How To Master Leadership And Innovation With Rebecca Yeung

influencer in the AI and logistics space . She frequently shares insights on AI and innovation at high-profile conferences like Reuters , Momentum , Fortune , CES , HBS , MIT , TechCrunch , Mobility and World50 .

In March 2024 , Rebecca was recognized by Router's event as one of the top 20 trailblazing women in enterprise AI , and in 2023 , she was recognized as one of the 19 Dress for Success worldwide honorees for driving positive social and economic changes .

Rebecca joined two public boards in 2023 , the Royal Caribbean Group and Columbus McKinnon , bringing to both her technology and innovation expertise and strategic perspective . She's also the author of what Rule ?

Think Differently About Success and Cultivate a Happy Life , a book that inspires readers to challenge the status quo , dive deep , think differently and chart their unique path to success . Rebecca , I'm so glad you're here . Thanks for being on the show .

I spent my six years like really just me , wandering like the nature , didn't have any early education and I also had a like a diagnosed dyslexia .

So when I started school , finally , like at age of seven , moved to shanghai with my parents , I had the most challenging time and it was very difficult in terms of fitting in the school , like even getting good grades , but I I guess all of that I mean was miserable , like literally , was a failure .

And I I think I got my first inspiration in life is my mother at the age of 13 . Like when I was 13 , my mother put me aside was , like you know , in life , regardless how low you go , you actually have a choice . You can choose to do nothing and be miserable , or , if you did not like to be miserable , you fight for a different outcome .

So that was my first life lesson and since then I have been fighting and I started to really have an unconventional past . I got very fascinated by English as a language .

Being dyslexic did not stop me from learning everything about English , and so I went to Fudan University , which is an elite college , in the early 90s to learn English , which was a time most Chinese people did not really speak English , and that opened up a different world for me , because that was a

period when foreign companies all wanted to enter into the Chinese market . So guess what is the biggest asset ? English . And additionally it kind of opened the world for me . So I literally thought like I wanted to realize my American dream . So in 96 , I packed up my belonging two suitcase with $100 in my pocket and a scholarship for MBA program .

I flew half of the globe to the US . I was the only child , terrified my parents , but they let me go and the rest was history . And I actually had an internship at FedEx . So in 98 , I started as a summer intern .

Little did I know that 26 years later I sit as a senior executive and in charge of innovation in the AI and robotics automation space , and so that's a little bit of

life journey , but it's kind of really fascinating to think about all the kind of improbable paths to success . I mean it's almost like a Chinese Cinderella story , like going from like literally no tech abject poverty to today as the leading expert in AI and robotics .

You know dyslexia , the environment that you grew up in I mean no electricity and running water , these things that so many people just take for granted and yet you had a mom who believed in you , had parents who invested in you and who were willing to even put you on a plane to a place they'd never been , so that you could pursue your dream .

That is that is remarkable to me .

And that's the reason I kind of like just started to think about what are the like how I lead my life , like how my career and personal life kind of evolve over the time , and that's kind of lead me to write a book of key learnings , because I feel extremely fortunate .

I feel the opportunities , the people I met and the kind of the different ways that all the different factors contributed to today's success . So I put them in the book to inspire the readers to really challenge the status quo , to really live to their full potential and not like life is .

To me , life is too short to live under other people's rules , and so I wrote the book like what rules ?

And to really have a systematic way of thinking about who you are , what are your passions , what are your strengths , what kind of opportunities like you like to pursue and how to pursue those and how to push your limits , how to really integrate work and life . I mean , to me it's not about just a balance .

It's a choice , right and , in the end , how to really live for a happy life . And so I kind of like really reflected back on my unconventional , like the kind of careers and to the success and trying to pay it forward to inspire others to chart their unique path to success .

what you've learned and sharing so openly from that . And I could feel , as I was reading it , your passion for other people to understand these things , your passion for them to understand . Hey , you don't have to be trapped by the way you have been thinking or the environment you have been in . You can choose to think differently about this .

That's what I was feeling as I was reading . It Was that the heart that you were writing this with .

The book is written with a whole sense of love and I wanted other people to do well . I want people to feel like , no matter like where you are in your life , you can chart your path based on your passion . It's not defined by title . It's not defined by money . It's not defined by social status . How to like break through a stage of being stuck .

Feeling stuck is really be truthful to yourself . So have the genuine dialogue and just look into like in our life , like do we live a life for someone else and so , or do we always listen to other people's critic ?

Like , people tend to have a negative bias If people tell you , william , you should do better this way and you will be like spending all the time like just focusing on the weaknesses . And in my life , I kind of , like at this age , start to realize I did it based on my passion . I mean , I do it based on my passion .

