Interview with Zeng Minhui, Google's introverted leader: Grievances will regurgitate, and if you don't wronged yourself, you can build a diversified and inclusive team

Are you an introvert? Have you ever imagined that an introvert could successfully lead people from different countries and cultural backgrounds in a multinational corporation?

An introvert, Mandy Tseng, with over 15 years of digital marketing experience, is now the General Manager of Google's Export Advisory Team in Asia Pacific, helping clients expand their international business.

After work, he is keen on yoga, willing to understand himself and explore the world through various challenges and exercises in life, and hopes to share his own experience and give people who also want to live themselves freely and achieve their ideal life.

Image courtesy of Tsang Min-wai Mandy Tseng , |

"Because I have a great curiosity about the world, it's more like my career plan than career planning." At the beginning of the interview, Mandy makes a precise note of her career development in one sentence.

In her 20s, when she first entered the workplace, she asked herself to grasp the learning opportunities of different jobs, so as to accumulate abundant experience and qualifications.

At the same time, she made a 20-year plan for herself, through specializing in a rapidly developing field, to understand herself and the social environment, with maximum efforts and persistence, to see how far she can go, how high to stand, and to clarify the maximum contribution she can make to society.

To continue to move towards the goal, you must have the driving force from the heart. Mandy visualizes the ideal future through "vision imagining", such as doing a good and passionate job at an age when he knows his destiny, and living a meaningful and productive life every day.

(Guess what you're looking like: How many years does it take to make the "right" decision for your career?) ）

Challenge career turning points and transform your career from the inside out

In the ten years of Google's struggle, Mandy spent the first five years in Taiwan leading business partners until early 2017, when she had an opportunity to expand the scope of her role to lead teams in Greater China and South Korea, which made her struggle at that time.

"In fact, when I was doing a good job, the team atmosphere was very good, the plans for the next year were all planned, and I felt that there were still many things I wanted to continue to complete, and new job opportunities knocked on the door."

Standing between a visible future and an unknown future, not sure if you're up to the task of traveling frequently, with a team absent, and completely cross-cutting? It was not an easy choice for her.

Until I remembered my original intention to enter Google - I hope to learn and contact different fields and work content in this giant of the online world; Even though it was foreseeable that there would be several times the hard work, she felt that she should give herself a chance to grow and try.

At that moment, she bravely stood at the turning point of her career.

For her, it was also an important challenge in her life, not only to lead a team that was larger than ever, but also to have members in 5 different cities. In order to achieve a significant increase and good balance between work efficiency and daily life, Mandy admits that he has put a lot of effort into making corresponding adjustments.

Image courtesy of Tsang Min-wai Mandy Tseng , |

From organizational leadership to personal discipline, be serious about the present and create infinite possibilities

First of all, in the team management, she constantly thinks about how to quickly understand the status of each person and where they need assistance in each short video conference, and improve the communication efficiency of members in different regions, solve problems together, and achieve the expected goals.

On the other hand, new positions travel more frequently, so there must be more planning and discipline in the management of time and energy, including detailed adjustments to daily living habits, such as when to drink water, go to the bathroom, or use any free time (car, waiting for planes) to schedule training or reply to letters, all with clear priorities.

However, Mandy believes that people must be serious about the present moment and take care of themselves, so that everything can go long.

In her private time, she exercises through yoga, jogging, and retraining classes, and has a healthy physical and mental state, and her life is more balanced, which can also be reflected in her work, making it easier for her to create positive results whether she faces challenges, solves problems, leads teams, and stimulates creativity.

Most importantly, through the practice and adjustment from the inside out in 2017 to 2020, Mandy will be able to deal with more complex tasks and challenges even if he faces countries that are 2 to 3 times larger and covers more different time zones after 2021, and can quickly find the best work rhythm and be more confident about how to lead the team to achieve the mission.

"I'm happy to accept this challenge myself!" Speaking of this, Mandy's eyes shone brightly, and anyone present could detect her mature and confident aura.

During the past two years of the epidemic, Mandy has copied the successful mentality she has cultivated at work into her private life attempts, such as learning NLP, obtaining scuba diving licenses, and even contacting traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and her rich personal experience has also opened up more possibilities for her life.

(Extended reading: "When everyone can be what they are, you can also play a real role" to career fans: please find the meaning of work for you)

Image courtesy of Tsang Min-wai Mandy Tseng , |

3 ways to start with yourself and build a DEI environment

In the past 20 years of work experience, due to the large number of people I need to contact at work, I will inevitably encounter social situations that I must participate in, "however, this is often difficult for me to integrate with the relatively introverted." 」 Mandy said thoughtfully.

