McDonald's...and...Eggs with Tomatoes

What do they have in common?
I was wearing a bright yellow sleeveless top. I had to grab a sweater due to the cold air conditioning. The one closest to me happened to be red. Red over yellow is an interesting combination for clothing. My daughter and I immediately realized it and we spoke at the same time.
"Huh, McDonald's" / "Huh, Eggs with Tomatoes" (the literal way to say it is "Tomatoes fried eggs" - but that's a topic another day)

The difference is that my daughter was born and raised in US, and I was born and raised in China. We associate things to the culture we are familiar with. The culture difference is ingrained in our default thinking patterns - big or small.

As leaders, we need to be cultural intelligent. We may not have all the answers, but we are willing to learn. We provide safe space for people to be who they are and celebrate our differences and uniqueness.

#culture #leadership

Who are you?

You may answer "I am a software engineer of ABC". What if you are not allowed to use your job title?
"I am a parent." What if you are not allowed to use your family function?
and on and on.
I got inspired by the late Wayne Dyer when reading his book. I started to ponder how I would answer this question myself. Here is what I wrote down in my journal March 2022 during Women's History Month.
"...How can we make celebration of women a movement instead of a moment? Everyday we need to remind ourselves how wonderful, powerful, beautiful we are.
I am LOVE.
I am POWER.
I am JOY.
I am the language."

How would you answer this question?
There are two days that are the most important days of our lives - the day we were born and the day we discovered why we were born. I hope you have discovered your second most important day.

#life #love #joy

3 monks

Once upon a time, there were 3 monks who lived in a remote monastery. When there was only one monk, he fetched water by himself. When two monks were present, they fetched water together. However, when all three monks were present, they each believed the other two will fetch water. As a result, they didn't have any water the next day.

When it's everyone's responsibility, quite often, it becomes nobody's responsibility.
Find something that seems to be owned by everyone but no one, own it, that's an opportunity for you to stand out as an exceptional leader.

What Is Executive Presence?

When asked, people have many different answers or no answer. They may say that you can feel it and you will know when someone has executive presence...or not.
The definition from Forbes.
"In its simplest terms, executive presence is about your ability to inspire confidence — inspiring confidence in your subordinates that you’re the leader they want to follow, inspiring confidence among peers that you’re capable and reliable and, most importantly, inspiring confidence among senior leaders that you have the potential for great achievements."
How does one inspire such confidence in others? It's every moment and every interaction. It's every action and every word. It's during the ups and also during the downs. It's when you agree and when you disagree. It's when you celebrate and when you are under stress. It's the clarity in your thought and you are able to concisely communicate it to others depending on your audience. It's the energy you bring to everything and everyone.
In order to have executive presence, you need to think like an executive, look like an executive, and act like an executive. Most importantly, you need to believe you are an executive...only if you believe.

I am happy to have discussed such an important topic with our Alliance for Impact Inc. audiences.

BTW, I didn't like the word "subordinate" - no one is another person's subordinate. I always tell our team that "You are not working for me. Instead, you are working for the company, the customers, and yourself. "

#executivepresence #leadership #executive

Hell Yeah or No

❓ How often do you do things that you don't enjoy?
❓ How often do you do things because you don't want to disappoint other people, such as your spouse, your parents, your children, your boss, your coworker, people you don't even know because you firmly believe that they are watching your back?
❓ What if you choose to only do the things that give you joy, meaning and purpose?

I used to be a people pleaser because I was taught to be other-centered ever since I was a little girl. I did things that pleased others but depleted my own energy well. I stayed in unhealthy relationships because I didn't want to hurt other people. In turn, I hurt myself.

Now, I use this principle for my decision making, especially the major ones. "Hell Yeah or No" (Derek Sivers) - If it's not a hell yeah, then it's a no.

disclaimer: This is the only situation I have been using the word "hell".

Try it! Let me know how it works for you.

#leadership #decisionmaking #selfhelp

Dreaming in English

I am an extravert. I became introverted temporarily when I landed in America for my graduate school. The feeling of not being able to express myself was frustrating, to say the least.
When someone talked to me, I would do translation twice.
1️⃣ I translated what people said into my native language to comprehend what they meant. Then
2️⃣I thought of my response in my language and translated it to English.
However, by the time I was ready, people may have already moved on and my response wasn’t relevant anymore. I would repeat this cycle again and again. If I got lucky, I might be able to comment a “yes” or “no” at the end of a conversation. Most of the time, I didn’t bother to think of a response…let me just simply understand what people were talking about.