I mean I , I do everything based on my passion . I do everything based um like , I try to leverage my strengths . I try to like get out of those kind of situation where I was disadvantaged by just being genuinely myself . So so you're absolutely right .

When I write this book , I want to tell the readers that just you can be genuinely you and leverage your strengths , pursue the opportunities that's authentic , that's to you , and don't worry about like how other people are talking about you , because the conventional kind of rules etc . Sometimes can be the biggest constraints that you don't even realize .

That's why I wrote in a way to encourage the readers to feel comfortable that you don't have to be that perfect person , you don't have to follow everybody else's rules and you can literally just be yourself and think differently , challenge the conventional rules and then live a happy and fulfilling life . I'm so glad that's your takeaway .

not something that you anticipated . This is not something that you anticipated , this is not something that you saw coming , and yet it is such an illustration of this idea of thinking differently , of not allowing other people's thoughts or their opinions to be the constraints on your life . What was that like that journey ? Was it easy ? Was it smooth ?

Was it just up and to the right ? I mean , I think there are people who are thinking how do you get from an intern to that level of leadership in such a relatively short time ?

No , I mean my life . I mean first of all my 26 years . I would say it dim up into two chapters , like from a personal level , because I was literally flat for the first 11 years . I did not become a person managing a team until 2010 . So that's like 11 , 12 years into me into FedEx and now I'm almost 40 years old .

By that time , by conventional wisdom you would think that person is unsuccessful in career , right , and the reason I was flat is because I actually met my husband early on at FedEx and I became a mother of two beautiful children early on at FedEx . And I became a mother of two beautiful children and I was thinking about that .

For me , family is ultra important and I can always pick up my career anytime , but I cannot reverse my kid's age .

It's because for bamboo to grow they spend like three , four years , didn't grow much Like they were growing roots . So I was growing my deep roots by learning the business , but at the same time I focus a lot on being the best mother for my children .

So I did not really take on people manager job until my kids are pretty independent and my husband is helping . So that's why my first chapter was flat . And then because I build up all the knowledge about business , about operations , about marketing , about customer service , international regulations , like technology , et cetera , I had such a strong base coming in .

And then my next chapter , the kind of since 2010 , was like really aligned , like going up , because I quickly , once I became a manager , I quickly become a director within six months and then four and a half years later I became a vice president and then also , like almost five , six years later , I become senior executives in charge of innovation .

So what I actually experience is most unconventional because for a lot of women I think their struggle is work-life balance and to me it's . Different seasons of life have different focus . So for the season when my children were little , I literally wanted to spend it all the time . So now , today , I have a beautiful family .

Where I've been as a senior executive , I have a wonderful family and I'm very proud of my kids . We're super close and I think it was an early investment of time . But that's why my first chapter at FedEx , I was like I spent , I focused a lot on family . And the next chapter , second half , like I focused a lot on careers .

The next chapter , Second half , I focus a lot on careers and it's just I mean , that's what I sort of it's also thinking differently , right , Thinking differently about , and the choice I make here is what I can afford to lose , what I cannot afford to lose .

I don't know how that happened , I didn't mean for that , but here it is . You chose that . That was an intentional prioritization and I love the language you use there of seasons . You know that there are different seasons of life Now .

You know my older one's about to graduate college and my younger one's about to graduate high school and it's a different season . You know I would not be doing what I'm doing now the way I'm doing it when they were in preschool . It was a different season . It required different things of me .

When they were infants , when they were toddlers , we had to prioritize different things . I love that you talk about that and I love that you talk about how that season required that and that you're enjoying the fruit from that season now in your relationship with your kids .

But it didn't negatively impact the trajectory of your career because that was a different season , right

.

So my strengths is the intellectual curiosity , and even I told my kids these days in college I think a college is a way to actually learn how to learn , because guess what , once you graduate college , if I rewind back like what I learned in college , I'm not sure like how relevant it is to today , but even my work I went from an English major to be the

expert in AI and robotics , right , and it's that strength carries me to continuously learn , continuously evolve .

And so when we talk about different seasons , even when I focus on being the best mother , it doesn't stop me from spending a lot of free time , just absorb the knowledge about business , about technology , learn new things every day and so that , as a bamboo like you , kind of like , just continuously accumulate the kind of experience , knowledge , thinking , and you

learn from everybody , like around you , whether it does not matter their rank , but looking at what they do best . So those are the things I think I wrote in the book , which is the strength rule . When you focus on your strengths and continuously to learn , you all of a sudden just differentiate versus always like working on the weakness right .

