What would you do if you couldn't fail?

House of Hong Restaurant, Seattle -  This was the question I asked at a recently held Women of Power Luncheon hosted by Assunta Ng, Publisher of the NW Asian Weekly and Seattle Chinese Post newspapers.  Before I get to the answer of that question, though, let me first tell you that this luncheon, now in its third year, benefits one of NAAAP Seattle's partners, the Executive Development Institute (EDI). Twelve lucky auction winners from EDI's Inclusion Fusion held earlier this year got to lunch with some very powerful women. In fact, I had the privilege and pleasure of being seated at one of the tables. I'll introduce them one by one as I go through their stories.

Women of Power Luncheon (l to r) Martha Choe, Donna Giordano, Grace Chien, and Amelia Ransom Letcher (Not pictured: Sandra Madrid)

As the food arrived, Donna Giordano, President of the Quality Food Centers (QFC), shared what she thought were her keys to success(es); that was:

• to listen and learn from others;
• to take any job offered as it would lead people to know that you're the obvious choice when opportunities arose;
• to know you are in the driver's seat of your career;
• to know and articulate your value; and most of all,
• to have a positive attitude as this will assist you in achieving results, both at home and at work. 

Next, the top Girl Scout or CEO, Grace Chien, made a point to stand firm with your commitments and define successes and failures in relation to these.

Martha Choe, Chief Administrative Officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and also a 2010 NAAAP100 recipient, talked not only about change, but about having it be sustained and lasting. She talked about how important it is to building lasting and effective relationships and used the term, "total leadership", when addressing one's well-being: mind, body and soul. Said another way, "When you're health isn't well, neither is your leadership."

When addressing work life-balance, "there is no perfect balance and it's a matter of balancing daily or weekly based on what is important to you. Put another way, if you are on your death bed, would you regret having gone to one more meeting?"

(l to r) Sandra Madrid, Carol Butterfield and Sandi Heddington

Now, Amelia Ransom Letcher, VP Corp Diversity Affairs at Nordstrom, rallied around people first and effective communication. Can you imagine the power in having people believe flowers grow in concrete? Getting to this level of effectiveness can help you become very influential.

Sandra Madrid, Sr. Advisor to the Dean, UW, shared a story about her own career transition. She was let go from the UW after 20 years of service. Her main point was to be part of a community because no one can do it by themselves. It was with the community's support that she got her job back at the UW.

As by now, I'm guessing you want to know what they said when asked, "what would you do if you couldn't fail?" I asked this question because throughout our careers we face fear and indecision and having gone through this themselves, they would give really good insight. Well, in short, the answer was not surprising. To paraphrase what each one of them said, "I would do anything".

Given that we're already on the topic of powerful women, I would like now to take a moment to let you know about the Women in NAAAP! program, which is our own program created and developed to build competent and confident women leaders within NAAAP and within the Asian Pacific community. If you don't already know about it, you can visit our website.

Special thanks to Char Grinolds of EDI and Assunta Ng, Publisher of NW Asian Weekly and the Chinese Seattle Post newspapers for creating a great meeting.

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle

President

NAAAP100 Seattle Nominees

As many of you may know, May is Asian Heritage month in the United States, so what better way to start it off by announcing Seattle's nominees for the NAAAP100, an International program designed to acknowledge the contributions of Asian Americans exemplifying NAAAP's mission and values.


Earlier this year we asked members and the community at large to submit nominees. We collected them and having sorted through them, it gives me great pleasure to update you on the NAAAP 100 Nominations for Seattle. These nominees are in great company as you may be wondering. Other chapters are also nomininating leaders in their communities.

The selected few among all nominees will be invited to NAAAP's 2010 Convention being held in San Francisco later this year to receive their award. Most importantly, it gives me a sense of hometown pride that Seattle is a progressive place to conduct business and has an environment in which to foster leaders in our community.

These are the amazing individuals nominated for this year.

• Phyllis Campbell – Sr. Vice President at JP Morgan Chase | Read more ...
• John Okamoto – Executive Director for the Washington Education Association | Read more ...
• Assunta Ng – Publisher NWAsian Weekly | Read More ...
• Tay Yoshitani – Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Port of Seattle | Read more ...
• Martha Choe – Chief Information Officer (CIO) – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation | Read more ...
• Qi Lu – President Microsoft Online Services Business and former exec at Yahoo! | Read more ...  

Thanks to those submitting nominations, too. Of course there are other wonderful unsung heroes. As an organization and in the spirit of community, we hope to acknowledge them in future years.

It’s amazing to see the diverse areas where Asians are leading now and it is quite the contrast from 20 years ago. Congratulations to all!

Regards,

Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President

For more information on the NAAAP100 program, please visit our website.

MADE

MADE, now in its 10th season, is an MTV series turning possibilites into realities for individuals wanting to achieve their goals.

