC data on Silicon Valley’s management pipeline.

This summer I said yes — to an “Asian-American Leadership Experience” which opened my eyes to the challenges, strengths & potential for future professional narratives. In my 20-year career thus far, I have experienced countless working situations with mixed emotions, so I was happy to join a like-minded group led by Minji Wong, a leadership coach who works with Fortune 500 clients at Facebook, Salesforce and Walmart Labs, to take time to plot my values, priorities, strengths, skills toward a vision for my future self — and communicate my intentions.

This At Her Best workshop brought a diverse group of Asian-American women across the United States together on Zoom during a pandemic.

Minji educated and guided the group with frameworks for self-reflection and discovery — starting with worksheets as homework, to meditation and visualization of our future selves. Similar to professional athletes training with positive self-talk and visualizing success, professional pathways for success can be charted with a North Star, and then explored.

I was pleasantly surprised by the visualization exercise for intention-setting, and how Minji started each session with a few minutes of meditation.

Participating in the Asian-American-focused leadership experience made me think about the cultural influence of my Taiwanese-American upbringing, and its impact.

Are these subtle Asian traits? Here’s how I’ve navigated them:

CON: Not a verbose, nor loud-mouthed human.

PRO: Willing to write & set up meetings.

Introverts have a disadvantage in the American workplace and management culture that listens to the loudest person at the table, yet I’ve found ways to self-promote and communicate proactively consistently, to avoid being overlooked for during promotion season:

• Communicate virtually (write good emails, utilize messaging apps)
• Build consensus in 1:1s before and after a team meeting
• Ask good questions & follow up

CON: Emotionally restrained.

PRO: Work in progress & getting better all the time!

My cerebral nature means that I take my responsibilities seriously, and my face reflects this. Thanks to friends and colleagues who gave me feedback about my resting blank face, I responded to the gift of feedback and increased my facial expressions, attuning to situations.

The age of digital photography and Zoom has increased our ability to rapidly observe and modulate our facial expressions and body language, which I have used to my advantage. Improving professional body language takes effort and experience (like any sport) and I am definitely always working on it. Practice makes progress. Impact over intent.

CON: Few Asian women leaders & role models.

PRO: Work in progress & getting better all the time!

I’ve been spotlighting women in tech because there should be more of us, and I gain confidence studying the career pathways of other women. You can succeed at anything if you dare, and sometimes it does take the influence of others challenging women to do that scariest, hardest thing.

Self-promotion is hard even for women executives. Girls & women always ask for more role models, so why blend into the woodwork? Be counted as one of smart industry movers-and-shakers —and I don’t mean being crowned Forbes 30 Under 30, there are many ways to make a mark:

• Get recognized as an expert: If you work at a company that doesn’t let you talk explicitly about your current work, you can speak on industry trends, your personal experience mentoring or managing others, interview tips for women, the list goes on. There are so many conferences and events looking for speakers, and reporters and weekly columnists looking for someone to interview and quote in their written article. Reach out!
• Set your own narrative: Don’t let what’s happening to your company become your brand. Have 1–2 interests that you have an opinion and expertise on, and make it known. What would your TED talk be about? Start with one channel that you prefer to communicate your ideas and interests on — LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, a podcast — and start making some noise. Done is better than perfect.
• Examine your goals and situation regularly because careers and opportunities are dynamic and change all the time. It is very important to make your future self a priority. Just like OKRs, take time quarterly to review and reset expectations and future goals, and make them known. Make time to chat with friends, colleagues and potential future coworkers about your future path — and theirs — it’s mutually beneficial! People normally feel honored to be asked to help, it isn’t an intrusion. Invest in your relationships. Utilize your network. The worst that can happen is someone is too busy to respond, so cast a wide net.

You are in the business of you when you work — admit it — and you need to work on your authentic brand. It includes how your cultural situation shaped you, and how others may perceive you, but these are all factors you can influence to your advantage.

Make it count! I am always happy to brainstorm with girl geeks & women brainstorm about designing their career for the long haul. After all, we’re in this together to level up at work & life.