During lunch, we asked an expat leader, who has been here for more than 8 years leading a big Thai team (over 60 members), “What do you think stops your team from sharing new ideas?” He didn’t try to be polite nor did he blame the culture. What surprised us was how honestly he turned […]
Author Archives: Girish
(Inspired by Coaching for Performance by Sir John Whitmore) “I’ve already told them what to do… but they still don’t take ownership.” A senior leader shared this with me recently. On paper, everything looked right: clear instructions, a strong hierarchy, and defined roles. But the team was stagnant. They followed orders but didn’t think critically; […]
On our recent client call, the regional leader stopped us mid-pitch and asked, ‘what are these norms you’re referring to?’ We’d just told her that the most effective way to build a high-performing team is through building the right norms. These norms help teams have honest conversations, build internal alignment and promote a sense of […]
Here’s a question we ask every leader: If you put eleven Cristiano Ronaldos on a football pitch, do you win? The instinctive answer is yes, until you think it through. Everyone wants the ball. No one defends. Teamwork collapses into a battle of egos. This is the talent paradox. Great individual performers don’t automatically make […]
In Thailand, if you’re a soft skills trainer, you can call yourself a Coach. If you’re a motivational speaker, you can be a Coach. If you’re an English teacher, you can go by as a Coach. But coaching is neither teaching, training nor preaching. so, What is (leadership) Coaching? A leader came to Haritha wanting […]
Leadership, Team Development
How to Align Cross-Functional Teams: 3 Proven Practices for Multinational Teams
When departments work in silos, everyone loses; especially, your clients. They get mixed messages, experience delays, and feel the dysfunction you’re trying to hide. This internal chaos bleeds into client interactions, eventually damaging trust and revenue. You can achieve cross-functional team alignment with these three core practices: Timeline Activity for building trust, Daily Huddles for […]
In our ‘Building High Performing Teams‘ program, leaders consistently ask us four questions: What is a high-performing team? What leadership qualities build high-performing teams? How do we measure if our team is high-performing? How can we improve our team’s effectiveness? What’s interesting is that most leaders think building high-performing teams is about hiring A […]
What does it take to lead organisational change in multicultural healthcare teams? When a hospital is five months from bankruptcy and the community calls it ‘no hope,’ what does a leader do first? Fire people? Cut costs? Bring in consultants? David Boucher, MPH, FACHE did something different. He listened. For David Boucher — ex-CEO of […]
Victus People Newsletter
Cross-Cultural Leadership: The Expat Leader’s Guide to Building Trust with Thai Teams
You ask for feedback from your Thai team, they smile, nod, say yes. And then nothing. You’ve tried being direct. You’ve tried being friendly. You’ve held team meetings, one-on-ones. The barrier remains. You know your team has more to offer, but you can’t unlock it. We spoke with Ben Horgan, someone who has spent 25 […]
Lessons from our conversation with Tareef Jafferi, CEO & Founder of Happily.ai We often talk about high performance in terms of systems, frameworks, or tools. But what if the real differentiator isn’t data or design. It’s how deeply people trust one another. That question came alive during our recent conversation with Tareef Jafferi, founder of […]