Although she must participate and inevitably need to chat and talk, she will always take into account her feelings, observe more, learn more, and let herself find a meaningful place in this social activity. If it is an occasion that is not necessary to attend, for example, if you need to drink a lot of wine, the time is too late, you will still choose to decline.

As a woman, Mandy has also had the experience of being "labeled" in the workplace, "being "reminded by supervisors or colleagues that they don't need to be so hard", "having a baby quickly will not work so hard", "if the amount of alcohol is not good, you can't do a good business job"...

Image courtesy of Tsang Min-wai Mandy Tseng , |

Society's stereotypes of women in the workplace still exist, and even a senior worker like her will still feel out of place, for which Mandy provides three Tips for everyone's reference:

• Find the right person to ask the right thing: Especially for newcomers, the way to quickly integrate into the environment is to understand the situation as soon as possible, more contact, more inquiry, and learning with a humble mind will definitely help.

• You can meet the needs of the environment, but don't over-compromise or make yourself feel wronged: grievances will eventually eat themselves back, making nothing last, and if you can't work happily, then it will be more difficult to get a sense of accomplishment.

• If you encounter a situation that is labeled or that you don't approve of, use it as a mirror: just understand why the other person says it, and don't let it affect you. Everyone has their own opinions, which may be well-intentioned or not, but in the end only they can decide what to accept and which is not suitable for them.

The above several coping methods have been tried, and if you still find that this work content or environment is not suitable for you, Mandy will suggest:

1. Work from a different mindset or perspective

2. Try different possibilities (e.g. internal task task conversions)

Finally, if it is found that it is a problem of the environment that he cannot solve, and more importantly, if it is a persistent unhappiness, Mandy will think about the long-term future (back to the original intention of career planning).

Image courtesy of Tsang Min-wai Mandy Tseng , |

If the job doesn't end up reaching her remote goals, she thinks positively and prepares for the next step (changing jobs or companies), because over-compromise is definitely not a long-term solution.

Talking about building a diverse and inclusive environment, Mandy shared that in order to encourage the career development of female work partners, he served as the chairman of the Taiwan Women@Google, organized activities within the company, and took the initiative to be a career and career coach for those in need.

At the same time, Mandy also continues to support group exchanges for women's career development in places outside the workplace, plans and counsels relevant activities for college students, and does his best to establish more channels for learning and communication, and to share and motivate other female workers through his own experience.

Define what "good work" means, not for others, only for yourself

Many people will envy Mandy for finding a soul mate company, but she believes that there is no perfect company in the world, just like there is no perfect person, everyone is unique, and so is the company, so she cares more about the "fit" between herself and the company.

Image courtesy of Tsang Min-wai Mandy Tseng , |

"For me, a sense of accomplishment is the biggest driver. The reason I decided to leave is usually because my sense of accomplishment has become lower."

When a job gives Mandy feedback (e.g., achievements, salary, learning, self-worth realization) is disproportionate to the time she spends, she considers moving to the next place.

"On the contrary, if it is a job that everyone thinks is good, and you feel that you do not have enough fulfillment, it may be a matter of suitability." 」

Mandy believes that ideas change as they grow and the environment evolves, so she believes that everyone can find a way to achieve fulfillment in the workplace culture through hard work. In the end, if you really can't change it, it's not too late to choose to leave.

To find a working environment and corporate culture that makes you happy, you also need to rely on yourself. For example, in the definition of "good work", a person who expects a stable job and a person who likes to be challenging, fast, and changeable have completely different standards in their minds.

"In my own experience, a job that is too stable, even if I have good job benefits or salary, and even if I can retire, it will make me lose motivation and I will not have a sense of achievement because of insufficient challenges and too little learning." 」

(Same scene plus: Changing jobs is a tiring thing: how to plan for long-term career development? ）

Image courtesy of Tsang Min-wai Mandy Tseng , |

After watching Mandy's sharing, do you feel that you have benefited a lot?

Many people are often not very confident in themselves because of their introverted qualities, but from Mandy's life story, we see the potential of introverts.

Even in a multinational company such as Google, as long as we find our own successful methods from repeated exercises, consciously maintain a good physical and mental state, when new opportunities come knocking on the door, we can also pluck up the courage to face new life challenges.