Navigating the Rise

This is a Japanese episode about the conflicting feelings between inner and outer display in Japan

In this episode, Jerry Lee gave us some top tips on how to overcome some of the perceived limitations of being Asians.  Also, we addressed some of the cultural nuances that affected Asians in the workplace in the United States.

Jerry Lee is an admin from the Subtle Asian Networking Group in the US, and he takes his experience in the group as a guide on how to overcome these potentially harmful perceived traits.

Be aware of the Asian upbringings on, and values growing and try to understand them as strengths instead of weaknesses

Asians tend to be a hard worker and put their heads down. That is great; however, the lack of challenging the status quo causes issues as that puts Asians in a bind is not being perceived super high value. As the chain of command or leadership roles continues to go up, the execution of the project is less important than the strategy part of the project. For example, highly paid leaderships are not paid to work in producing deliverables, but driving the overall direction on where things need to go. That one sentence or one word can literally change the entire course of the company. Think of the top positions like the CEO as controlling the wheel of the ship. That one motion or one turn alters all the subsequent execution of the boat. As such, for Asians, it would be great also to challenge the status quo.  That way, they can start to develop those underutilized thinking muscles as those will become increasingly important one's career progresses.

Speak Up

As the Asian culture was told to be quiet and be what we were told. One area to overcome is that every voice matters. It is not about hierarchy or positions within the company. Instead of the mere fact, there is another voice in the room means the person brings value. Without a difference of opinions, there can be a danger in narrow-mindedness and homogeneity. As such, that is why many companies tout diversities as those are increasingly essential to make sure different perspectives are being heard.

Speak up for yourself

It is vital to be one's own advocate; otherwise, other people will fill in the story for you. That will result in having negative backdrops on yourself when others start to either sabotage your brand or your work. One approach is to be humble and unconfrontational.  But, the effectiveness of that approach is only significant in a collaborative culture and indirect communication. In the United States, where the country's culture is more focused on individuality over collaboration, no one will speak up for you if you don't.  That can allow others to sabotage you without retaliation. An instructor who teaches students all over the world mentioned that in the US, there are more confident students wanted to be in the spotlight over other international students. However, he said there is a drawback. The students here in the US do not become as close as the other international students as the students here are more self-centered. Looking from that lens, you can tell by maintaining the non-US approach to professional development can be quite detrimental

Learn from mentors who are also Asian

It is crucial to not just learn about what works but also what doesn't work. That results in getting a full 360-degree approach in understanding the situation. Also ideally, you get the result and mentorship from someone who has a close of a profile as you. Because if they are close to your background, your thought process, life experiences, and even down to the DNA level, the closer their advice is actionable. Also, people know that with every success, there are probably 10 failures. Many times, people try to be creative only to realize that they had been tried and failed. After all, the mentor probably has already tried those approaches and failed at them.

In this episode, we evaluated how Asians work and perceived in the professional environment both from the US and from the UK.

Initially, I spoke with Jatin Anand from the Asian Professional Facebook Group in the UK, and he noticed these couple of things among the professional Asians in the workplace.

Asians do not take initiatives at workspace -> perceived lack of leadership skills

The Asian culture can describe the perceived lack of taking initiatives in not trying to disrupt harmony in a group setting. By taking actions, it creates conflicts. Asians, for most, are known to be some of the most passive-aggressive people in the world. For example, they would be super friendly to you, but once you leave, they would start to complain about you to their close confidants. However, that is not wrong from their perspectives as is expected. They have the understanding that is what will not be surprised if that ever comes up. However, that can create problems. Because there is a perception that someone who can confidently voice their opinions (whether right or wrong) is perceived to have strong leadership skills.  Note some solutions below.

The above can mean asking for if people need help with work first instead of jumping straight into I will handle that.

Asians don't give many opinions and reluctant to speak up in group meetings -> cultural issues

Similar to the above in not disrupting the current harmony within the group. One way to counteract this perception of having a lack of opinions and trying to speak up can be done in many ways. Here are some of the ways that one can do to establish their presence in the workspace

Note: There is sometimes a danger with the second approach as there are people who will take your ideas as your own.

