In order to have everyone on a team working together towards a common goal, Bangkok executives need to have the trust and confidence of their employees. In surveying Thai professionals, Bangkok Executive Search learned the most common ways that managers lose the support of their staffs.
In our extensive surveys, humiliating a worker in front of their peers is the quickest way for an executive to poison the office environment. Unfortunately, many Thai professionals have witnessed a manager yelling and screaming at an employee and this can traumatize the entire staff. As any accomplished executive knows, the best approach is to pull someone aside and speak with them privately.
Since nobody is perfect, we all need constructive criticism from time to time and the way an executive provides that feedback can make or break an organization. In speaking with an individual regarding the reasons why their performance is an issue, it’s important to tell them what decisions or actions failed to meet expectations. Once the employee clearly understands what the problem is, they should also be “coached” on how to improve their performance. This approach shows a sense of fairness and commitment to the individual’s success.
Thai professionals also expressed concerns about executives who they feel are untrustworthy. This could entail misleading employees about a company’s future plans, discussing other employees in ways that are inappropriate or behaving in ways not reflective of a decent and honorable human being. As an example, one sales representative recently shared with us how everytime they work with their manager, their boss shares with them how stupid and “clueless” the other representatives are in the region. The sales representative was a top performer in the company yet they felt their manager was likely saying awful things about them too. Additionally, the sales representative expressed great respect for his colleagues and felt the manager was betraying the trust and confidence of members on the sales team.
A person who in considered unapproachable is also a major reason cited by Bangkok professionals as to why they don’t have confidence in their company’s executives. As numerous people in the Thai business community told us, they want someone who they can talk to should they have a sense of uncertainty about either their future or the company’s. It’s when people have no direction or sense of the future that they start looking for opportunities elsewhere so it’s important that a company’s executives be both approachable and transparent regarding an individual’s performance and future.
As a search firm, we believe one of the greatest things an executive can give to one of their employees is hope, as without it there is no future. For this reason, its important that an executive serve as the company “cheerleader” by displaying enthusiasm, optimism and great confidence. In many ways, executives have to be great sales people as they need to get people to rally around their ideas and actions. They also have to be charismatic as people will not work hard and fight for leaders they don’t like. So in order to insure confidence and hope in your employees, its critical that a company hire executives who embody the aforementioned qualities.
Every employee wants to succeed and its important that Bangkok companies hire executives who are leaders, rather than managers. As is often said, a leader is able to get people to follow them whereas a manager has people who work for them. In business, rarely will you find a successful company that has executives who fail to inspire the workforce. Therefore, the next time you hire an executive make sure they look out for their people as much as they do the bottomline.