What stands between you and your career best, your entrepreneurial dream, your retirement home in the islands?

Is it the person you report to or the loan officer at the bank?

Perhaps it’s those colleagues who just can’t seem to put in a good word for you when you most need it, or the distraction of continual demands from family members?

Often, your adversary is closer than you think. Often, it is someone very familiar. Often, it is you. To be specific, it is the negative and fear-based thoughts, emotions and resulting behaviors that come from you.

An experience I had several years ago provides a metaphorical analogy. My husband and I had gone to dinner at a popular restaurant in a touristy section of Chicago. After dinner, we walked to our car to head home. As we approached our car, which was parked on the street, we noticed a very strong, almost nauseating smell. We immediately figured that someone had placed something on our car as a prank, or some animal had used our car as a pit stop. We checked the tires, the front and back of the car, but couldn’t identify where the odor was coming from. Since nothing was visible, we got inside the car and drove off.  Inside of the car we noticed that the smell was even stronger. I looked in the back seat, under the seat, but still couldn’t find anything. We checked the bottom of our shoes. Had we stepped in something?

Finally, after several minutes of conversation, it dawned on us that the pungent aroma we were both noticing was the oysters Rockefeller that had lingered on our breaths after dinner. The culprit was right under our noses!

This analogy characterizes human nature in that we often look outside of ourselves when things go awry. On closer examination, however, we often discover that we are protagonist and antagonist rolled into one. What gets in the way of our goals and aspirations is often the negative emotions, thoughts, and ongoing, uncensored monologue taking place within our heads. All this leads, all too easily, to doubt, procrastination, self-pity and fear of failing. This evil twin of ours comes out, particularly, when we are trying to embark upon a change in our lives.

Kally Reynolds, life coach and president of Renaissance Journeys, has a straightforward explanation for how he has been able to experience phenomenal growth in his career. “I guess it’s because I never make a case against myself,” he says. “ We’re all too quick to make a case against ourselves.” No need to do that, he adds: “The world will do it for us.”

Reynolds suggests that the evil twin undermining us is often a scared little girl or boy inside who does not want to get hurt again and withdraws out of fear of ridicule, not measuring up, or other humiliations.

Yet our opinions of ourselves are so frequently lower than the perceptions others have of us. We may have a poor opinion of our capabilities and potential, though this may not be picked up immediately on the radar of our colleagues and associates. Sooner or later, however, if we continue to think in this way, it will be projected outwards and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Others will see us as we see ourselves.

Turning off the Life Support and Creating New Thought Patterns

In order to maximize progress toward your career goals or – any goal, for that matter – and move past fear and self doubt, you must commit to quieting the troubled voice within. Les Brown, the motivational speaker, often says, “If you want to keep getting [out of life] what you are getting, keep doing what you’re doing.” One can take this a step further to “keep thinking what you’re thinking.”

While you may be excited about pursuing a dream, you may also feel a bit anxious and worried. The voices inside of your head can be your worst critics in your pursuit of new horizons. These voices and the strong emotions that accompany them awaken you in the middle of the night, shouting out that the odds are against you, demanding that you work out every possible scenario before making a move — and they keep you up all night! How do you turn them off?

Is it possible to just stop thinking? This is easier said than done! Given that nature abhors and rushes to fill a vacuum, you will need to replace old, negative thoughts with new, constructive ones. Beware: your old familiar thoughts will be kicking and screaming louder than ever, once they find out you don’t want to nurture them anymore.

Many individuals find it helpful to silently repeat affirmations of what they want. When negative thoughts creep in — “I’m too old/too young/ not connected enough to take on this venture,” for example – simply switch them over to positive thoughts: “I have life experience to bring to the table/fresh ideas/willingness to network with others.”

Others things you can do to internalize and sustain positive messages include seeking out and learning about success stories of individuals who have made their way, particularly when the odds were against them. This helps to reinforce new thought patterns that say, “It’s possible. Conditions outside of me don’t have to be perfect. I can do this!”

Research suggests that it takes 21 to 30 days to form a new habit. The three R’s – repetition, reinforcement and reward — will help you build and sustain new thought patterns and, subsequently, new behaviors.

Eyes on the Prize

Keep your thoughts focused on what you want to achieve and create a mental and physical environment that helps to reinforce these thoughts. It helps to create a clear picture of what you think success will look like. What is your goal? Picture it, verbalize it, feel how it would feel to reach it. Who’s in the picture with you? Who is not? Bring this image to mind every day and refine it.

