Stepping out of my Comfort Zone

Earlier today, I had the privilege to participate in the AdWeek Asian American 2020 Summit. The focus for our panel, featuring Cynthia Chen, Marvin Chow, Brad Hiranaga, Ko Im, Soyoung Kang, Judy Lee, Helen Loh, Minjae Ormes, Nick Tran, and Kyle Wong, was on accelerated racism due to COVID-19, specifically against East and Southeast Asian Americans. We also shared our personal experiences overcoming stereotypes. It was an incredible experience and I wanted to document some of it here.  

First, I am still working on being more comfortable with finding my voice on topics like racism and inequality. I don’t have all of the answers, and that’s OK because none of us have all the answers. However, I’m deeply committed to understanding other perspectives to ensure I’m doing my part to promote and enforce an inclusive and collaborative environment.  

Agreeing to join this session as a panelist was a big step for me. It took me out of my comfort zone for sure. I wasn’t sure how my responses would be received, if I was saying the right or wrong things. It was a great experience though. I learned something by participating, and this was a common theme amongst the panel, “We’re all humans.” We must continue to be humans now, more than ever. Our differences as humans make us unique and allow us to individually contribute in very meaningful ways. 

I wanted to share my experience because I know how important it is for me to be empathetic, to share my personal experiences so that all of us continue to learn. So, here goes! Throughout my career, I’ve been asked the same 3 questions over and over: 

·     You speak really good English, where are you from?

·     Are you good at math? 

·      You look young…how old are you?  

And yes, I used to view those questions as stereotypical and somewhat insulting. But I’ve learned to embrace these implicit biases and use them as strengths! When I interviewed at Cisco, I went ahead and addressed the elephant in the room. I started the interview by commenting that, “Yes I know I look really young for the job.” There were some laughs, and the interview moved along. Just like that, I addressed it right up front and used it to my advantage.  

I appreciate how fortunate I am to be in this leadership role, and for that role to be at Cisco, where I know that I have a platform where my voice can be heard.  

Mainly, I wanted to take a minute to let all of you know how much I appreciate all of you, your individuality, your experiences and your opinions. This goes for my current and former colleagues and those in my professional network too. Nothing changes for the better if we don’t share. I think the Asian American Summit reinforced to me that we all can and should continue to listen and learn – and start to identify the impact that we as individuals, and as an organization can make.