S6 E3: How Asian Professionals can find their Voice and Shine with Rebecca Pang

The Inspire Podcast

!!A special episode for Asian Heritage Month!! In this episode, Bart speaks with Rebecca Pang about the unique stereotypes and challenges Asian professionals face and how they can overcome them. Rebecca, a Vice President with RBC and co-founder of the Asian Professionals Network at the bank, shares some startling numbers that illustrate how Asian professionals are not well-represented in leadership across sectors in North America. She then shares her own journey and reflects on why this may be, and then explains what she has done to advance herself in the face of these challenges. Rebecca outlines her advice to anyone looking to grow and advance themselves and gain the advancement they are seeking. Rebecca's story is an inspiring one and well worth listening to not only for Asian professionals but for anyone who wants to serve as a better Ally. | Learn more with these statistics and resources: | Ascend Foundation - Hidden in Plain Sight (2018) - "Glass Ceiling for Asian Americans Is 3.7x Times Harder to Crack" - Report: https://www.ascendleadership.org/pressrelease/glass-ceiling-for-asian-americans-is-37x-times-harder-to-crack | Ascend Foundation - Asian Representation on Fortune 1000 Boards (2020) - "Asians represent 13% of the professional workforce but only 6% of executives and 4% of Fortune 1000 board seats." Report:https://static1.squarespace.com/static/621f898a98dc785cd663ab7b/t/6411f2ee4666315d84f17833/1678897904702/asian-representation-fortune-1000-boards-2022-edition.pdf | CPAC Institute - Underrepresentation of Chinese Canadian Leadership in GTA (2021): Report PDF - "Chinese Canadians are 11.1% of the GTA population, yet hold only 2.17% of Tier 1 leadership positions." - Report: https://cpac-canada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/CI-Report-2021.pdf | Harvard Business Review - Article (2018) - "Goldman Sachs reported 27% of its professional workforce was Asian American, but only 11% were in senior management." - Article: https://hbr.org/2018/05/asian-americans-are-the-least-likely-group-in-the-u-s-to-be-promoted-to-management | 0:30 Show intro 1:05 Introducing Rebecca and all her accreditations 2:26 Co-founding the Asian Professional Group 3:10 Rebecca talks about her sales team 4:00 Introvert, who grew up in Hong Kong 4:21 Heavy on the numbers and math 4:49 Feedback about her communication 5:06 What does it mean to "work on your communication" 5:41 Why start the Asian Professional Group 6:07 Bart lists of stats about Asian representation in US 7:52 Exam oriented 8:15 Bart talks about how he's totally opposite re: exams 9:18 Story about wanting a "hockey certificate" 9:46 Bart jokes about leafs 10:13 Back to conversation 10:20 Non-book stuff very important for new Asians in NA 10:45 Mid career -- other aspects become more important 11:45 Common career advancement blocks for Asian Canadians 12:02 Speaking up 12:18 Too polite 12:40 Learning to debate respectfully 13:11 Feeling comfortable taking the lead 13:28 Bragging....need to do it once in a while 15:02 Bart talks about intersectional women+Asian and some stats 15:55 How Rebecca learned to improve communication 16:23 Leaders should be more specific 17:31 Learning from good speakers 17:52 Practice makes perfect 18:07 Do recordings and listen back 18:24 Bart mentions the AI tool 20:00 Bart gives kudos 20:39 We can all unlock leadership potential 21:06 Coming back to Asian pro network 22:15 What is the scope of the network? 23:03 What advice to others would she give? 23:47 Start with an authentic presence 24:30 Every Interaction is also an energy exchange 24:49 Bart talks about authentic presence 26:40 Embrace the power of networking! 26:53 Pushing past natural introversion 27:45 Celebrate each other's success 28:10 Why not me? Being a leader 29:15 What have you learned from starting the APN? 29:50 Finding your North Star 30:22 Finding the Canadian Dream 30:49 Have you achieved your Canadian dream? 32:07 Thank yous 32:45 Outro