To bring your new thoughts to life, put them in writing. Write a contract or statement of intention: I intend to ________ (fill in your goal) by (fill in the date). Then establish milestones: a month out, three months, six months, one year, three years. Then return to the present moment and create an action plan to clarify how you will execute and what resources you will use. Keep your plan simple enough so that it is not overwhelming; that can lead you to take no action at all.

Where can you get the most bang for your buck?

Start by asking yourself three questions:

1. What are the one or two things I need to start doing?
2. What are the one or two things I need to stop doing?
3. What are things I need to continue doing?

The things you need to continue doing will be the easiest and take the least energy. You already have built-up momentum here. You may experience withdrawal symptoms with the behaviors you are trying to stop and a bit of anxiety with the behaviors you are trying to start. This is where you will need to monitor the internal voices more frequently.

Engaging Others

There’s no need to go it alone. Others can help you as you pursue new horizons and work on stilling the evil twin within. Create a change support team or “board of directors.” Identify people who have information that would be helpful, can be supportive in an objective way, have done what you are trying to do, are good listeners, and/or can connect you with others.

Working with a career or life coach gives you a thinking partner. A coach or mentor will provide a safe haven for your concerns, and can be a valuable sounding board for your ideas. Sometimes it simply helps to hear yourself talk through your goals, plans, and concerns with someone else. A coach will be able to listen without judgment and will not be emotionally tied to any particular outcome, as a family member might be. A coach will also challenge you to exhibit new levels of excellence – the gentle push we often need — and will keep you focused on the positive by having you complete various exercises like “list 20 things that you are already fully competent in now.”

Rewarding Yourself

Celebrate successes along the way. Don’t wait until the end. Celebrate a day of thinking constructively! How about that? Psychologists, therapists, coaches, and other practitioners all agree that rewards are a critical component to reinforcing new thought patterns and subsequent behaviors. Identify a half-dozen or so rewards that are meaningful to you and easy to access.

Monitoring and managing our internal monologue can go a long way toward building the confidence we need to move into new territory and shape our own success. By nurturing those thoughts that confirm the creative and resourceful capability within us and selecting to surround ourselves as often as possible with others who reinforce this thinking, we can all reach the point where our evil twin turns into our best friend.

Charmon Parker Williams, Ph.D., an industrial psychologist, is a career and talent management consultant, coach, and contributing writer for Diversity MBA Magazine.

Amidst restructurings, mergers, acquisitions, and global sourcing, many senior careerists now find themselves in the predicament of having to look for employment. Let’s face it, times can be a bit challenging. But there may be a silver lining in all of this. This can be a time for you to reflect on your life, your goals, and the dreams you have swept under the carpet – a time to revisit a change of careers. Are you with me? Let’s take a look at a few tips you will need to keep in mind.

Create a Vision

What is your fantasy career? Musician? Corporate raider? Supreme Court Justice? Back paddle a few strokes to reality. Now move up. This mental exercise will help you create a vision for your next career move from a list of the implausible and the plausible. It enables you to identify what you are passionate about. As you begin to revisit your dreams, you may find some that you have outgrown and others that you have a curiosity about. On your route to seeking a new career, you may find that there are other outlets for you to express some of these dreams.

Explore Opportunities

Talk to friends and friends of friends about what they are doing. Read career profiles of various individuals in magazines and other media. If it sounds like something you might want to do, then get more information on the subject. There are several career sites on the Web that provide this type of information.

What do you have to offer?

Conduct a self-assessment. This is a critical step in any career planning. Conduct an inventory of your strengths and areas for improvement. Think past your current or last job to talents you have demonstrated in other venues – the community, professional organizations, church, home, school, etc. List your strengths and how you have applied them. List any feedback you have received on development needs. You also should list the things you value, are interested in, and want to avoid. It might be revealing to take a personality inventory (e.g., Myers-Briggs) to get a sense of your temperament, style of communication, and how this meshes with various careers. There are numerous career planning assessment tools available. Descriptions of many of these (like the Strong Interest Inventory, which measures your interests in a broad range of occupations, work activities, leisure activities, and academic subjects) can be found at http://www.career-lifeskills.com.

What does your desired role require?

