Leadership the Thai Way – Part 6 : Putting It All Together

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others,

But far enough ahead to motivate them.”

                                                                               John C. Maxwell

Before I start my last article of this series, let me tell you something about my story. Just very briefly, I promise.

I was born only the child in a Thai family in Bangkok, Thailand. I received my primary and secondary education in Thailand. I left Thailand to pursue my B.S. and M.S. degree in California, USA. Returning to Thailand, I got my first job at Unocal Thailand as a Trainee Engineer. Up to then, I’ve never thought of becoming a leader, ever. But all that changed when I was promoted to a first level supervisory job at the age of 33. As I was enjoying myself doing technical/engineering work, it came as a complete shock to me at that time. The idea of having to get all the work done through others have never occurred to me. I had no idea how to even start doing what was required. I was totally lost! As my first group of subordinates consisted of 3-4 young Thai engineers, I had to rely on my upbringing as a young man living in Thailand and combining with the western cultures & values I picked up while studying in the USA. The rest, as they say, is history! I have recently retired from 35 years in the Oil & Gas Industry and I was asked to do an exit interview to share my experience with the younger generations. I put my thoughts together over a few days. During my exit interview, I talked about my leadership beliefs and practices. A year later, I finally have the opportunity to capture these thoughts in written words, for the first time, in the articles entitled “Leadership the Thai Way – Part 1-5”, published exclusively on LinkedIn. I truly hope you find these ideas relevant and useful.

In my previous articles of this series, I have outlined the following secrets of the Thai-styled leadership practices:

Secret #1 : Buy their hearts

In Thai society, to capture (or ‘buy’ in Thai way of saying) the ‘heart’ of someone working for you came first and foremost, before you do anything or expect anything else in return. This is completely in opposite of Western management belief where performance always come first before any kinds of rewards are even considered. In Thai way of thinking, the boss sits of top of a big family and, as such, are expected to be fair, all-loving, and kind. Just like what parents are expected to be. So, before you can ‘lead’ anyone, you are expected to first ‘qualify’ for the job by winning their hearts and minds. In Thailand we have saying ‘wherever the heart goes, so goes the soul.’

Secret #2 : Love them like your own

After you have successfully ‘bought’ their hearts, next you must show them that you love them like one of your own family members. For Thais, like many in Asian countries, we are used to living in extended family with parents as heads of the family structure, as such, work environment is just an extension of this loving family culture and we all long for that paternal loving relationships where parental love is pure, without conditions, and equally given out to all members of the family. To be able to lead effectively, first you must show this kind of love to all your employees and, more importantly, make them feel this love. For in Thailand, we have this saying “The hands that can discipline subordinates must be the same pairs that shown kindness before”. Love conquers all, that’s true!

Secret #3 : Accept them as they are

Once you have bought their hearts and loved them as one of your own, than it’s time for you to do the most difficult thing: to accept them for what they are, warts and all! In an extended family structure, parents are expected to love and accept all siblings equally, whole-heartedly and without any conditions. The key here lies in, what John C. Maxwell called ‘The Law of The Niche’ where, instead of trying to develop their weaknesses, you should rather concentrate on finding and using their natural strengths. After all not everyone can be a hero but they are all needed in an organization in some fashion and capacity. Once the employees feel that you truly care for them as individuals, they will also accept you as their leaders, without any reservations.

Secret #4 : Trust them completely

This one is the most basic of all the secrets. For trust is the most fundamental building block required to build any kinds of lasting relationships. Without trust, there is no relationship. There’s a saying, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.’ And that’s exactly what you need to do as a leader. The trust must be complete, without any doubts, and whole-heartedly. When the employees feel your trust, there’s no more powerful motivator on earth than their desire not to break that trust. Believe me, I’ve seen it times and times over my 35-year career. It works in Thai culture. It will work in any cultures, that’s my belief.

Secret #5 : Empower them fully

The last step and most powerful is to empower them to the fullest. Now, you’ve done all you can and it’s now time to ‘let them go’ and just watch what they’re capable of. Admittedly, Thai parents are not very good examples of this at all. So I have to learn this from the Western culture. The best concept of empowerment can be found in the book entitled, ‘Empowerment Takes More Than A Minute’ by Ken Blanchard, et al. The 3 keys for empowerment are:  Share information with everyone, Create autonomy through boundaries, and Replace hierarchical thinking with self-managed teams. Empowerment is a way to unleash power and potentials already existed inside each and every employees through creating a sense of ownership and independence. When empowerment is successfully created there is absolutely no need to have any kind of rule books in the organization. Everything will be permanently etched in their hearts and minds, foever.

Here you have it, my 5 secrets of leadership the ‘Thai’ way. I have used it over 35-year career here in Thailand. I know that it works here and also believe that it can be adapted to work elsewhere too. Nothing would please me more than to hear your thoughts and feedback from you. Now it’s a market survey time: I’m also seriously thinking about writing a book, any takers?