Feature Article
What would you attempt to do if you knew you were valued for your whole self?
by Peggy Nagae
What would you attempt to do if you knew you were valued for your whole self? Not just your intelligence, the honors you have received, your hard work, the results you’ve achieved, or even your pleasant personality and good looks?
This question beckons us to live our lives fully, wholly, with courage and compassion, whether it’s in a boardroom or your living room, in a community room or a courtroom.
Whole person leadership is about all of you: your mind AND your heart; your thoughts AND your instincts. The concepts and ideas about this way of leading are relatively simple to understand, but not necessarily easy to incorporate in our everyday, whirlwind and demanding lives. So, in this introductory missive, I’m going to describe several concepts, give a few personal examples and then ask questions. I’d love
to hear your reactions to what I’ve written, your answers to
the questions and your own personal experiences. I imagine
a rich dialogue taking place.
Let’s begin…. when you lead in this way—as a Whole Person—you lead from your center with backbone and heart. This style of leadership invites you to join the journey to become a whole person leader:
Whole Person Leadership is grounded in one’s character, commitment and collaboration, first within ourselves and then with others. It leverages individual gifts and talents to bolster personal and professional leadership by using all our skills, intelligences and aspects to produce sustainable results at the individual, interpersonal and institutional levels. Whole Person Leadership then becomes a thread running through the entire gamut of work, family, community and life!
Since I was young, I have wondered, “Are leaders born or is leadership something that can be learned?” As I looked around (in the ‘60s and ‘70s) at the leaders in this country—be they politicians, actors, heads of companies— I wondered even more about who is a leader because the vast majority of leaders I saw on television, read about in school, and learned about in church, did not look like me but rather were mostly male and white.
Today more than ever Asian Pacific American (“APA”) women are taking on high -powered jobs traditionally held by men. In fact, a greater percentage of us hold professional and managerial jobs compared to any other racial group — 41.1 percent versus 38.7 percent of white women and 36.2 percent of all women—and that APA women are the highest paid females in the United States. (Source: 2000 Census.) It was at Vassar College that I gained some perspective on being an APA woman and my capabilities, similar to what these statistics reveal in today’s market. For the first time, my academic environment said: “You can do anything and twice as good as any man, so go out and do it.” I felt valued and capable.
Nonetheless, APA women are still likely to face a subtle “bamboo ceiling,” as noted by author Jane Hyun in Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling. We face these barriers in a variety of places, be they public or private, government or not-for profit, and while most instances are not outright acts of discrimination, they can be micro-inequities that may negatively impact careers and slow down advancement.
In law school, I realized—from an all white (and mostly male) faculty and administration that had admitted and flunked out the largest percentage of minorities in my year—that all I had learned about leadership would be put to a test. For me, law school seemed to value solely the mind and intellectual intelligence. It reinforced being tough, hiding feelings, sucking it up, and doing what it takes to win. Other intelligences were not focused upon or deemed important. By the time I graduated, I felt as though my head was oversized and my heart was encapsulated in metal. Physical intelligence was only the stamina to go the distance and win, and there was not even a hint of the spiritual, soul or heart. I was once asked by the Dean, “What’s behind those dark, inscrutable eyes.”
Today, APA women are misperceived as passive and quiet, and while commended for their work in the background, “behind-the-scenes” these abilities are not viewed as foreground, leadership skills and, therefore, APA women may not be recommended for more aggressive projects, which, in turn, limit their opportunity for high-visibility projects and professional advancement. This is in part why APA women are often considered an invisible minority, which has the following consequence: Asian American women are less likely than other women of color to be in positions within three levels of the CEO, though they hold the highest levels of graduate education. (Source: 2003 Catalyst study, Advancing Asian Women in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know.) Catalyst president, Sheila Wellington said, “There is…. the perception that Asians have not been the victim of prejudice to the same degree as African Americans or Hispanics.” That can foster a belief that Asian Pacific American women do not require specific diversity efforts so they are often overlooked in diversity programs, fast track programs or even Women of Color initiatives.
Yet we ARE leaders; we DO have vision; we CAN contribute in boardrooms, classrooms, communities, families and NGOS in this country, whether we have accents, fail to speak out, or are seen as passive; or, when we do speak up and are seen as too aggressive; whether we secretly compete with one another and don’t know how to support each other, or don’t feel comfortable forging social relationships with others. We, as APA women ARE leaders with contributions to be made, voices to be heard, experiences to be shared and messages to convey. Whole person leadership can be the foundation for APA women taking such action.
At the Center for Asian Pacific American Women (“The Center”) believe that leadership and personal development mean paying attention to developing and stretching ourselves on four different levels: Physical (body), Mental (head), Emotional (heart), and Self (Spiritual). These four levels are closely related and affected by one another. To lead from the CENTER we must first focus on inner development before our outer expression of that development.
It took many years and a somewhat tortuous career to begin exploring these other aspects of myself. Eventually I left the practice of law and started consulting in diversity and cultural competency. When I heard about spiritual psychology and enrolled in a master’s program, I began to shift my thinking about what it means to be a leader. Leadership is not just about changing institutions or working with others on an interpersonal level. Leadership did not come from other’ beliefs or standards, but rather from within, starting with myself, and from there, radiating out to others. Am I willing to trust my heart as much as I trust my head? Whole person leadership is, not EITHER/OR but it is more than BOTH/AND. It is the ability to hold, live and act from seeming paradoxical ways of being. It is about generating new ways of doing business with backbone and heart.
A recent Harvard Business Review article called this ability integrative thinking and contends that this skill—not a superior strategy or faultless execution— is the defining characteristic of most exceptional businesses and the leaders who run them. Posner and Kouzes call it exemplary leadership. We, at the Center, call it Whole Person Leadership at the individual, interpersonal and organizational levels. We know that such leadership goes far beyond any title, position, circumstance and structure. It is a fundamental way of being.
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Peggy Nagae has experience
and expertise in leadership development and coaching, diversity and cultural competency, strategic planning, communication and potentiating the human spirit at work, which she has fostered for over 17 years in her business peggynagae consulting.
Her work has involved serving as the pro bono lead attorney in reopening a Supreme Court case, Yasui v. United States, on the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. As the lead attorney in a case without precedent, she managed a team of lawyers who also volunteered their time, lived in three different locations and worked for five years to overturn a forty year old conviction. She knows that leading is more than managing; it is about a vision, inspiration, role modeling and the heart.
Peggy started as a trial attorney in Portland, Oregon, served as Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Oregon School of Law, then as a lawyer and law firm leader at a Seattle litigation firm, where she was responsible for the recruitment, hiring, professional development and evaluation of associates.
Peggy's work focuses on developing teams and leaders to reach aggressive business goals with greater grace and ease, using fewer resources and gaining more potent results. In addition to coaching, her skills include change at the individual, interpersonal and institutional levels.
Peggy received her A.B., cum laude, in East Asian Studies from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York; juris doctorate degree with honors from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College, in Portland, Oregon; M.A. in spiritual psychology from the University of Santa Monica in Santa Monica, California; and a B.A. and M.A. in Illumination Sciences from the Jwalan Muktikai School for Illumination Sciences in Whitefish, Montana. She has also completed post-graduate work in Education Management from Harvard University.