Next, identify the competencies required for the role you are interested in. You may need to do some research to complete this list. Speak to professionals in the role. Look up the job requirements in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (which provides descriptions of more than 12,000 job titles). Talk to executive recruiters, who specialize in filling these roles, about employers’ expectations. You can find executive search firms by specialty in the Kennedy Guide to Recruiting Firms and other directories.

Analyze the bridges and gaps.

Now look for the points of connection, as well as the gaps between where you are relative to where you need to be. When there is a significant difference between what you are doing now and what you would like to do, you will often find that your connection points are based on broad, transportable skills such as communication, problem solving, or knowledge of a particular industry. The gaps that surface may be based on more specialized areas, such as certification or educational requirements.

In your gap analysis, you may surface the need to go back to school. You may view this as a longer-term strategy, but it may actually help you connect with others in the field you are choosing. Professors may be able to provide you with leads. Alumni may have opportunities for internships. If you don’t think you have time to go to school, think again. Many universities offer weekend and online degree programs.

Write a detailed career action plan.

Write a strategy for how you will get from your current role to your desired role. This strategy should include short-term, long-term, and contingency plans. You may want to enlist the assistance of a career coach at this stage. Your plan should specify individuals or networks that can help you reach your goal. You should also spell out what you are willing and able to give up to reach your goal — for example, a 20 percent decrease in salary, a status/title change, etc.

“But I have no experience. Who’s going to hire me?”

Dip your foot in the pool or at least get it wet. In most cases, you would be absolutely right in your assumption that experience gets the job. But the job is not the only way to get the experience. You may be able to develop the skills you need in other settings while you are in your current position.

For example:

• Volunteer your services to a community, civic, or social organization.
• Conduct committee work within a professional organization.
• Serve on a non-profit board of advisors or directors.

One tactic you may opt to use if your skill set is close but your experience level is off, is to negotiate a trial period with a potential employer in which they leverage your services for less than full salary. How much less will depend on your financial situation. “Try me out with less pay” should only be used if you believe you can come into an organization and quickly add value. Your manager and co-workers will be watching your every move.

Another tactic you will want to use to get your foot in the door is to make yourself visible in forums where professionals in your desired field congregate. This sends the subtle message that you are “one of them.” This includes joining professional organizations and attending conferences. It also includes arranging to make presentations in these forums on topics about which you are knowledgeable and can generalize to your audience’s interest. Writing for magazines or other publications that the target group reads is a related tactic.

Changing careers is a challenging endeavor that requires reflection, direction and persistence. Much of it breaks down to the fine art of networking, image building, and competence. The more your name is known in your desired arena, the higher the odds of you connecting with someone who is willing to give you that first chance.

Management as a business discipline is a relatively new practice in organizations. Peter F. Drucker is generally considered to be the thought leader of modern management. He’s authored more than 35 books and hundreds of articles on the subject. His ideas have had a significant impact on the framing and shaping of people in organizations worldwide. At the core of modern organizations are talented people. They have always been and will continue to be the key asset for institutions.

In our recruiting practice, we maintain that the most important and valuable asset of any organization are human resources. Our objective is helping people to be successful and understand the concept of self-development as an important tool.

Managing yourself for success is the critical next step for personal, academic and career enhancement. It begins with knowing yourself. For the first time in history, we live in a period of exceptional opportunity for managing yourself for success. The rise of online universities and education programs, the acceptance of entrepreneurship and business start-ups, the growth of small, family-owned businesses, the break-up of global conglomerates with exceptional separation agreements and compensation packages, all contribute to the opportunity for individuals to take new intelligent risks, fund new ventures, and establish multiple careers. Today, if you have the knowledge, guts, determination, ambition, and fundamental smarts, you can rise to the top of your preferred choice of work regardless of where you began.

It’s important to understand that available opportunity requires that you take total responsibility for your growth and development. Many individuals still believe it’s the duty of the organization to manage the careers of people who are employed. Not so. You have the responsibility for being your own CEO. You should begin today to carve out the place you desire in the organization. You must know when to change course. You must keep learning, growing and being productive for the rest of your life. Imagine; college graduates today have more than 50 years of work life ahead of them. How long will you contribute to your own development?

