We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah-SoonLing below.
Sarah-SoonLing, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
My work is about fostering belonging in workplaces and schools, which means I often find myself confronted with situations where the opposite might be happening. People share stories of times they have not been included, about unhealthy, untrusting relationships at work, or about their experiences with overt acts of prejudice and discrimination. And my book “Exclusion and the Chinese American Story” literally has the word “exclusion” in the title. In the face of all that, sometimes people are surprised when I say that I’m committedly optimistic about humanity. They ask me how I keep away hopelessness and despair.
The thing is, exclusion is never the whole story. Learning from history, for example: Whenever you encounter stories of oppression you will find stories of people who still made space for love and joy and community, stories of people who spoke up for what was right, and stories of people who resisted in big and small ways.
Knowing that there have always been stories of resistance and compassion helps me look out for those same stories today. There are many problems we face as a society — and there are many people, of all different backgrounds, ages, and experiences, working individually and collectively to address problems they care about. This doesn’t minimize the problems, but it helps minimize the despair. I have to believe that the world can be a place where all people feel like they belong. Otherwise, why would I do what I do? And I have plenty of examples around me of people who believe and take action towards the same thing. This keeps my optimism boundless.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I started my career as a teacher, and I learned very quickly that my students did better when they felt they had trusting relationships with me and with each other, they could be themselves, and their work was relevant and meaningful. As my work and research focused more on supporting adults, I quickly realized that we need much the same. We do better when we trust our colleagues and our supervisors, when we feel like we can be ourselves at work, and when we care about the work that we are doing. So that’s what I do — I support people in creating environments where people can thrive. I do that through workshops, talks, leadership coaching, and writing. You can get a sense of my approach to workplace culture through my LinkedIn Learning course “Develop Interpersonal Skills for Inclusive Workplaces.” https://www.linkedin.com/learning-login/share?forceAccount=false&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Flearning%2Fdevelop-interpersonal-skills-for-inclusive-workplaces%3Ftrk%3Dshare_ent_url%26shareId%3Dt6f9%252BPMwQzi6oTzClSXbfQ%253D%253D’
I have a particular focus on Asian American and API issues. My book “Exclusion and the Chinese American Story” (out March 26th from Penguin Random House https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709661/exclusion-and-the-chinese-american-story-by-sarah-soonling-blackburn/) is for middle grades readers but accessible to a broader audience. It shows how storytelling and understanding the past can help us create greater inclusion and belonging today. I also do a lot of work with companies about supporting Asian, Asian American, and API employees. Every May, for example, I’m busy doing talks and workshops for AAPI Heritage Month, but I love getting to promote and support these topics throughout the year. Some of my favorite work is partnering with Asian American and API Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to provide programming both for their groups and for the broader companies in which they work. I also have a LinkedIn Learning course on this topic, “Understanding and Supporting Asian Employees.” https://www.linkedin.com/learning-login/share?account=2154586&forceAccount=false&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Flearning%2Funderstanding-and-supporting-asian-employees%3Ftrk%3Dshare_ent_url%26shareId%3Dw6urK43iSw%252BQ%252B%252Blg9fHePw%253D%253D
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Be curious about everything
I have honed specialties and areas of expertise over the years, but I caution people — especially people who are early in their journey — from specializing so much that they stop learning or being interested in anything else. There have been so many times in my career that having a broad range of interests has served me well. You never know how an idea from a seemingly totally different field might spark your creativity, cause you to see new solutions, or lead you to expanded opportunities. And I don’t just mean academic learning! Practice asking yourself questions about everything you encounter — “Why are these two trees in my yard flowering at different times?” “How is that obscure baseball statistic calculated anyway?” “Whatever happened to toys in cereal boxes?” — and then seek out the answers. Like a muscle, our curiosity will atrophy if we don’t exercise it. But if we practice and attend to our curiosity, our curiosity and our sense of wonder only grows.
2. People > Outcomes > Process
Some leaders care a lot about what we get done. Some leaders care about how we get it done. But I didn’t become a good leader until I learned to care most about the people who are doing all this to begin with. In general, most leaders now agree that people do better when we focus more on strong outcomes and less on dictating the exact steps others take to get to those outcomes. For example, if I were your manager, why should I dictate that you work on your project in the morning or in the afternoon, as long as you’re achieving a strong outcome? The extension of this principle, however, is that we need to put even more care and attention into the people themselves. As a leader, I play a key role in fostering the environment that would allow you to be successful. This includes knowing your interests and goals, your preferences and strengths, the supports you might need, your communication habits, and so on. When we prioritize processes, we don’t necessarily achieve good outcomes, and we probably aren’t adequately uplifting the people around us. But when we prioritize people, it leads to stronger outcomes, which leads to stronger processes. You see?
3. Step away sometimes
When I was in grad school, I had to do a project about the neuroscience of creativity, and I didn’t know what format I wanted to put it in. I felt stuck, so I stopped working on it for a few days. I felt guilty, like I was procrastinating, but I didn’t know what else to do. Then, randomly, the idea came to me. I opened my laptop and the whole project came together in just a couple of hours. Ironically, the project itself focused on the way that our brains often continue to process and mull over ideas, even if they aren’t at the forefront of our conscious mind. Creativity has been described as a flash of lightning, because sometimes it really does feel like ideas hit us all at once, but often these ideas have been percolating for longer than we realize. Taking a step away can create space for this process. And, more simply, it can also help us return to a problem or task with fresh eyes and renewed focus. I’m an avid crossword puzzler too, and I use this all the time! If I find myself really stuck, I put it down for a few hours. Inevitably, when I return to the puzzle, the answer seems obvious. So don’t feel like you’re “unproductive” or “bad” if you need more time. Sometimes, taking that time away can help you be a lot more effective and can end up saving you a lot of time in the long run.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
I love to build strong relationships and connections through my work. Even if I’m just doing a one-off talk for a company, it matters that I get to know the organizers’ goals and needs, so that I can customize something that they find valuable. I take pride in my work, and I value all of the interactions that happen along the way to making a final product. Because of this, I hold myself to a very high standard.
We must know the difference between healthy high standards and unhealthy pressure. I’ve seen people get so overwhelmed by their own self-imposed pressure that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy — they’re so worried about their work not being good enough that the work actually ends up suffering. So, to me, it’s important that I stay attuned to where that line is for me. I don’t want to lower my standards, but I never want my high standards to get in my own way.
When I do find myself tipping towards overwhelm, I like asking myself questions like: “Where is this feeling coming from?” “Am I reacting to a fear about what might happen, but hasn’t actually happened yet, or am I reacting to a present reality?” “Is this actually within my control and, if not, why am I spending so much time worrying about it?” “Will anything bad happen if I take a 20-minute break?”
These questions help me regain a sense of perspective, and I hope they’re helpful for you, too. My big caveat is to be mindful of situations where your overwhelm is coming from harmful interactions or ones where you are being asked to go against your values. In those situations, you probably need to find ways to remove yourself from the situation. But, most of the time, questions like these keep me from getting overwhelmed to begin with, and that’s really the goal. Get to know the things that will tip you from high standards into overwhelm, and create checks for yourself so that you can stay on the healthy side of that line.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sarahsoonling.com
- Instagram: @sarahsoonling
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sarahsoonling/
- Other: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709661/exclusion-and-the-chinese-american-story-by-sarah-soonling-blackburn/
Image Credits
Paul Gandy SASE Kristen Uroda
