Our Invitation
The leadership challenge for Asians in American workplaces is well-known. A recent Harvard Business Review article calls out some of the structural barriers that limit the advancement of Asian employees and outlines ways organizations could tap into the leadership potential of that demographic. While large-scale shifts are impossible without organizational commitment and effort, individuals do have more power than we often believe to influence our immediate environment and our own paths.
We are embodiment coaches An Xia and Yan Li, and we help aspiring and rising leaders, Asians in particular, who want to lead with confidence and feel true to themselves.
In our conversations with Asian Americans and immigrants about leadership, one challenge often comes up: the difficulty of speaking up. Speaking up can mean putting oneself in the spotlight for scrutiny, expressing a different opinion that might cause disagreement or conflict, or asking for something that could inconvenience others. These dilemmas are not unique to persons of Asian heritage, but they do reflect some of our group-oriented cultural upbringings that emphasize conformity, harmony, duty, and hierarchy.
In our work on leadership embodiment, we recognize that the first step to transformation is awareness -- awareness of our habits, beliefs and assumptions, and their sources and impacts. Often the process of reflection and discovery can expand our sense of choice and possibilities. We can then practice and develop new skills to turn those possibilities into reality.
This is why we are inviting you to join us in a 3-day journaling challenge to reflect on the topic of speaking up.
How it works:
This 3-day challenge is free for everyone to participate.
For 3 consecutive days after you sign up, you will receive a writing prompt every day (around 9am Pacific Time) over email, and your task is to jot down your reflections on those questions in any format that suits you, and submit your answer through the google form.
After you’ve submitted all three entries you will receive a completion prize - a reading resource on leadership communication and influence (general and with specific recommendations for Asians).
About Yan
Dr. Yan Li (San Jose, CA) is a social psychologist, leadership coach and somatic practitioner. She is committed to helping individuals and collectives claim their agency in times of personal, organizational and societal changes.
As an immigrant who grew up in post-cultural revolution China, Yan has always been fascinated with the tension between societal forces and individual freedom - when and where do individuals have the most choices? This pursuit took her on a boomerang journey from academia (trying to address the questions intellectually and at scale) to service (helping people feel free and at choice). Yan uses all her knowledge and skills acquired from previous work including teaching, research, higher ed and non-profit administration, and her experience in her own transformation and adaptations to help clients who care deeply about what they do and whom they are helping but want to worry less and feel more free.
Yan’s credentials include a somatic coach certification from Strozzi Institute, a doctoral degree in sociology from Stanford University, and a master’s degree in TESOL from Peking University. She is also a certified Master Tai Chi Instructor. Her current hobby-studies include Chinese Medicine and Indian classical singing.
🔗 website: https://movingstillness.org
About An
An Xia (Mountain View, CA) is a career and leadership coach, certified somatic coach, and former tech worker (Netflix/Facebook). Her mission is to make herself and others feel deeply alive and connected to themselves, their work, and people around them.
An spent the first decade of her professional life in consulting and in Big Tech data science (Netflix, Meta). It was the best preparation she could have had for coaching high-achieving individuals to embody joy, ease, groundedness, and a sense of purpose in fast-paced, stressful environments. As a first-generation immigrant, An cares deeply about belonging and dignity (which she interprets as being respected for whoever you are) and about helping sensitive souls find their own voice and reconnect with their inner strength. In her coaching, An combines both conversational coaching and somatic coaching to meet clients where they are and tap into the wisdom of their whole soma when clients are ready.
What An finds fulfilling is seeing aliveness reignited in her clients when they come out from a sense of feeling stuck, achieve their goals, reconnect with joy, ease, and their deeper longings.
🔗 somatic coaching website: https://presencesomatics.com/
🔗 career coaching website (中文): https://walkwithan.com/