To become and remain a high performer, you must become comfortable with yourself, know where you fit in the organization and trust your instincts as you develop a deep and genuine understanding of who you are, what you know, how you learn, what your strengths are, your values and where you can make the greatest contribution. Managing yourself for success requires a focus on achieving pure excellence. You will have to continue to reinvent yourself. You will have to make something some different out of yourself. It isn’t enough to just find a new job or new ways of doing things.

Decide today to take charge of your future. Knowing what you have done well will prepare you for understanding what you have learned and how you perform. In charting the course for managing yourself for success, here are 10 points that may prove helpful.

1. Individuals must make the shift to believing that they alone are responsible for their own careers. This may be the most difficult part of managing yourself for success. All of our training and work experiences have been the responsibility of management. We can no longer assume that doing a job well is enough, and that promotions will be the natural result. Organizations today and tomorrow expect good work and long hours from their professionals. It’s up to each person to exploit opportunities for growth.

2. Taking the time to be clear about what you want to learn, then developing a plan is crucial. The forethought and foresight that come with being a life-long learner, one who eagerly acquires skills to enhance career paths to assure continued growth, demand focus and a plan for action. Review the plans on quarterly basis and adjust for industry trends. Stay focused and on track.

3. Know what makes you successful. Take time to know your strengths and areas that need more development. Have a clear picture about your personality and the environment where you perform best. Try not to get buried in the day-to-day tasks. It is fine to do a personal and career sort at least once a week.

4. Pay attention to the market you’re in and look to other disciplines for new opportunities. Keep looking for the new opportunities. Managing yourself for success will help you to remain sharp and alert to additional skills and competencies that may be needed for the future.

5. Know how to react and deal with change. Change is the only constant we can count on for the future. Know how you learn. If you are a reader acquire books on the subject. If you are a listener, attend seminars. Learn from others how they have survived change. What skills are needed? Where can you get them and quickly?

6. Know who you are, and what your values are. When you are clear about your core values, future opportunities are easy. Seek relationships that fit your value stream. Your personal philosophy can be expressed in how the organization espouses its values.

7. Accept the fact that changes caused by structural shifts create opportunity. The opportunities for success are very evident. Look for the strategic advantage that lie ahead. Focus on the future, not the past.

8. Do not take change personally. If you find yourself caught in organizational changes that are necessary for the organization to survive, then you’re not the only one to be impacted. Stay positive, go on the offensive and demonstrate your skills at delivering solutions.

9. Establish Career Collaborations. Recognize the importance of working partnerships, collaborations and teaming for improvement. Develop and establish new arrangements with other people, groups, and organizations to create new alignments for managing yourself.

10. Create your own future. The only way to predict the future is to create it. Managing yourself for success requires that you lead the change that is engulfing you and others in the organization. Develop a new tool kit and contribute to solutions. It is very likely that you will be positioned for new challenges.

Managing yourself for success is the first step in competing for opportunities in which you create options. Remember, you are totally responsible for inspiring, encouraging and empowering yourself to harness the personal and professional power to achieve true excellence.

Herbert Smith is Chairman of H C Smith Ltd, a retained executive search and consulting business in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He is also chairman of Smith International Enterprises USA/Hong Kong. He’s a life member of the National Black MBA Association and serves on the board of visitors of the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito School of Business at the Claremont Universities, Claremont, CA.

Although experts in the diversity and inclusion arenas are not in 100% agreement about the role employee-affinity groups play in determining just how inclusive any given corporate organization really is or isn’t, it’s important to specifically examine their role, especially where the advancement of professionals from diverse backgrounds is concerned. Employee affinity groups are often highlighted as an important feature of a company’s commitment to diversity and positioned as a path toward advancement opportunities.

Once employed, talented professionals join employee-affinity groups and assume they provide access to leadership, a communication channel regarding key openings at the company; and a meeting place for colleagues with similar backgrounds or interests. Based on mixed experiences and findings, the question remains, Are affinity groups the mechanism leadership looks to in developing, identifying, and tapping talent for senior-level positions, or do they represent the equivalent of scheduled cultural exchanges and social gatherings with little impact on an individual’s success, recognition, or advancement?

The Spectrum

Employee-affinity groups certainly aren’t all the same. As with most programs borne out of corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives, their sophistication depends greatly on where a company sits on the diversity spectrum. Often, firms with a shorter history or less formal commitment to diversity may have fewer systems in place to make affinity groups a viable tool for talent retention and advancement. Companies with more history/experience will often host affinity groups that are more structured, heavily focused on business goals and representative of an active pool of talent to consider as the need to the best talent grows stronger each day.

