Take the Leap
On April 18-22, I had the pleasure of attending the Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics’ (LEAP) Leadership Development Program. I have always heard very positive, life changing comments from past attendees. However, I was a bit skeptical thinking why Asians need more education. Don’t we already have enough? I tried to get out of attending right before it started, but I am glad LEAP convinced me to attend.
At first, I could not help myself but to analyze the talent in the room. How could I match up with them? Does it matter? The best thing for me to do is to observe the class. I listened and discovered that I am no different from the group. We want to be true to our cultures and lead in our multicultural society. The class enjoyed great presentations and rich dialogs on topics such as: Cultural Values, Networking & Mentoring Lifestyle, Leading a Diverse Workforce, How to Make Powerful & Persuasive Presentations. It was a unique environment where the diverse Asian cultures found commonality.
By week’s end, I truly appreciated what I learned from both the dynamic speakers and other attendees. LEAP has a remarkable program that gives Asian Pacific Americans (APA) a perspective on self and our cultures. It helped me identify my leadership vision & strategies and strengthened my leadership style. I also learned that I need APA mentors to assist my career and life. Most importantly, I need to “give back” and mentor others to the best of my ability and also to listen.
21st Century Leader is US, its NOW and its HERE. We need to get others involved. If you want to grow your leadership skills or if you want your APA employees to be recharged and contribute to your organization, please contact LEAP at www.leap.org or me at dennis@aba-la.org. Push your comfort zone, take the leap, contact them. I am privileged to have gone through the program.
Innovation
We are in an economy in which one can be successful just by outthinking the competition. Businesses must be innovative and be creative. They need to generate a fresh supply of creative ideas. Two things successful businesses must have: marketing and creativity (Peter F. Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 1993). So the big question is, “How can we be creative?”
Creativity can be discovered from many areas.
• Look for unexpected areas. Nylon and Post-it Notes were invented from mistakes.
• Look at disruptions in your business as an opportunity to be creative. When you solve your customer’s problems, you also reach a creative solution.
• Look at the business process. Streamlining often reduces costs, which helps in the bottom line. The process of continuous improvement is another area we are being creative in our everyday tasks.
• Look at industry and market structure. Market structure such as new markets (i.e. the Internet) or market shift (i.e. what Starbucks did with coffee) will often lead you to be creative. Change is an opportunity for innovation.
People can be creative by nature. We like to be challenged. It is also important that we know when we are the most creative so we can capture that “Ah-Ha!” moment. This happens often when we are doing something else: daydreaming, taking a short trip and taking a shower. My personal time to generate creative ideas is when I’m driving. Remember, only the very simple, specific creative and innovative strategy has a chance of succeeding.
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