Developing Minority Leaders: Key Success Factors of Asian Americans

Traditional leadership programs may not address the unique developmental needs of ethnic minorities. Whereas traditional leadership development is based on the assumptions, values, and behaviors of the Western mainstream ideals, our research uses a culture-specific approach to understand the unique needs of ethnic minority leaders, namely, Asian Americans. We focus on Asian Americans because they are least represented in U.S. management ranks, despite having the most education, training, and work experience. Our central research question is "What are the key success factors of Asian American leaders?" Qualitative interviews with 39 key informants (of East Asian descent, and 2 non-Asian Americans), ranging from middle managers to CEOs, at Fortune 500 companies, representing a variety of industries (accounting, aerospace, banking, digital imaging, energy, entertainment, food service, health care, medical, retail, technology, and telecommunication) identified 8 key success factors (i.e., qualities that promote upward mobility in the management hierarchy): cultural acumen, rules of success, leadership branding, communication, social decorum, leadership aspiration, career determinism, and cultural inclusion. Each success factor was defined, along with identification of its key issues, causes, consequences, and actions taken for cultivating the success factors. Results offer guidance for individual leadership development and for organizations to develop culture-specific leadership interventions that complement current mainstream training approaches.