How To Master Leadership And Innovation With Rebecca Yeung

How do you rise above adversity to create a life of purpose, balance, and extraordinary success? In this episode, I sit down with Rebecca Yeung, a senior executive at FedEx and a global thought leader in AI and robotics. Rebecca shares her incredible journey from rural China, battling dyslexia and societal limitations, to becoming a trailblazer in leadership and innovation.

We dive into the pivotal moments that shaped her life, including the lessons from her mother that ignited her fight for a better future, her unconventional career growth at FedEx, and the wisdom she gained by prioritizing family during critical life seasons. Rebecca also reveals actionable strategies from her book, What Rule?, on challenging conventional norms, leveraging strengths, and crafting a fulfilling life.

Whether you’re looking to lead with impact, overcome personal limitations, or find balance between career and family, Rebecca’s story will inspire and equip you to think differently and achieve greatness.


Connect with Rebecca Yeung:

Connect with Rebecca Yeung on LinkedIn to continue learning from her remarkable journey and innovative leadership insights. Her story and strategies will inspire and equip you to think differently and lead boldly.


 Books Mentioned:

• The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel 

Join the New Catalytic Leadership Community

Check out our new online membership site, with new resources by Dr. William Attaway and his team added weekly: https://checkout.catalyticleadership.net/

Chapters

• 0:01 Overcoming Early Adversity
• 3:48 Unlocking Opportunities Through English
• 4:49 From Intern to Executive
• 7:53 Defining Success Beyond Rules
• 13:40 Balancing Family and Career
• 19:42 Elevating Leadership and Learning
• 25:50 Lessons from Parenting to Leadership

Transcript

Dr. William attaway: 0:00

It is such an honor today to have Rebecca Young on the podcast. Rebecca is rising from humble upbringings in rural China, but she has grown to be a top executive at FedEx, driving innovation and business transformation as a leading 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.

Rebecca Yeung: 1:27

It's an honor to be on your show.

Intro/Outro: 1:31

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host. Author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway. Author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Dr. William attaway: 1:48

I would love to begin with you sharing a little bit of your story, Rebecca, with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did you get started?

Rebecca Yeung: 2:06

I think it depends on how much time you have. I think it's definitely a very unique art. I was born in the 70s and in the village in rural China, without running water or electricity, so it was a very humble beginning and my parents were in different cities and they couldn't really take care of me. So I grew up with my aunt. 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.

Rebecca Yeung: 3:40

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.

Rebecca Yeung: 4:22

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.

Dr. William attaway: 5:29

It's just remarkable, and when you first shared your story with me, I was really blown away, because here's somebody who had so many things stacked against them. 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.

Rebecca Yeung: 6:07

Yeah, I mean I sometimes, like I do look back into my life and sort of, if you ask me to rewind five decades, like would I ever imagine where I am today? The short answer is no. That's almost like improbable. 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.

Rebecca Yeung: 6:48

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.

Dr. William attaway: 9:40

You know, when I picked up a copy of the book and I have to tell you that reading this was a joy and that is not always the case you know I love to read and you know reading somewhere between 120 and 130 books a year is my typical rhythm this one, this one, I really enjoy diving into because it's very authentic, it's very real about you, your story, 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.

Rebecca Yeung: 10:37

Yeah, absolutely. And first of all, your words mean so much for me, because writing a book was never easy and trying to it's terrifying experience. Trying to say, like, who am I like, who would even read it, so for you to spend time to read it and to really like it. I appreciate it. It's truly. 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.

Rebecca Yeung: 11:22

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.

Rebecca Yeung: 11:56

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.

Dr. William attaway: 13:19

Oh, absolutely. It came through so loud and clear, you know, not just through the words that you chose though I could tell those were chosen intentionally but through the story that you tell. You know, to go from an intern at FedEx into a senior executive leader, you know, and an expert in the field of AI and robotics, this is 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?

Rebecca Yeung: 14:15

I would consider that definitely not smooth, not even a conventional path. Sometimes people think about career like steady you do a few years, you be a manager, you be a director, you'll be a vice president and senior vice president. It's almost like you imagine a line that actually is more like straight and upward right Straight up right.

Rebecca Yeung: 14:38

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.

Dr. William attaway: 15:39

That's right.

Rebecca Yeung: 15:40

I mean. So that was a choice I made early on was I want to be the best mother to my two beautiful children. So I intentionally didn't really take on the manager's job because I knew it would take up a lot of my time. So what I did was learning a lot about business. So it's like you saw the picture of bamboo on the cover.

