REACH Interview Series: Justin Kang

Nov 17, 2017

With today’s edition of the Reach Interview series, we decided to stay local – focusing here in Boston on one of the city’s young rising stars of civic leadership. Justin Kang is the executive director of City Awake, a city innovation lab of the greater Boston and also VP of economic growth at the Boston Chamber of Commerce, where he works on mobilizing, empowering and inspiring the next generation of civic leaders in Boston. Jason shares with us insights about stepping into a very prominent leadership position as a young person – and also about how race and ethnicity play into his leadership story.

The Ultimate Guide to Difficult Conversations Across Cultures

Most of us don’t enjoy having difficult conversations, period — but when they involve someone from our own culture, we can usually rely on some basic shared assumptions about what the interaction should look like.

One of the greatest assets we have as natives of a culture is our ability to quickly “read” another person’s emotions.

I was recently speaking with a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company who was lamenting the fact that so many of his top employees were such bad networkers and schmoozers – incredibly uncomfortable in a room full of people they don’t know.

Ending a small talk conversation can be tricky business. You have other things to do – you need to go back to your desk or have another call to make.

Read More