How Faith Changed the Way I Lead

I discovered faith during my MBA at an American university. A neighbor invited me to a small group — I went for the free food, honestly. But what I found was a community that genuinely cared about each other.

When I returned to Shanghai and joined a startup, I was thrown into a leadership role. The default mode in Chinese tech is: move fast, push hard, results above everything. And I was good at that.

But something had shifted in me. I started leading differently — not softer, but deeper. I invested in my team members as people, not just resources. I was honest about my own limitations instead of pretending to have all the answers.

My colleagues noticed. 'Why are you different?' they'd ask. And that opened doors for real conversations — about purpose, about meaning, about what we're actually living for.

The hardest part was when my boss asked me to inflate user metrics for an investor meeting. My old self would have done it without thinking. Instead, I pushed back — gently, with alternative ways to present our genuine growth. It cost me political capital. But my team saw it. And their trust in me deepened.

Three years in, I've built a team culture that's remarkably different from the industry standard. People stay longer. They're more creative. They support each other. I can't claim credit for all of it, but I know that the values I learned in that small group in America are at the root.

If you're a returnee wondering whether your faith matters in the workplace — it does. Not as a megaphone, but as a foundation.