Today I had the honor to attend the HYSTA Chinese Executive Event with my husband, at the Microsoft campus in Mountain View. The event was aimed at bringing more Chinese/Chinese American engineers into the Executive suite in Corporate America. Among the panelists are these amazing Chinese American leaders who have great experiences climbing up the ladder in big corporations as well as building up successful startup companies/teams. They all had great stories and advices to share and I really appreciated them taking their time to come. The best way to thank them is to practice their teachings and pass their messages along. Here I will try to summarize what I picked up from today's event.
First and foremost, one has to find something that he/she is passionate about. I remembered a sentence that I learnt from some book: "do what you love and you will never work a day." If one can find the area that he/she is really interested in, they will have the burning desire to become better at it. This way, success will follow. This is not to encourage people to constantly switch jobs to find the "right" one that they really love. Rather, as one of my mentors said, one should really get to know themselves first, and understand their values and what are driving them at the end of the day. If your job aligns with your values and beliefs, you will be motivated and love what you do.
Salesforce's COO George Hu mentioned intentionally choosing an industry and an environment that allow you to thrive. There were also some discussions about the difference in being in a small company vs. a big company. George, who had chosen to be in small companies in the early years of his career, said that things are more fluid in smaller companies and you have great access to senior people. David Ku, CVP at Microsoft, mentioned that in big companies, what and who you can influence really matter. Building trust and credibility will open up opportunities. In either case, though, you need to find your own advocates who will vouch for you.
Personal branding was also a hot topic that every panelist had something to say about. I think everyone now agrees that we, as different individuals in the workplace, are products to be sold. We need to create and maintain a good personal brand to better sell our skills and talents. Other people's perception about you is their reality. If some stakeholders have negative impressions about you, you will get stuck. In this situation, a brand changing campaign is desperately needed. You can either do this through demonstrating your true self to clear the misunderstanding, or have people whom the stakeholders trust clarify things for you. In any case, you have to perform well once given the stage.
Communication has always been an important point that everybody stresses. Nobody knows what you have been doing unless you go out and communicate with people. Always keep a transparent line of communication with your boss. If you want to have skip level communication with someone, always find a connection for introduction. Executives almost always want to know what is going on within the organization and you waste opportunities by not communicating. Executives also like to get to know people who really take the initiatives and go the extra miles, rather than people who have the mere purpose of being seen by them.
As an extension to communicating with your boss, one has to really try to understand what your boss really wants. You can have rational discussion with your boss once or twice per year to ask for opportunities to present to senior executives, if your boss forgets to purposely give you such chances.
Several other tips:
1. Dont's break relationships to get ahead.
2. Act fast to correct mistakes. Sometimes you need to quit and end things quickly. Do not always think that you can fix the issue.
3. When presented with a fork in life, sometimes the key is to just pick one direction without thinking about the what-ifs.
4. Get to know yourself well. Be comfortable with who you are and where you are. Make objective judgement calls. Be willing to adapt those aspects of yourself that are not effective.
5. Know who the decision makers are and what drives them. It is more of an art than science.
6. Regarding work life balance, George mentioned about taking long vacations. Instead of a week's vacation, take months' vacation. Presell your boss the idea of your long vacation (e.g. 18 months before, 6 months before, 1 months before, etc...).
7. Some good habits the panelists have: keep your email inbox empty; go to work really early to get ready for the day; allocate time to think; morning/night reflections.
8. Think different. Just do it. Keep walking.
Attending this event was such a great way for me to prepare for my return to work. Navigating through career is more like a game. There are rules and you are supposed to play with them to survive and thrive.
Hey, I am back into the game again and I can't wait.
