Jason P. Yoong

Co-Founder at Level Up | Board Director

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

Early in my career, I used my OOO message to stand out to senior executives, here are the 3 things I included (it works):

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

Being busy is not the same as growing.

And just because you are good at your job, does not mean it is still the right job for your growth.

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

One career risk I see ambitious professionals underestimate is staying too long in a role after they stopped growing.

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

You can be working hard, managing deadlines, and solving problems all day.

Yet your learning curve has flattened.

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

What's the first thing you notice about this photo of Steve Jobs?

I asked my wife that and she mentioned the peculiar lighting.

Then she asked me.

And I replied:

"Checkout that Amazon box in the corner...great product placement :)"

I love discovering little nuggets like that.

And if you have not read it yet, I highly recommend Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

As a leader, your job is not to be the smartest person in every discussion.

It is to help your team unlock their superpowers and make the collective thinking better than any individual.

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

The larger my teams grew, the more I realized that having all the answers was not my job (it wasn't even possible). Instead, my leverage came from asking better questions.

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

As my scope grew, it became critical to lean on the domain expertise of my team.

That meant doing less answering (even though I like to talk) and more listening.

Creating the conditions for people to challenge assumptions, disagree constructively, and bring forward perspectives I had not considered.

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

You do not need to be the most senior person in the room to elevate the discussion.

And you do not need to be confrontational to challenge someone's thinking.

Oftentimes, a valuable contribution is asking the question everyone else is thinking, but is hesitant to ask.

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

Early in my career, my SVP told our team that one of the things he hated most was when everyone fully agreed with his ideas. Why?

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

3/ Prompts deeper discussion and decision quality. You encourage people (with different domain expertise) to identify blind spots and examine tradeoffs.

[Jason P. Yoong @JasonYoong]

@vixsheikh Great point.