Read More: “In spending well over 1,000 hours since 2009 teaching or mentoring aspiring Asian managers, we are
convinced that underdeveloped leadership skills are the factors that hinder access to executive
leadership levels for many of them. The key leadership issues continue to be:
- Cultural deference to authority and the reality that deference often implies weakness
- Ineffective communications and influencing skills
- Political naiveté/dexterity – understanding how organizational business decisions are made
- Aversion to risk-taking in business and career
We have seen that progress can be made in any company by first engaging its executive leadership,
Asian employee resource groups, and leadership training teams. After that, the challenge will be the
ability of the Asian workforce to learn the soft skills and leadership mentality that t will, as evidenced with
our experience mentoring Asian Americans, stretch the comfort zone of most.”
