Leadership the Thai Way – Part 3 : Accept Them As They Are

“Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who wants you in theirs; the ones who ACCEPT you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile & who love you no matter what.”

Unknown Author

In my previous articles on this series, I wrote about the first 2 principles in Thai leadership: buy their hearts and love them like your own. Now comes the hardest part; you’ve got to accept them the way they are, warts and all.

Like in a big family, each children will be unique in their own way. As a parent of this big family, you have to learn to accept them completely and love them equally however imperfections they may have. This is hard to do, I realize. But it’s the way to go. I’m not saying just to accept and do nothing either.

In Western style management, each employee is expected to perform and be rewarded accordingly depending how you achieve your key performance indicator (KPIs). My suggestion, is this: instead of making their KPIs to perform, why not turn it around and make it YOUR KPI to give them the needed support and encouragement in order for them to succeed. The key here is not so much to work on their weaknesses but rather to identify their natural strengths instead and putting them to the best use for the organization. According to John C. Maxwell’s, “The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork”, this is called the “Law of The Niche”. What Dr. Maxwell was describing was, of course, find the talent in the individual and put him to work accordingly. Or, ‘put the right man on the right job’, instead of spending too much time improving our weaknesses and too little time focusing on strengths. Many people are now recognizing this resulting in current popularity of the “Strength Finder” programs available on the market.

As a leader, this is probably the hardest thing to do because we all love heroes. But remember that not everyone is a hero! So accept them for what they are and make it your job to find their strengths and take advantage of them instead of focusing on their short-comings.

So what’s next? Please stay-tuned.