My South Asian Working Experience

Priya is one of our coaches who you can find on our Coaching & Mentoring page.

Everyone has a different experience going into the workplace and I’ve found from my own experience and from coaching South Asian clients that there are some collective themes that we can relate to.  

In this blog, I discuss imposter syndrome and perfectionism that can stop us from progressing if we let them!  Once we identify whether these themes impact us in the workplace, it’s important to find strategies that can help us move past them and thrive.  

Imposter Syndrome

In my Banking career, there were many times when I have been the only woman or person of colour in a meeting.  At first, I felt unable to raise questions or bring up my own point of view, even wondering what I was doing in the room in the first place.  This is imposter syndrome and many people suffer from it at one time or another, especially in new roles. 

If you’ve felt like this, here are a few tips: 

• Shift your focus, instead of looking at yourself, think about the people you are serving in your role, and the benefits you are bringing.  Remember that we need diverse viewpoints at every level of an organisation

• Build up your list of experience, it helps to have this written down so you can refer back to it and remind yourself of how qualified you are

• Work on building a growth mindset where you are curious about learning and not afraid to make mistakes, knowing that it’s all part of the process

Perfectionism

In interviews, I would often hear people cite that their weakness was  ‘perfectionism’ meaning that they aim to get everything perfect and have high expectations of themselves (still trying to look good in the interview!).  But in reality, perfectionism is a true weakness and a sign of a fixed mindset. 

It’s common in ethnic minority families for parents to expect a lot from children because naturally they want them to do well and have a stronger sense of security than when their grandparents or parents immigrated to this country.  

As a result, we are generally praised for being high achievers in a learning environment but this may not be helpful in the workplace because it breeds perfectionism and there are few issues with that.  Firstly, when we want to get everything right, we may be scared of failure and trying new things, worrying that we may not succeed in them.  This can limit our experience or prevent us from stepping up. 

If this is something that you recognise in yourself I want you to develop your growth mindset, and that means persevering in your goals even if you fail at first, learning from mistakes and moving forward.  

Here are a few tips to help you: 

1. Embrace challenges: Seek out opportunities to challenge yourself and step outside of your comfort zone. Embracing challenges allows you to develop new skills, expand your knowledge, and build resilience. 

2. Adopt a positive attitude towards learning: Approach learning with a sense of curiosity and a willingness to acquire new knowledge and skills. Emphasise the process of learning rather than solely focusing on the end result. 

3. Keep asking for feedback and use it to help you refine your skills: Embrace constructive criticism as an opportunity to learn and improve.  At work, you may obtain regular feedback through 121s with your manager and colleagues.  E.g. If you’ve done a presentation and your manager or a colleague is there, ask them specific questions.  What do you want to learn to make it better for next time? 

If you keep doing this regularly you will be constantly improving. 

Priya is a qualified coach who typically works with women seeking confidence in their roles and in creating career paths towards leadership.  She coaches on a range of topics to enable her clients to feel empowered in their careers whilst having a balanced home life.