Expats And Thais At Work
13 months is how long expats need - on average - to become fully effective in the Thai workplace. 1-2-WIN Executive Coaching and the Dutch and French Chambers of Commerce polled 300 executives from 120 companies and interviewed 28 Thai and foreign business leaders to provide foreign managers and Thais with practical insights and advice on how to work most effectively together.
In this first article of a series, executive coach Jean-Francois Cousin clarifies critical differences between Thai and western leadership models and core-value systems, shares tips for an expat’s first 100 days and proposes a fun to-do list for foreign managers.
Without doubt you will have heard of stories like Martin’s. He was assigned to Thailand two years ago, came with the best of intentions, and yet had a horrendous first year at work. By the end of it, half of his team had resigned and the performance of his department had decreased dramatically. Yet, Martin had been working really hard and leveraged those managerial skills which had served him well in his previous assignments: results-focused, participative, politely straightforward and good at problem-solving. Is that the recipe for failure in Thailand? Obviously not, but key ingredients for success are missing.
The good news is that when expatriates add certain elements, rewards can surpass their expectations. Alan Miu and Hanno Kroemer, respectively country general manager and former finance director for TNT in Thailand, have developed a good recipe: “Thai employees, in general, are very hard-working, willing to contribute and do the best they can”; “When you have them on board, basically everything is possible; ... you can make tremendous progress and achieve what you would like a lot faster.” Other expatriates I work with add, “Thais can be incredibly loyal”, are “eager to learn”, “good fun to work with”, “have a ‘can-do’ attitude”, and “don’t hesitate in making the occasional sacrifice (holiday or over-time).”
