Bamboo Ceiling for Asian Leaders Remains Intact

Asian leaders have made great strides in recent years, developing important traits like courage, curiosity, trust, and strategic thinking. However, despite this progress, Asian representation in top leadership has been decreasing since 2017.

This is according to the Center for Creative Leadership's (CCL) Global Asian Leader: From Asia for the world report. The authors discovered that Asians make up a measly 4% of executive teams in US-headquartered companies — a decline from 8% in 2017.

The study surveyed 200 companies and found that Europe-headquartered firms have only 3% Asian representation in their executive teams. This number is higher — but not by much — for the top 500 firms.

"Talent in Asia has developed tremendously across multiple leadership attributes over the last decade — however, our latest research reveals an alarming trend over the last few years of decreasing representation of Asian leaders in top multi-national teams. There has never been a more important time to break the bamboo ceiling and enable Global Asian Leadership in order to better equip organizations to overcome the massive regional and global challenges we face," Elisa Mallis, managing director and vice president of APAC, CCL, said.

The bamboo ceiling is a term used to describe the challenges that Asian leaders face in reaching the top echelons of their companies. While there are many talented and ambitious Asian leaders, they often face unique hurdles in achieving their goals.

These challenges include a lack of mentors and role models, unconscious bias, and cultural barriers. And despite Asia's growth and importance in the global economy, these challenges persist.

Companies with a non-native CEO are likelier to have a higher percentage of Asians in their executive teams. The CCL study found that when the CEO was non-native, the percentage of Asians in executive leadership teams almost doubled.

This is likely because non-native leaders are more likely to champion diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives, especially in leadership teams. The study also points out that already diverse companies are more likely to hire a non-native CEO, so it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation.

IT-based companies seem to be ahead of the curve when it comes to hiring non-native leaders. This is likely because many Asian countries are seen as leaders in technology and engineering. This implies that the bamboo ceiling remains for other sectors.

To help companies scale up their Asian leader development initiatives, the CCL report outlines a five-step action plan. This includes taking stock of leadership inventory in the region, evaluating key capabilities and leadership gaps, removing challenges that Asian leaders face, and aligning the role of Asia in the company's global strategy. It is also essential for companies to create an enabling environment for Asian leaders to succeed and sustain these efforts over time.