The Visibility Mindset

9Becoming an Effective Leader and Manager

Bernice Chao

If you want to win in the 21st century, you have to empower others, making sure other people are better than you. Then you will be successful.

—Jack Ma, Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

In a conversation with Senna Bayasgalan, the director of marketing at Cordia, I learned about a concept that she learned in Korea called “nunchi ,” which is the subtle art and ability to listen and gauge other people's moods. It can be described as emotional intelligence. Senna realized that this was seriously lacking in the American workplace. She took it upon herself to use this concept in her own interactions with her team. As an example, when she worked in America, she was hired to create a new marketing team and had to expand the team. She noticed that a current team member was having a very adverse reaction to a new hire, so she took her to lunch and asked her how she was feeling about the new hire. The team member shared that she was insecure because she wasn't as educated as the new hire and felt her job was at risk. This conversation helped Senna understand where this employee was coming from. Senna shared her own personal story about feeling insecure about coming into a career that wasn't from her educational background. Having that moment of shared vulnerability made the team member feel like they had a trusted ...