Full text of Tutti Taygerly’s TEDx Talk titled ‘How Asian American Women Claim Their Leadership’ at TEDxRutgersCamden conference.
Listen to the audio version:
TRANSCRIPT:
Tutti Taygerly –
Back in 1993, at the age of 16, I came to California as a first generation immigrant to go to school at Stanford University. I was known for being a banana, yellow on the outside, white on the inside.
I wanted to move away from my Thai-Chinese heritage and my life in Asia and become someone completely different. I wanted to be white.
As I rose up the ranks in Silicon Valley, I emulated this traditional command and control style of leadership, putting on this armor of inspired passion and supreme confidence that I would always know how to solve the problem. I didn’t want to consider the intersectionality of race and gender and how it was actually core to my leadership. I didn’t want to be an other. I didn’t want to face the stereotypes. Stereotype one, good worker bees, bad leaders.
Asian Americans comprise 57% of the tech workforce, yet are vastly underrepresented in the top leadership positions. Asian women have a double bind of race and gender, and according to U.S. employment data, they along with black women are the least likely to be promoted to the top positions. It’s a double glass ceiling reinforced with rigid bamboo bars.
In my research interviews, I talked to many women who described others calling them hard working worker bees, but not strategic, creative, or outspoken enough to be made managers. And some parts of stereotypes exist because they’re true.
I spoke to 27 women from 16 countries, and when asked about values, 100% of them said hardworking. Many of us are familiar with the immigrant mentality of quietly hustling to get the job done. There’s a Japanese saying: the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
Stereotype two: Asian Americans already have privilege as the model minority. It’s a cultural expectation placed upon this group of immigrants that each of us will be smart, hardworking, and obedient. There’s a pressure to live up to this stereotype. This might be born from the Asian cultural value of education.
70% of Asian Americans have a college degree, as opposed to 38% of the general population. But a model minority is still a minority. Asian Americans are people of color, viewed as more privileged than black, Latino, or indigenous women, yet still an other. It shows up in the smallest of ways in the safety of a corporate workplace when somebody says, oh, your English, it’s so good.
And it shows up in larger ways outside this bubble when we live in fear that our parents or us may be randomly targeted on the streets with the recent uptick in anti-Asian violence.
While parts of stereotypes may be true, we can choose to move beyond them. I spent 22 years in the corporate world as a design leader. I’m now in my second career as an executive coach to women, people of color, and immigrants. I’m here to tell you that we can move beyond our model minority status and step into an integrated leadership that honors our lineage values and modern workplaces.
This message isn’t just for Asian women. I’m going to share THREE UNIVERSAL STRATEGIES for how to lead when you feel like an other in the corporate world.
STRATEGY 1: MOVE FROM HUMILITY TO ADVOCACY. I spent many years when I worked in a large tech company having career conversations with Asian women on my team. I noticed that some of them seemed stumped when I asked them about their three-year career aspirations.
One woman explained it to me like this: ‘I was brought up to think about the overall well-being of the entire group. It feels selfish to think about me and my career aspirations. My parents never wanted me to think like that.’
Many Asian women, especially early on in their careers, get the job done, work hard, and say yes to whatever task the boss assigns. The assumption is that this behavior will get you noticed, recognized, and rewarded. It’s what worked in school. Remember, we’re highly educated. It’s what we were taught. None of us wanted to be that nail that gets hammered down.
But unfortunately, that’s not how corporate America works, as shown by the dismal number of Asian American women in the top positions. Here’s what you do about it. You start advocating for what you want. This is the advice I gave those Asian women on my team, and which I give to some of my coaching clients.
First, understand what parts of your job fulfill you. Right now, think back to your last work week and consider what activities give you energy and get you in a state of flow. Do you get energy from writing code, crafting a presentation storyline, or maybe researching legal briefs? Do you get energy from collaborating with certain types of people? Consider these hours you spend at work and consider what ones of these enliven you and charge your batteries.
Next, start advocating for more of these energizing activities. Have a conversation with your boss and tell them about the work that you do best. Set some boundaries. Let’s play with some experiments and say no to the work that drains you.
STRATEGY 2: FIND YOUR PEOPLE. When you’re part of the minority at work, it’s natural to feel imposter syndrome and wonder if you really belong here. What helps is finding two groups of people to help you.
The first is your allies. This is where you look for people similar to you. I recently spoke with a Chinese American venture capitalist who founded the Global Women in Venture Fund. Within this group of CEO and co-founders, these women were used to standing out. As entrepreneurs, they built their careers out of being singular, to stand out, to be different. It’s the path of a lonely warrior.
Yet when they finally found themselves in a room with other women like them within this global women in venture community, there’s a feeling of, ah, this is nice.