Succeeding as a Foreign Leader in Thailand

As a country that has no colonial history, Thailand has developed a unique culture with its own traditions and values. These values permeate through every aspect of daily living, including work and business. In order to be a successful leader in Thailand, you must be aware of these values, appreciate their meaning, and be considerate of their differences from your own. This is known as cultural empathy. People of a different culture will interpret your actions and words differently from how you may assume. It is up to you to understand how to navigate these nuances in order to communicate and lead effectively.

The best place to learn about these nuances and the strategies to tackle them are from the experts. If you are a foreigner who is about to work in Thailand (or any other overseas environment), I would highly recommend taking a cross-cultural management course, especially if you have never worked in a culture that is unfamiliar to you. These courses will equip you with a more refined sense of cultural empathy, as well as how you should adjust your management practices in order to improve your work-related interactions with people from different cultures.

The next chapter will give you a better understanding of Thai cultural norms that are especially relevant for those in management and leadership roles.

There are five key values in Thai culture that inform virtually every business and work relationship. Understanding them will equip you with the tools to maximise and lead effectively in Thailand.

Relationships

The most important value is relationships: how close you are to other people, how people perceive you, and how connected you feel to them. This is the most important value in Thailand. How you communicate to your staff should adjust if you want to maximise their effort and cooperation.

Say you have a certain KPI that needs to improve. If you simply tell your staff that the KPI numbers have to improve, they may not necessarily feel compelled to work harder on that objective other than the fact that they were asked by a superior to do so.

However, if you said “my boss is going to be unhappy with me if I don’t hit this KPI, out of respect for him, please help me hit these numbers,” Thai workers are far more likely to go the extra mile in order to help you achieve that objective. It may seem simple, but simply phrasing requests recognising the cultural context goes a surprisingly long way.

This idea is especially important when you, as a leader, have to give feedback to your staff. In Thailand, communicating your feedback directly by simply stating “you did a bad job,” or “you had missed a deadline, which resulted in losses” would be the worst way to go about it. Your staff would view that interaction as their boss disliking them, or thinking they were incompetent. Because of the societal importance of preserving good relationships, any direct criticism from a boss would be seen as a severing of that relationship. Rather than treat it as a learning opportunity, they would feel extremely disheartened, possibly even shutting down entirely. I have seen instances of Thai workers resigning after a dressing-down that would seem entirely normal in a Western world.

Thus, when giving feedback, it is important to be accommodating and communicative. Ask them how they feel about their performance,what they were thinking at the time, and how they could have done better. Make a concerted effort to show them that they are still in your good books, and you are merely nudging them to improve – that way, they will continue to be receptive of feedback.

Deference and Respect for Authority

The concept of respect (and sometimes, fear) of authority is very deeply embedded in the Thai way of life. In a typical school in Thailand, it would be considered extremely rude to ask your teacher a question – students are expected to listen, absorb, and remember. Asking a question is seen as challenging the authority of a senior figure, and that is completely unacceptable.

You can see how this might complicate management-staff relations, especially for foreign leaders who might not understand this cultural quirk. I have had Americans working for me who would complain about a Thai staff member who misunderstood tasks and always did the wrong thing. They simply shrugged it off as a language barrier.

In actuality, it was a cultural barrier they had failed to grasp. What had likely happened was that the Thai staffer understood the task, had tried to perform it, but ran into difficulties. However, because he was too deferential and respectful to bother his boss, he decided to do something close to what the boss had asked for. A manager in a European or American company might expect their staff members to take the initiative to ask when they face difficulties in doing their jobs. In Thailand, it simply isn’t common for people to do so. Is it then fair to expect someone who grew up in that culture to act against their instinct just to accommodate a foreign manager? Absolutely not.

What that manager should have done is to accommodate the Thai deference to authority by verbalising that the staffer should not hesitate to ask questions if he or she runs into any difficulties. When you explicitly say “please see me if you get stuck, or run into issues,” they will feel more comfortable approaching you, as you have left the door open.

Another consequence of the Thai respect for authority is that meetings and brainstorming sessions have to be managed differently. Say you are in a meeting where you need input from everybody around the table on how to cut costs or run an aspect of a business more efficiently. If you simply open the discussion to the room how you might in a non-Thai company, I guarantee there will be absolute silence in the room. That is because the youngest and most junior members are reluctant to speak before their seniors. In their estimation, that would be rude.

However, if you start the session off by asking the most junior person in the meeting for their suggestions, and you work your way up to those who are most senior, everybody would feel comfortable enough to contribute. No young person would be seen as having a better idea than an older person – they spoke because they were directly asked to speak.

Compromise

This involves putting aside ego and tempers in order to avoid direct conflict. Thai culture places a premium on being cool-headed, even in potentially aggravating situations. It is seen as a sign of maturity to be able to control your emotions.

