Why being the ‘odd one out’ isn’t a bad thing

Growing up in Asia, I never felt like a “minority” in society. People around me looked like me, spoke the same language, knew the same culture, and understood that if someone asks whether you have eaten, it’s not an invite to take you for a dinner. 

The child in me would have never imagined that decades later, I would be considered a “double” minority, both in terms of gender and ethnicity. Looking back on my career, I’ve almost always been the odd one in the team — on the energetic trading floor, in the investment bank’s glamorous office, and at the board meeting discussion table. I’ve experienced the difficulties of blending in (not to mention to “lean in”) in the early years of my career, and how that has changed in the recent times. I chuckled when hearing the tips on how to make small talk at a board meeting from Magdalena Yesil (hint: you can also get the tips from her book “Power Up”), fumed when one of my best friends was not promoted simply because his wife had a career and thus he wouldn’t be able to focus on his career like another candidate who had a “stay-home wife”, and empowered when there are more and more role models in our industry advancing the diversity and inclusion agenda. 

Looking back at my own experience and leafing through reports and studies that numerous researchers have done in the past decade, I came to a realization that being the “odd one out” is actually not a bad thing.

Diverse viewpoints and healthy debates in a team can lead to better performance.

Working in a diverse team may take longer time for people to build team trust and working relationship, however, studies have shown that diverse team can lead to better outcome. An early experiment in a study of fraternity and sorority members compared the experience and outcome of diverse and homogeneous teams, while the homogeneous teams worked through the assigned task more easily and felt better about the results, it was the diverse teams which produced consistently higher performance score, though they usually felt less certain about the results. A more recent study by Paul Gompers, an American economist and a professor at Harvard Business School, examined the decisions of thousands venture capitalists and their investments performance, came to the same conclusion: “Diversity significantly improves financial performance on measures such as profitable investments at the individual portfolio-company level and overall fund returns”.

As part of Shell Ventures, I’m thrilled to have been a part of the team’s own diversity journey. It’s been amazing to see the progress we have made. Almost half of our deal leading principals are female, and we have a strong pipeline of female associates and analysts. Our team also represents more than ten nationalities and multiple ethnicities. Most importantly, we have diversity in our way of thinking: our team includes everything from an ex serial entrepreneur, investment banker, commodity trader, private equity investor, to a refinery engineer, rocket scientist, psychologist, adjunct professor, and even a ballroom dancer and a master surfer! This level of diversity not only makes Shell Ventures a fun team to work with, but also sparks wisdom in discussion and leads to a more well-rounded result. 

Whilst our own team has become quite diverse, there is still more we can do to consider diversity & inclusion in our investment processes and the management of our start-up portfolio. We aim to advancing that agenda and lead the change from the top of the pipeline. I’m beyond excited to play my part.

It is time to change. And this time, things will change for the better.