What does it take to succeed as a leader? What are the essential ingredients?

One speaker I recently heard is an Asian engineer in a senior level executive position of a large firm. He identified four essential ingredients for leadership success: skill, style, standards, and substance. He then concluded that most Asian professionals have skill, standards, and substance but not style.

When I start unpacking the word “style”, I come up with a list of items like the ability to project confidence, the readiness to take risks, the capacity to communicate vision, and the willingness to take time to build relationships. Breaking this list down into micro-components, we discover that the qualities contributing to leadership success include such things as “Smile and look approachable”, “Exude enthusiasm and communicate optimism”, “Possess emotional and social intelligence”, and “Develop a people orientation”.

Back in the days when I was in graduate business school, we studied about what made a manager a good manager. We looked at the model that measured “Task Orientation” on one axis and “People Orientation” on the other. The conclusion of the model was this: the most successful and effective manager is the one who scores high on both axes.

Perhaps this People Orientation is what the senior executive meant by “Style”.

If this indeed is the missing ingredient that propels Asian American professionals into the corridors of power, what could you do to develop yourself? I want to make a few suggestions to answer this question.

1.  Change your perspective on work. If you think of your career as a job, then you just get your tasks done and go home. But a career is much more than a job! You are part of a community of people striving to achieve common goals. You are part of a family, in a sense. Get involved with them as people.

2. Think relational. If you aspire to any leadership role at all, whether it is your workplace, a church, or an organization where you volunteer, you must begin to think “relational”. Relationships are the fuel that jumpstarts the engine of leadership. When you take the time and make the effort to build relationships, you are putting a deposit in the relational account. This deposit will come back to you with interest.

3.  Expand your horizons to include the larger community. Give back to your community. I recently heard that the non-Asian community has this impression: “When it comes to giving time and money to the community, Asians really suck!” Culturally, I as a Chinese person have been taught that my family is my top priority; I did not come to see the world as larger than my immediate family until I became a Christ-follower.To change people’s perception of us Asians, we have to change ourselves and begin to give back to our community.

4.  Join the Toastmasters to develop your competence in public speaking. Leadership invariably requires some public speaking skills. This is an area where you can grow by simply joining the Toastmasters.

5.  Read Dale Carnegie’s classic “How To Win Friends And Influence People”. Carnegie’s book has been around since 1936. It is still a classic that teaches basic people skills: basic techniques of handling people, ways to make people like you, ways to win people to your thinking, and ways to change people without arousing resentment. I read this book when I was in college because I did not have a mentor to help me navigate my adult life. I swore by this book and modified my behavior according to the Carnegie doctrine since then and it has served me well all these years.

6.  Attend “Charm School”. Many training courses and interactive seminars based on Carnegie’s classic are available. These are designed to teach interpersonal effectiveness, the key to successful leadership. Some Asians have complained that their less competent coworkers get promoted because these Anglos are good at schmoozing. Whether we like it or not, being good at handling people is an indispensable ingredient for effective leadership. If you feel you are not acing it in this department, it’s time to sign up for Charm School.

7.  Get comfortable in your Asian skin. Are you comfortable with your Asianness? Do you feel resigned when you are stereotyped as something less than who you are? Some stereotypes might be: “All Asians are restaurant workers!”, “Most Laotians run donut shops!”, “Koreans all run corner grocery stores and laundromats!”, or “Asians don’t want to lead!” When you see yourself or other Asians being misrepresented, do you speak up?

8.  Discover your leadership style and learn to flex it. In our multicultural environment of the global business world, we are dealing with employees and business partners from increasingly diverse backgrounds. If you have been accustomed to the hierarchical style of relating and the authoritarian style of leading, you need to start becoming sensitive to the wide variety of personalities and cultures that you work with and flex your leadership style accordingly.

9.  Learn to represent yourself in a positive way. Develop a positive outlook, carry a pleasant persona, and speak constructively of people who are different than you, including people who are not Asians. People who are positive are more likely to get a hearing and more able to influence others. And being able to influence others is what leadership is about.

10.  Learn to speak up for yourself. When I was a young graduate student transplanted from Asia, I still held onto what my parents taught me about humility. When someone gave me a compliment, I would say, “Oh no. I am not that good.” At times when I wanted something, like the opportunity to lead, I would not draw attention to my abilities and achievements but just silently hoped and wished that I would be noticed. Now I realize that this kind of behavior was more “false humility” than “true humility”. Now I understand that making my abilities known, if it is an accurate representation of me, is not the same as being prideful.

What are some of your experiences in leadership? What have been some of your frustrations or successes? In what ways does your Asian cultural background influence your experience? Which of the above areas would you like to grow in? What might be some actions you could take to make this happen?

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