Rebecca Yeung: 16:01

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.

Rebecca Yeung: 17:16

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.

Dr. William attaway: 18:22

There's so much wisdom in that, rebecca, and I think the prioritization that you placed on your family, on your children, like that, is so important, and I hope everyone listening understands this is not something that just accidentally happened. You didn't wake up one day and say, oh wow, look, I'm prioritizing my family. 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.

Dr. William attaway: 18:54

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.

Rebecca Yeung: 19:44

Yeah, absolutely. And also to me it's also about continuous learning in life and understand your strengths, 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.

Rebecca Yeung: 21:12

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.

Dr. William attaway: 22:18

I love that. I love that teachable spirit that is so prevalent there. I love that intentional choice to learn and to stay in that learning posture, no matter what environment that you're in. That is a model, I think, for every leader listening. 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.

Rebecca Yeung: 22:49

Yeah, absolutely, and that also makes life more fun, right? I mean, like every day, like when we pick up, I mean I have one mantra I have for myself is every day I need to be better than yesterday. I'm a better version today than yesterday, and that's literally centers around. 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.

Dr. William attaway: 23:24

I love that. So let me let me ask you this. Like you know, your team needs you to lead at a higher level today than they did five years ago, and five years from now, that same thing is going to be true, and this is true in every environment you lead in, whether it's at FedEx or whether it's on one of the boards that you serve. 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?

Rebecca Yeung: 23:57

So I think that's a great question Like that as a leader, that's. The most important question is how do you lead? How do you actually evolve yourself? I would say how I lead is, first of all, be clear. What is a leader for right? So what defines a good leader? A leader is one that brings out the best from others. That's my definition.

Rebecca Yeung: 24:22

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.

Rebecca Yeung: 26:39

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.

Rebecca Yeung: 26:50

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.

Dr. William attaway: 28:04

I love that. I think that's so helpful. You know, one of the. I was talking to a coaching client last week about this and I taught him a question that I think is so helpful for us as leaders when we're trying to help the people that we lead. 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.

Dr. William attaway: 28:29

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.

Rebecca Yeung: 29:04

Help them learn to develop that ability to get on the solution side of a problem. Yeah, it's like instead of giving people the fish, teach them how to fish. Yes, same like on both sides.

Dr. William attaway: 29:14

Exactly Work or at home. Exactly right. You know you're always in a learning posture and that's so evident in our conversations that we've had. It's evident from the book that you've written. Is there a book that has made a big difference in your journey, the one that's influenced you, that you would recommend to the leaders who are listening? Hey, if you haven't read this, check this one out.

Rebecca Yeung: 29:38

I think I have a couple of books with. My favorite One is, I think it's Essentialism. I think I actually have it here.

Dr. William attaway: 29:49

Greg McKeown. Yeah, yeah.

Rebecca Yeung: 29:51

And I also have the I'm sorry, I'm actually looking at my bookcase Like I also have Psychology of Money. It's funny Like it's not necessarily a leadership book, but it talks about the fundamentals, about how you view money, what is the value of money, which I encourage people to actually read it. It's very fascinating, Like when we think about in our life. 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.

Rebecca Yeung: 30:45

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.

Dr. William attaway: 31:03

Well, I have not read the last one, so I'm going to check that one out. Thank you yeah, yeah.

Dr. William attaway: 31:08

Rebecca, this has been a conversation I could continue with for the next hour. I'm so grateful to you for sharing so much of your wisdom, not just today in our conversation, but also through your writing. 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?

Rebecca Yeung: 31:33

I think LinkedIn is the best way. Just follow me on LinkedIn and reach out.

Dr. William attaway: 31:41

Perfect. We will have a link to your LinkedIn profile in the show notes as well. Thank you for your generosity today and sharing so open-handedly from what you've learned so far. And I continue. I can't wait to see what's going to be next in your journey and where you're going to continue to go from here, because I think your best is yet to come.

Rebecca Yeung: 32:02

Yeah, thank you, william, and it's such a pleasure to be on your show. I hope your podcast will continue to be hugely successful and also inspire people to learn great things.

Dr. William attaway: 32:16

Thank you so much. Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. 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.

Dr. William attaway: 32:53

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.

Intro/Outro: 33:37

Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. Want more? Go to catalyticleadershipnet.