So I kind of draw a line as a kind of if we think about the human's capability as average , if you have strength , most likely you're above the average , and if you have weakness , most likely you're below .

If you spend the same amount of time and energy to move them up the same kind of scale , if you moved from strengths you might catch to be the average , but if you actually focusing on elevate your strengths , you are something differentiated and these are all the different ways of thinking how we can really just build up our strengths in life and that differentiate

us from others .

Because that is a choice Again , the choice that you and I get to make and can make every single day Will we be the most teachable person in the room ? Who can we learn from today ? And , like you said , rank is irrelevant . You can learn from anybody if you have that posture .

We can constantly evolve , like evolve our perspectives , evolve our identity , evolve our priorities and in that way we truly integrate a kind of like the career we have with the life we have that's so well said .

How are you continuing to level up in your leadership ? How are you continuing to develop the skills that your team and the organizations you serve are going to need you to have in the coming years ?

The simplest definition and that's because if the leader thinks he or she is the most , is the smartest person , then by default you constrain that kind of ideas and input . Other people would not feel the psychological safety to share with you their knowledge and so you think about the collective genius . Is you bring together the best and the ideas from everywhere .

I always tell my team the best ideas win , not the best , not the highest title that wins . So that philosophy is critical for me to constantly encourage team members to share their ideas , their wisdom , so we could have win on the collective genius versus individual experience . So that's one and a second .

As a leader is constantly learn and make myself better , even like the experience I had with , I mean , the teenagers like I . My kids are not older , but during teenager days it's a very difficult challenge for any parents because the data I start to really understand . The more you tell them , the the less they would do .

So it's almost like to the degree you need to tell them the opposite . Then they would do exactly what you do , right .

But if you bring them out , but if you listen , you start to understand . The kids grow up in today's world because it's digitally connected . It's very different than the time we grew up , so that taught me to listen more rather than tell them more .

So , as a leader , if you take what we learned from the kind of dealing with teenagers to gain their respect , to making sure they do things , it's a very important lesson that you're not telling your team what to do , but rather you listen and empower them and encourage them to do things . When you win their heart , you have the best outcome from the team .

So those are the ones like key leadership lessons , which , again , is integration of what I learned between my personal and professional life and what I learned from professional . I can also like help to coach my kids on what to do . I mean even like we are the leader inside our family . Right , we all want our kids to be their best .

But I also learned from workers don't be the helicopter parents , because the more you control , the less they feel the freedom to do things , so they don't make their own decisions .

Same as at work if you're the one to give command all the time , literally you take away the kind of discretionary effort from the team members because it was like , whatever you want to do , we will just get it done Right .

So instead , if you you inspire them to do their best , they give the , you get the best outcome , and the two are intermingled with each other .

So being a better like the , the , the one like dealing with my teenager daughters made me a better leader at work , so I'm better listening and watching how team members like grow by empowering them , also make me at home , avoid being a helicopter parents that's so good .

I said , instead of being the answer person that you know , they always come to you with a question what do you think about this , what should I do here , what about this ? And you always give the answer . That's the temptation and there's a little bit of ego that gets scratched there when it's like oh yeah , I know the answer and I'll give you the answer .

I said , instead of that ask them what do you think ? What do you think ? Spin it around , help them learn to get on the solution side of the problem . You know where I learned that . Help them learn to get on the solution side of the problem . You know where I learned that With my kids , just like you're describing .

Yeah , this idea of helping them to think Don't just be the answer , don't be the oracle at Delphi that's just always giving out the answer no , no , no , no , no .

Hey , if you haven't read this , check this one out .

All of us want to be successful and that's what truly like how you define success . You have to have a certain level of financial independence , so that book teaches a lot about how a regular person can build the financial independence and I also have one , adam Grant , I think .

it's the name kind of like , like , skip me , I think it's think think again think again exactly that's a great book yeah , so think again . Essentialism and psychology money I would just think it's my three top books I love that .

I'm going to challenge everyone listening to pick up a copy of your book . We're going to have a link to that in the show notes . If people want to stay connected to you and I'm sure they will and continue to learn from you , what is the best way for them to do that ?

Second , if you don't have a copy of my newest book , catalytic Leadership , I'd love to put a copy in your hands . If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom , you can get a copy for free . Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out . My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible .

This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space , in business , government , nonprofits , education and the local church . You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about .

And if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader , I'd be honored to help you . Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me . You Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me . Stay tuned for our next episode next week . Until then , as always , leaders choose to be catalytic .