Developing Judgment and Communication

Recognizing possible cultural barriers

Perception of not being proactive and/or challenges in gaining autonomy and trust:

• Do you have difficulty knowing where to assert yourself and/or speak up when you don’t want to rock the boat, cause any perceived conflict, come off impolite, or overstep?

Indecisiveness and self doubt:

• Do you experience self doubt about a decision or approach on something because of worries of disapproval or judgment from others who may not understand your diverse perspective?

Voice suppression:

• Are you ignored or not heard either because you were not able to speak up or because of other more dominant non-Asian co-workers?
• Do you lack an outlet to express your opinions or the opportunity to find your voice to carry yourself confidently?
• Are you put on the spot when thoughts are not fully formed?

How to navigate those barriers

My opinions culturally differ from that of my colleagues, what can I do to strengthen my opinion in order to foster diversity in perspectives?

• Keeping abreast of industry knowledge, developing skills, and doing your own research are key to building yourself as a professional in your field of work. This can be crucial in navigating vague situations or directives as you build judgment around whether or not to be proactive or assertive, whether you feel comfortable moving forward with a decision or approach, and/or formulating the right questions to elicit necessary responses toward the best mode of action.
• Having a unique and diverse perspective, especially if you come from a different cultural background, can be tough to convey at times due to it often challenging the status quo. Keeping this in mind, a few things you can do to effectively convey your perspective include: identifying why the topic matters to you and why others should hear your stance, preparing to back your point of view, and practicing how to convey your opinion.

How do I know when to be proactive or assertive?

• Determining whether or not to be proactive or assertive in certain situations links back to having intentional conversations with your manager and/or your team about their expectations for you and your role. An initial conversation about your manager’s leadership style can give you a roadmap for how to complete a task or project with little to no supervision and/or where your manager may feel oversight may be needed. The more explicit these expectations are, the easier it is for you to intuitively know where you can pick up the pace. Over time, finding these areas of opportunity will help to build a trusting relationship with both your manager and your team.
• Use your resources. Seek out allies, mentors, and those that you admire to pick their brain about a decision or approach that you are considering.
• As a professional in your field, you may possess a body of knowledge that can be useful in contributing to company or team decisions. In other words, you may be more of an “expert” than your manager and it is up to you to effectively communicate, based on your knowledge, why your manager should consider a specific way forward. This is a concept called managing up. In some cases, despite the effort you may put into conveying your perspective on a situation, you may never see eye to eye with your manager and it is important to note whether or not it includes a mutual understanding of having diverse perspectives.

How do I build confidence in conveying my perspective?

• A lack of preparation or practice can oftentimes make even the most confident speakers nervous, especially in high stakes and high pressure situations. Most meetings that you attend at work should generally have a topic or subject, and for more organized teams, there should be an agenda. If possible, it is to your advantage to ask for the agenda ahead of time so that you are able to have the time and space in advance to formulate your thoughts about the topic or subject.
• Regardless of whether or not you will be called upon to contribute to a meeting, it is always best to prepare your talking points on what you know will likely come up in the meeting and to anticipate questions or answers to possible questions that will be asked.
• Use the following framework to help you form your thoughts in advance: PREP, or Point, Reason, Example, Point.

What do I do when someone puts me on the spot?

• In situations where you are put on the spot and are not able to fully prepare or form your thoughts, a few steps you can take to respond are:
  • Acknowledge the questioner and affirm their question.
    Ex: “That’s a great question…”
  • In order to maintain your credibility and confidence, don’t allow small setbacks to undermine the hard work you put into your work. While you may not know the correct answer to the question immediately, don’t allow this to overshadow the knowledge you do possess.
    Ex: “In my experience, this is how…”
  • Maintain momentum by sticking to the agenda and continuing the discussion.
    Ex: “Thanks for the question, due to xyz, we can discuss this offline.”
  • Use polished, poised phrases to buy yourself time so you can think of what to say next.
    Ex: Use a pause instead of filler phrases like “Um/Uh” or “Like”. “This subject is important to me…”
  • Be prepared to think on your feet. Even though you may not always have an answer ready to go at a moment’s notice, this will demonstrate your flexibility.
    Ex: “I haven’t thought about it like that, but what this reminds me of is…”
  • Sourced from
    https://www.inc.com/deborah-grayson-riegel/unprepared-for-a-meeting-heres-how-to-respond-to-any-question.html

How do I find opportunities to speak up over other more aggressive colleagues?

• In some situations, the opposite problem may occur in which you wish to contribute to a conversation but have a hard time speaking up due to other more assertive workers. After careful listening to how the conversation develops, find your best opportunity to step into the narrative by asking for forgiveness instead of for permission. Remember that preparation can give you the courage to carry yourself confidently.