Asians lack perceived self-confidence

In Western society, sometimes humbleness is seen to be lack of confidence. One of the core attributes of Asian culture is about being humble. For example, when complimented, it is expected to demote yourself to appear modest. When you are praised that you are smart, it is likely to respond with something along the lines of "oh I am not that smart, see all these flaws, etc.".  Alternatively, it is common to attribute the success not of your own accord but by environmental circumstances. That can easily be perceived, by the Western cultural values, to be negative and lack self-confidence. What that means is that the person is incapable.  The workplace needs to do a lot of work to create an environment for that person to succeed.  That belittled the hard work and doing whatever it takes to make things work is at the core of Asian culture. One of the ways, although it will be difficult, is drop the association with the environmental influences. Those with Asian upbringings might have to think a bit more proudly (subject to interpretation) to get perceived as confident. After that, when going back to Asia for personal/professional settings to do a context switch.

This episode is a bit different as I have taken the top 10 things that people have experienced and put it down into a sequential story.  Girik Sehgal from Subtle Asian Travel gave us a brief breakdown in the top 10 cities that people should visit to better understand the cultural phenomenon within Asia. In the first part, we explore where are the best cities that give a good representation of the top cities.  For those who are interested in exploring those cities to better understand Asian cultures, we recommend the following cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Busan, Seoul, and Manila.  Why not other cities?  Well actually there are, but they give you an easy way to interact in a safe environment.  Heck if you want to venture out, go to the countryside, but most first-time visitors might have an issue with no English, no toilets...(Asian squats), among others.  In the podcast, we go a bit deeper into each of the locations...locations that I have been that that is.  I have only been to Tokyo, Osaka,Kyoto, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, and Manila.  Looks like I got to travel to Kuala Lumpur and Busan.

From those, cities as a first step, I hope that you can start to understand Asian's cultural norms for both Westernized Asians and non-Asians.

Explore why languages cause you to look at the world differently.

Greetings around the world:   How are you? = Did you eat yet?

Evaluating the positive vs. negative reinforcements in leading others.

Everything in your life can be reused.  I mentioned three examples:

-Learning languages

-Career pivots

-Travel

This week, I had the opportunity to speak to William Hung, the viral American Idol who looks adversity in the face and charges through with unwavering conviction.  After his American Idol audition, William Hung’s rendition of “She Bangs” became famous for all the wrong reasons. Despite the harsh criticism he endured, William persevered—having gone on to attract a cult following, release three albums, and even perform live with Ricky Martin in Las Vegas.  A strategic storyteller and professional optimist, William is proof that the underdog can succeed when you rise above the haters and choose to be happy.  William has appeared on media outlets like FOX, ABC, CNN, and NBC and in such publications as Rolling Stone, TIME, and USA Today. He was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Born in Hong Kong, William now resides in Los Angeles.

This week, I had the opportunity to speak to Chirag Sagar, the Co-founder of Money Matters Top Tips, a media, entertainment, and book-publishing company dedicated to the needs of business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives. Chirag is also the Co-Founder of Digital Luxury Agency, where the team has collectively worked with over 3000 small and large companies, Fortune 500s, governments, non-profits, and investment firms. Their roster of clients includes Richard Branson and Virgin, the country of Panama, SBE Group, Bank of America, Cadillac, and Qatar Airways. Before that, he served as the COO of Destination Luxury, a luxury lifestyle media outlet that reaches over 5 million people every month through their various channels. He spearheaded the team that built the website presence to reach 500,000 monthly unique visitors and grew its social media properties to reach millions from scratch. Before that, he helped scale a White House-recognized start-up non-profit called Moneythink, where they’ve taught their financial education program to over 15,000 high school students across the US. He has served on over ten advisory boards (3 alumni boards from his alma mater, the University of Southern California where he graduated with his Bachelor’s of Science). He is a member of the Los Angeles Global Shapers, a World Economic Forum initiative. He also has published three books focused on diversity, real estate, and business leadership.