Recently, The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a leading national Hispanic civil- rights organization, in partnership with Sodexo Inc. led an initiative to understand affinity groups’ membership, purpose, and outcomes across corporate America and to assess the impact these groups are having on Latino professionals. “Overall, we found that every group across the nearly 50 companies that responded was slightly different from one another,” says Simon Lopez, NCLR workforce development director. “It was clear that good intentions are what drive the creation and support of these groups, but that the ones with the most potential positive impact for the advancement of Latino professionals are those that focus on business bottom-line goals and are constructed to serve as talent pools for all levels.”

Many Faces

Respondents to NCLR’s research submitted more than 10 different options in response to the question, “What activities do your employee-affinity groups focus on?” Answers ranged from raising cultural awareness to promoting community service to conducting product testing to talent development. Given this wide scope, professionals seeking that next big break into leadership must carefully assess how and where they spend their limited time. Although helping to raise cultural awareness is certainly a priority, will hosting a booth in the atrium during Heritage Month help you meet your professional objectives? Further, in the true spirit of diversity and inclusion from a business standpoint, what is truly gained from recognition for your cultural background as opposed to recognition in the boardroom? The ideal is, naturally, a company that strikes a healthy balance between both.

Rolddy Leyva, senior director of diversity at Sodexo, notes, “Each day is an opportunity for us to leverage our employee-affinity groups for talent retention and development as well as for creating a more inclusive and open environment. It’s not an easy mission to manage, but it is possible to support meaningful programs related to specific cultures while keeping a hard focus on our need to keep and grow the best talent from all backgrounds.”

Networking to Advance

The NCLR initiative also highlighted how important employees consider affinity groups for networking purposes, with 100% of respondents noting that they are a networking vehicle. For ambitious, experienced, and highly-coveted professionals of diverse backgrounds, the real issue that needs to be addressed is, “Does networking as part of my company’s affinity group provide access to opportunity and leadership, or access to my peers and subordinates?” If getting ahead is the aim, an employee needs to critically evaluate how the existing affinity group can help or hinder that objective. By asking a few key questions during the interview process or once employed, it’s possible to determine whether it makes sense to invest time and energy in an employee affinity group if professional advancement is the main goal. These include:

• What is the affinity group’s mission statement? You will have a different experience participating in a group whose stated mission is to honor shared culture and promote its visibility within the company than a group whose stated mission is to identify, retain, and develop top talent for advancement.
• What systems or programs are in place to identify, retain, and develop talent through the affinity group? Digging deeper will get you past public relations positioning and into the real role of the group.
• Are there current leaders in management or executive ranks that were identified through the group and developed for their current roles? Ask to meet with them. If there aren’t any, chances are top talent isn’t developed from inside affinity groups.
• How is the group funded and structured? You want to know the budget, where it’s coming from, and who leads the group in front of leadership. This will help you understand who truly “owns” the group and how heavily the company is investing in its success.

The Point

Diversity and inclusion efforts sponsored by leading companies are continually evolving, and it’s critical that business leaders are held accountable to truly moving their cause forward. Employee-affinity groups represent opportunities that on the whole could be activated more broadly to benefit both employees and employers. In years past, it was acceptable to maintain an employee affinity group for the sole purpose of giving individual employees of like backgrounds an opportunity to interact. More recently, the aim has been to promote visibility of the cultures represented more broadly within the organization. Today, the goal should be centered on cultivating employee-affinity groups for enhanced professional opportunities. It will serve both the business bottom line and the diverse professionals at the forefront of today’s race for talent.

Jessica Priego Lopez is president of J Priego Communications. She can be contacted at Jessica@jpriego.com

There’s a vicious cycle of disappointment from each passing generation. Hopeful Asian- Americans face the dissatisfying reality that their dreams of corporate-management success are being overlooked by the outspoken and eccentric. Corporate America is playing a different game and most Asian-Americans aren’t even aware of the rules.

While Asian-American males are strongly represented as professionals in the workforce (23%), they’re underrepresented in executive managerial positions (14%). Asian-American females represent 17% of professional jobs, but are less likely to be represented as executives or managers (12%). In Silicon Valley, CA, where Asian-Americans comprise 30% of technology professionals, a 1993 study showed that they only make up 12.5% of managerial positions.