Gradually, the speed of my translation got faster and faster...until one night I was dreaming in English. That’s when I knew that I have reached a milestone that I didn’t need to do two way translation as much anymore.

To this day, I carry a list of the words that I just learned or I didn’t know how to pronounce correctly. Let me share just a few examples:

✏️ Salmon - the fish we regularly eat for dinner. You notice there is a “L” there? My kids learned how to pronounce •salmon• from me. When they went to school, they were laughed at pronouncing it as “Salmon” instead of “Samon”. I learned the correct pronunciation from my kids. salm·on (săm′ən)
✏️ Receipt - after you check out at the self checkout stations at the store, you will be asked “please take your receipt”. You noticed that is a “p” in the spelling? I have been very busy practicing saying the “p” and “t” skillfully. Until one day, my coworker and a good friend told me “you know it’s ‘recei(p)t’ right?” No! I had no idea! I heard about the pronunciation hundreds of times, but I already “knew” how it’s pronounced - at least I thought I knew, why would I ever need to pay attention to its pronunciation? re·ceipt (rĭ-sēt′)
✏️the list goes on and on.

The moral of the story:
📌mastering another language requires time, patience, intention and work.
📌just because you think you know doesn’t mean you really know: challenge your assumptions.
📌have empathy to the people surrounding you who speak your language as a second language because they are trying really hard.

#englishasasecondlanguage #continuouslearning #nevertoolate #empathy

I am too old…

❓How often do you hear other people say “I am too old to…”?
❓How often do you hear yourself say “I am too old to…”?

The truth is that many of us can have such feelings towards something at certain times.
❓Is it the truth that you are too old to do something or it’s just a “reality” that you imagined in your mind?

The pots in the picture below were made by a lady who retired from her corporate job when she was 53 years old. Now she spends 10 hours a day to “play” with clay and never feels it’s work.

It’s never too late to chase your dream and find what excites you. Your heart keeps the score.
#nevertooold #chaseyourdreams #dowhatyoulove #leadership

The 5 people you spend most time with

Jim Rohn “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
❓Who are you spending time with?
❓What’s the average of your 5 people?
❓Who do you want to be?
❓Who do you want to spend more time with?

Confidence

It’s common for women to feel a lack of confidence. Especially

⏰when we are around people who have been in the field for a long time. We feel that they know everything about the business and they are acquaintance of everyone who needs to be involved to deliver a project successfully.  Or

⏰when someone seems to be so smart and intelligent and they can solve problems quickly and in innovative ways.  Or

⏰when someone seems to be so good at communicating. They know when to be concise to make a point quickly, or when to use story to evoke emotions to have lasting changes.

…

In those moments, we could feel that we are inferior. We could feel that we are less then. We could feel that we should have, could have done better. We may start to question our ability...

What if we change the perspective to

🔨 leverage the knowledgeable people to be your allies

🔨 consult the smart people to brainstorm ideas

🔨 watch and learn from the skilled people how they communicate

For every moment that we feel a lack of  confidence, find the opportunities we can improve and learn from others. Every small incremental change will be compounded. If we do this every day, before we know it, we become more and more confident. We start to trust our ability more and more. We may not know the answers, but we are confident we have the ability to get to the answers…by leveraging the skilled people around us and by doing the hard work.

Lead without a vision

That’s unacceptable. How can you lead without a vision? Then maybe you shouldn’t be a leader.

Well, it turns out that leading innovation requires different set of skills and mindsets than leading change. Leading change requires that the leaders have a vision, and are able to effectively communicate the vision and why it is important to change in order to reach that vision, and what it is in them for the people who need to adopt the change.

However, leading innovation requires that the leaders embrace the uncertainty and ambiguity of where the project might end up, accept the possibility that it may not work, be comfortable saying “I don’t know the answer” and encourage the co-creation of a future and vision together. Instead of leading with a clear vision, leading innovation requires having a clear purpose.

This is a great listen by Brené Brown and Dr. Linda Hill.

#leadershipdevelopment #leadership #leadinginnovation