Key points: How to overcome bias and dismantle the Asian glass ceiling
By: Ramon Tran Tang
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Most Americans assume that Asian Americans are highly successful, but the truth is, we are the least likely of any group to be promoted in Corporate America. We’re 12% of the workforce — and 1.5% of Fortune 500 corporate officers. Why does the bamboo ceiling exist, and how can we dismantle it?
Why does the Asian Glass Ceiling exist?
Asian Americans are viewed as the highest personnel capital of any group — and the lowest network capital.
To succeed in corporate America, we need human capital which encompasses 2 things.
Human capital= Personnel capital + Network capital
Personal capital refers to skills, experiences and knowledge that made your company hire you.
Network capital refers to connections in your network to influence your personal capital.
How to build your network
Human beings are social creatures. We tend to form groups at school, social setting, or at work. In any social setting, we become homophilous to the more dominant group to the exclusion of others. Organizations that are dominated with white men will have collaborate with other white me. In contrast, organizations with equal number of men and women will collaborate equally with men and women. The same concept applies to race.
In your company, there is a 3 cluster of people that can involve in different networking roles. They are: Inclusion champions, Central Connectors and Boundary spanners.
Inclusion champions- People who create inclusion and well-being at the workplace
Central connectors- Deeply trusted people within the group that can speed up execution of a goal or block change without senior leadership from knowing.
Boundary spanners- People who can effectively drive, direct, block and communicate across different groups
There is one last category called the Peripherals. They are smart and talented enough to get recruited by the company but have never integrated themselves into networks.
Building successful network capital means becoming a boundary spanner and creating diverse and energizing connections. But how do we do that?
Generate “pull” to shape serendipity
1. Create broad, energizing connections- Broader network is better than bigger network
2. Tap network for ideation and implementation- Seek input from others before execution
3. Shape network co-create successes — Always update your network. Understand everyone wants and needs to co-create your own story.
This three-step networking blueprint will only help you partially get to the top. You and your colleague would have to work collectively with your organization to create inclusion work. How can we do this? We must be able to incentivize everyone to do DEI work. Here are 4 things we can start doing.
1. Reward Inclusion Champions & incentivize all to create inclusion
2. Enable all with the network resources they need to unleash their potential
-Identify network peripherals and provide them with mentoring to unleash their potential
3. De-bias succession planning with objective network data
-Identify and diversify hidden leaders to become leaders
4. Activate culture change by leveraging hidden stars
-Companies normally adopt conventional top-down management making culture change difficult. Leverage hidden leaders throughout the organization and incentivize them allowing culture change.
Now we have two blueprints, we are able to leverage our network capital and shape our organizations be more inclusive when choosing leaders. These blueprints are just starting points in getting to the top.
