4 Strategies to be a better leader for AANHPI by removing buffers

Follow the lead from co-authors and environmental leaders June Pen and Cindy Nguyen in their book Cam and Keo Are Not Friends. Who work together to remove barriers in environmental education.

🗣️ In leadership barriers are also known as risks, challenges, obstacles, or pain points. Leaders are tasked with removing barriers to increase access not just for their team, but for their partners, vendors, and end users. 

1. 🛡️ BE A BUFFER Sometimes barrier removal looks like acting as a buffer for talented individual contributors (ICs) who need accommodations or a higher ranking leader to liaison between multiple teams for effective collaboration.
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- Increase bandwidth of ICs by negotiating and navigating conflicts on their behalf
- ICs gain more mental capacity and time to one hundred percent focus on tasks and projects
- Organization benefits from quality work which creates high ROI

2. ☂️ ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT Work with stakeholders and enduser communities who will be most impacted to collect data. This data should inform insights that will minimize or eliminate risks and increase organizational success.

Example: 
​Gen Z and Gen Alpha are quickly maturing as their buying power grows as spenders. In the next five years Gen Z will have generated $36 trillion dollars of income globally according to a Bank Of America Institute. Gen Alpha drives over $5 trillion with an average age of 7 year old consumers. As digital natives they are accustomed to having options in the buying market. Their trend behaviors indicate that they favor purchasing from ethically responsible organizations. This includes organizations that are aware of their environmental carbon and ethical footprint impacting the most vulnerable populations such as indigenous groups who depend on the thriving flora fauna impacted by corporate decisions. Organizational leaders that act proactively to incorporate strategic input from indigenous partnerships are ensuring organizational adaptability and long term profit as the next generations take the market.

3. ✍🏾CREATE POLICIES to proactively ease the transition of new employees into the organization or assist with the upward mobility for professional development that supports diverse experiences and skills. Adopt universal design to increase access to physical and equitable supports that benefit all.

Example:
Universal design of high contrast and large print signage in a building benefits individuals who are have vision impairment disability, aging eyes of senior leadership, and two thirds of the adult American population wears corrective lenses or contacts. 

Institutionalize PTO policies that accommodate lunar calendar events/holidays in addition to the Gregorian calendar used by the federal USA system. This empowers staff to take time off without feeling pressured to adjust cultural and religious holidays that do not align with their community and identity. When employees take time of they are better prepared to return to work energized and motivated due to a healthier work life balance.

4. 🚨 DO NOT fall for the false idea “if you build it they will come” to remove organizational barriers. Instead, proactively partner with primary material experts to identify the needs, accurately assess specific barriers with their root issues, and co-create sustainable solutions to change the status quo of organizational exclusion. Seek out tools to measure allyship efficacy and impact compared to perceived leadership intentions.

Recommended Measurement Criteria
- Organizational engagement ie. all hands meetings participation, ERG attendance, benefits/volunteer enrollment, etc.
- One, three, and five year organizational gains versus loss
- Leadership vision and organizational culture alignment perception and actual impacts

What do you think of these four strategies? Do you have others that should be added? Let me know and comment below!

Resources
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Statistica (2025). Generation Z in the United States - statistics & facts. https://lnkd.in/gk6uQmF8

Fox, Micelle (February 2025). Gen Alpha's obsessions are already driving more than $5 trillion in spending. CNBC.https://lnkd.in/gTVMRAKJ

Bank of America Institute. (March 2025).Consumer Morsel Gen A: a new economic force. Bank of America. https://lnkd.in/gwS4zSbN

Van Dam, Andrew (May 2023). Why are these groups so much more likely to wear glasses?Washington Post. Business. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/05/glasses-eyes-use-rising/