If a car crash happens in Thailand, for instance, the first thing both drivers will do is step out of their vehicles and smile at each other. You might ask: how can they be smiling, after getting into a car crash? But that is the reality of Thai culture. Even in situations of extreme duress, their first instinct would be to stay calm, avoid conflict at all cost, and work towards a compromise. That’s why Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles – the people there smile a lot, not just as an expression of cordiality, but as a sign of the ability to remain calm and composed even under pressure.

Foreigners who work in Thailand who do not understand this Thai principle may find themselves alienating their workers. Perhaps due to the stresses of working in a foreign land, I have seen foreign managers get angry and frustrated, even to the point of shouting at their staff.

If you want to get your best out of your team, that is an absolute no-no – especially in Thailand. Hot-tempered foreigners who shout alienate their Thai workers: their reaction would be to distance themselves and, as far as possible, avoid communicating with that foreigner. That hardly sounds like a managerial success.

Therefore,even if staff members are underperforming or, in your view, deserve a dressing down, do not do so. Instead, angle your feedback in a waythat shows them you’re invested in their learning, and you want them to improve. If you do so, you’ll ingratiate yourself with your staff, rather than alienating them. Also, smile more! Your team will appreciate it.

Generosity and Sympathy

As Thailand is a fairly communitarian society, demonstrating that you have compassion, and are willing to extend a helping hand to others, would go a long way in winning the love and trust of your workers. They will be far more willing to run the extra mile for you.

There came a time where I had to lay off about 18 factory workers – an extremely unpleasant task. Within that group, there was a site manager whom everybody else deferred to, as he was older and carried himself with a strong sense of authority. I knew, going into the meeting, that we were in for a fight.

Interestingly, just the month before, I had found out while chatting with him that his wife had a hysterectomy, and it had left a scar. Just as it happened, my wife had had a C-section before, and I knew that she had used Vitamin E oil, which helped the scar heal as quickly as possible.

After that conversation, I bought some Vitamin E oil and gave it to him, telling him it was for his wife. It had only cost me about two pounds, so it came at little cost to me – but I had felt genuinely sorry for his wife and thought that she would appreciate it. I also knew that it was the type of gesture that would build a relationship with a figure of authority in the factory.

Back in the present, after we informed him that he would be laid off, he was furious. At that initial meeting, he wanted more money than the severance package we offered. He had resisted budging from his position, despite several meetings and lengthy negotiations. Eventually, however, he was willing to accept the package. Why? He said he had spoken to his wife, who told him not to pick a fight with me: I was the nice man who gave her the vitamin oil, after all.

Him accepting that package saved our company another potential lawsuit. It goes to show how far generosity and empathy goes in Thailand: just demonstrating a little concern with an inexpensive bottle of vitamin oil paid back dividends a million times over.

All in all, managing in a different cultural context requires sensitivity in adjusting your practices. It may seem like a chore, but practising sensitivity to the way your co-workers think and feel will facilitate your leadership and management of your team in enormous ways.

Putting it all Together

In line with the idea of practising cultural empathy, it definitely does not hurt to pick up Thai customs and integrate them into your communications with your staff. A common one (both in writing, and in person) would be to end sentences with the Thai suffixes that notate deference and respect: “krub” if you are male, and “ka” if you are female. So, an example would be, in response to a query as to whether you have reviewed a piece of work, you can reply “yes I have krub,” even over text or email. I have found this to be an effective way of showing politeness and respect, especially when I detect there is an element of tension from my communications with the recipient. Using these deferential terms come with almost no cost, and can only help. In my daily practice, I use “krub” more than 40 times a day.

Another cultural custom would be to perform a “wai”: where you put your palms together just under your nose and bow slightly. It’s a Thai greeting, and considered a sign of respect: juniors would normally “wai” first, and their seniors would respond in kind. Adopting simple customs like these would hardly make or break any business interaction, but they demonstrate a level of awareness and empathy that would help immensely in ingratiating yourself with the Thai people.

Being a leader in Thailand is much like being a leader anywhere else: you must be aware of the values and mindset of your subordinates. If you put in the time and effort to learn the nuances of Thai culture, the returns you will gain from having better working relationships with your staff will be more than worth it.

1. Practice Cultural Empathy

When faced with difficulty with staff, instead of expecting your staff to fit your needs, ask yourself how you can adjust your management style in order to get the best out of your staff.

2. Show Deference Where Possible

While it may seem humbling, practise putting aside your ego and show deference to everyone you meet. You never know how a simple act of kindness that costs you nothing can pay dividends down the road.

3. Do Not Always Act Like You’re The Boss

If you constantly position yourself as an authority figure, it is expected that your staff may find it difficult to speak to you freely about issues or difficulties they face in their work – things that you may need to know in order to manage effectively. Developing a friendly relationship with your staff encourages them to speak more freely as they feel more at ease around you.