This section helps you evaluate your leadership goals and build confidence
If this is your first time meeting each other, introduce yourself to your mentor/mentee!
Few key points to talk about:
- Talk about your cultural background
- Tell a story about your career and how you have gotten to where you are right now
- For mentors: What is something you wish you knew when you were a fresh graduate?
Goals are very important in mentorship, as it sets a direction to the session.
Mentees should set goals into what you want to achieve in this session, while mentors can set expectations over what you can provide in this session and what you are unable to give guidance on.
How do you define leadership? What are you goals as a Chinese-Australian leader?
Below are discussion questions for mentees to identify your leadership goals with your mentor, and evaluating steps to becoming the leader they want to be.
StartThis activity is based on this template by Utah Valley University
Leader comes in all sorts, some people view being a leader as sitting in a managerial position in their organisation, while others view being a leader means influencing others in their community.
View discussion questions
1. What does being a leader mean to you? What kind of leader to you want to be?
Think of traits and goals you want to achieve.
2. What do you think makes an exceptional leader? Think of previous experiences and traits you see in great leaders you see in your life.
Role models are important as they give people someone to look up to. This person doesn’t have to be historical figure or someone that has created enormous impact to the society, it can be anyone in your life!
Continue below to see Asian representations in leadership.
Frances Voon is the executive manager for the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee in Sydney.
She came from a Malaysian background and believes diversity brings better decision-making. Her advice to young Asian-Australians is to look at their varied ways of seeing the world as an advantage.
Read more about Frances here
Tim Fung is a fourth generation Australian with a Hong Kong background, and is currently the CEO of Airtasker, a startup based in Australia.
His advice to being leader is to be vulnerable with your team, acknowledge moments where you don’t have answers, don’t overthink too much, bring other people in the journey and catch people doing the right thing.
Marina Wu is a co-founder of Earlyworks.
When it comes to leadership, Marina says “If I asked you to imagine a ‘typical’ leader in tech, I wouldn’t expect you to picture a female of Asian descent, these social norms – that are shared by men and women alike – need to change.”
Jieh-Yung Lo is the director of the Centre of Asian-Australian Leadership, advocating for change of underrepresentation of Asian leadership in Australia.
He says that being a Chinese-Australian has helped him develop strong cultural intelligence to communicate and navigate across cultures. Furthermore, representing voices and community as a local government councillor at City of Monash and CAAL at the ANU.
1. Discuss who your role models are between mentor and mentee, why did you choose them as your role model?
2. What are some qualities, values and beliefs your role model has?
Now you have defined what sort of leader you want to be and identified traits of leadership role models, the last step would be setting personal goals into achieving who you want to become.
Set goals now!
1. What are some effective ways of taking actions to achieve your goals?
2. Reflecting back on your definition of leadership and some quality and attributes of your role models, what are areas you think needs further developing in order to be the leader you want?
Mentees can now choose one or two topics of discussion or up-skilling exercise below, raising any concerns and questions for discussion.
Imposter syndrome is the feeling of self-doubt and incompetence despite education, experience and high accomplishments.
Mentee: Have you ever experienced the imposter syndrome? Discuss about it with your mentor.
Mentor: Talk about your thoughts on imposter syndrome and give some advice on how to handle it.
Making a great first impression in your interview is critical to getting your ideal job.
Mentees: Share your experiences with interviewing and raise any concerns you have. How would you introduce yourself to the interviewer and make yourself stand out?
Mentor: What do you think makes a candidate stand out?
Who are you? What is your story? What are your strengths and what makes you unique?
Personal branding can be difficult when first starting out in your industry. However, a branding that is successful can leave an impact.
Mentors: Share how have you identified your personal branding throughout your career
Mentee: Spend some time identifying your key strengths and unique points and craft a marketing pitch for yourself that is authentic to you.
"Break the Bamboo" is a mentorship toolkit for experienced Chinese-Australians to mentor younger Chinese-Australians so they can fight through the Bamboo Ceiling in Australia.