What's obvious in these episodes is the presence of a mentor or coach.  You can see they are a stand and support for their mentee's goals and dreams.  They provide guidance and encouragement when things aren't clear or when hope seems lost. I've included links to full episodes below and see for yourself how hard work, determination and partnerships are key ingredients to success. TV is one thing, but how does it play out in real life? 

Well if you're interested, would you like to know who's MADE me? I've been fortunate to have had support throughout my life.  From my parents and teachers to my friends and managers, they've all played a key role in making me who I am.  They were pivotal in encouraging me to apply for that job, to stick with it when times got tough, to try something new, and to ask for help. This last one is really important because if you get anything out of this post at all it's to realize that knowing-it-all and thinking-I-can-do-it-by-myself flat out doesn't work. 

To answer my earlier question, I would like to acknowledge and thank Assunta Ng, publisher of the Northwest Asian Weekly and Seattle Chinese Post newspapers. She was the one last year who encouraged me to apply for the NAAAP Seattle Board of Directors.  If it weren't for her encouragement, I wouldn't be here writing today. Assunta (left in picture) and I have what is called an informal mentoring relationship.  It's a form of mentorship where we don't have a structure of weekly meetings, but I can definitely email or call her with questions relating to how to run a business or to get her perspective on a situation.

Another type of a mentoring relationship is a structured type. Unlike an informal type, the structured type has a weekly face-to-face or conference call, an agenda, specific outcomes and you as the driver of the relationship. Marianne Barkman was my coach in Landmark Education's Self-expression and Leadership Program. She MADE me into a team manager. As a coach, I was responsible for coaching 5 program participants with their projects and ensuring they received support throughout the 3-month program. Marianne and I had weekly meetings and she taught me what conversations I needed to have with my participants so that 1.) they stayed in the game and 2.) they were engaged in their projects.

So as I reflect on who's MADE me, there are many people as I said before, but I'd like to especially thank these people for being a mentor to me in their own way: Stafford Mays, Mylene Padolina, Beth Strack, Parri Munsell, Joyce Allen, Mark Bishop, Susan James, Jim Bachaud, Jacob D'Nunzio, Christopher McKormack, Don Peterson, Starr MacDonald, Tom Pearon, Sue Hadi, Michele Mercer, CJ Johnson, Andy Yip, Ki Kim, Jon Boulton, Ador Yano and Lorraine Yu. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

In conclusion, I want to leave you with this bit of encouragement. No matter where you are in your journey in life, you can always call on a mentor for guidance and assistance. They're there willing to help you succeed.  Listen to what they say.  Do what they say and thank them when the job is done.

Regards,

Gil Gido

NAAAP Seattle

President

Links:  

• Watch Brittany get MADE: http://www.mtv.com/videos/made-season-10-ep-30-pageant-queen/1631318/playlist.jhtml
• Watch Sidhart get MADE: http://www.mtv.com/videos/made-season-9-ep-20-football-player/1597806/playlist.jhtml
• Be a mentor: http://www.wamentors.org/

Women In NAAAP (WIN)

We make leaders! The National Association of Asian-American Professionals (NAAAP)-Seattle is a provider of leadership opportunities for Asian-americans living in and around Seattle. And I am very privileged to be working with outstanding leaders on the NAAAP Seattle Board of Directors. Today, I want to focus on women and their contributions to our community and to share about an exciting new program NAAAP has addressing women's issues women experience in their journey into leadership roles.

Nine women, leaders in their own right, sit on the 2010 board with new and creative ideas. Just to name a few, Jen Phan, VP or operations, and Marian Liu, VP of external affairs lead me through discussion on the challenges and opportunities within the organization. It's an opportunity to get feedback and a different perspective. So far, my interactions with them test my own leadership abilities. Through them, I'm growing and stretching myself.

With that I want to share about the Women in NAAAP Program. This a national program launched as a pilot program at last year's NAAAP Convention in Denver. It's mission is to:

• Strengthen members in NAAAP through specific leadership programming addressing stereotypes, strengths/weaknesses and a holistic perspective of oneself from work/career to friends, co-workers, family and community.
• Stress the importance of work-life balance and one's personal journey in life from the perspective of being a woman and an Asian American woman in society today.
• Create a plan to help women accomplish their goals and objectives.
• Build competencies and skills that will carry women beyond their current conditions and into a more productive, efficient, and satisfying tomorrow.
• Support the Asian Pacific women leaders of tomorrow.

NAAAP Seattle is playing a major role in the development of this program and as it is still in it's infancy it will have many opportunities to grow and develop. I am excited about this program that I am playing a personal role by sitting on the committee that develops this program. Whether you're an Asian-american man or woman, this is an opportuntiy for us to show the diversity of our community. For more information, please visit the WomenInNAAAP (WIN) website at http://www.naaap.org/programs/WomenInNAAAP.aspx.

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President

Additional links:

• Seattle's women in leadership luncheon series - Women of color empowered - http://womenofcolorempowered.com/
• About Microsoft Diversity - http://www.Micrsoft.com/about/diversity/default.mspx
• About American Family Diversity - http://www.amfam.com/about-us/diversity/in-the-community.asp