In a 1999 study by the University of California at Santa Barbara, psychologists identified 14 Asian values that come from Confucius’ teachings. They include collectivism, deference to authority figures, self-control, self-effacement and avoidance of family shame. Although these values do have their strengths in a team setting, they have also limited characteristics that conflict with career advancement. The study also revealed that these values were not found to significantly differ across each passing generation. This means that unless there is a new shift in thinking, the disappointment of the past will continue to dictate the future.

Education isn’t the only key

According to the 2002 data from the US Census Bureau, 44% of Asian-Americans over age 25 have graduated from college, compared to the 27% average for the U.S. population. About 25% of Stanford University undergraduates are of Asian descent, and Asians make up more than 40% of undergraduates at the University of California at Berkeley. In California, while Asian-Pacific Americans comprise 8% of all elementary students, they represent 17% of those in schools in the top 10%. Only 4 percent of Asians in those schools are in the bottom 10%. Far too often, Asians are pressured so heavily to enter certain professions, it may be at the expense of completely neglecting their own aptitudes, personalities, and, most importantly, passions.

Dan Goleman, in his book Working with Emotional Intelligence, calls “emotional intelligence” a greater value in American companies. Unfortunately, the unwavering emphasis on education in Asian culture overshadows the need to develop emotional intelligence. The American values of assertiveness, networking, and self-promotion by Asian-Americans are overwritten with “the loudest duck gets shot” Confucian way of thinking.

Bamboo Ceiling

There is some good news, however. In her book Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling, author Jane Hyun gives deep insights on how Asian-Americans can finally get the well-deserved spots in the corner offices.

“The bamboo ceiling is clearly a nod to the term glass ceiling, a term that has historically been used to address barriers that women and multicultural professionals have faced in the workplace,” she says. “It is the combination of personal and organizational barriers that keep someone from advancing inside an organization. For organizations, it is both the lack of awareness about these differences and the resulting subtle biases that may occur. Another aspect of the bamboo ceiling is deeply imbedded cultural values and norms that impact Asian professionals’ interactions with others and cause others to make judgments about them.”

In many Asian countries, too much eye contact is a sign of disrespect and can come off as rude. The lack of consistent eye contact and a firm handshake may be misunderstood by recruiters and hiring managers.

Hyun suggests finding an experienced mentor. This cannot be stressed highly enough. Great mentors are very much linked to having a great network. As cliché as it sounds, in order to reach the top, it really does matter more who th

Speak your way up

To win more clients, gain recognition, and be selected for more interesting topics, you must be constantly looking for ways to make your accomplishments known. This can be done by taking on high-visibility corporate tasks overseen by senior management or by speaking up in meetings to establish credibility and connect you with others in the company.

Traditional Asian influences such as respect for authority (reluctance to question an expert), emphasis on harmony (backing down when challenged), can profoundly impact Asians’ effectiveness at work with co-workers, clients, managers, and subordinates. Asians need to ensure that their workplace behaviors aren’t being misinterpreted.

For example, the Asian employee’s deep-rooted value of respect for authority may lead colleagues to view him as a “yes man.” While you don’t want to be known as the perpetual devil’s advocate either, you should be able to question someone’s decision without disrespecting his or her authority. If you know the meeting will be a difficult one, you should prepare double-time by checking your sources and prepping the key participants prior to the day of the meeting.

Missing Out

Hyun thinks corporate America is missing out if it doesn’t figure out how to work with Asians. “If there are Asians opting out of firms before they reach their full potential because of a bad manager, or other cultural workplace misunderstanding, we lose out because we miss out on the unrealized contributions they could have offered,” she says. “As more young Asian- Americans enter corporations, I’d like to see more Asians use their cultural attributes as assets in their leadership — to be impacting their organizations positively with their skills, knowledge, and leadership capabilities.”

Perhaps, the future generations of Asian-Americans will be able to leverage the best of both cultures embedded in their upbringing and America to give Asians a chance. You can’t change your skin color, but you can disprove any preconceived prejudices by outwardly living up to your full potential. Some pioneers are already leading the way. It is up to the upcoming generations to break the unkind cycle of the past.

“The key to upward career mobility is self-awareness, recognizing what leadership gaps you need to fill in order to advance your career and taking the time to fill those gaps, and developing relationships with mentors who will help you navigate inside your organization,” says Hyun.