Where's your heart at ?

I am very luck that I speak Thai rather well. When I deliver a workshop with a team in Thailand, I make sure that some English jargon or particular expressions that are used in the slides, are well understood by the audience.

Just last week, I had an interesting experience. I

wanted to make sure that the group thoroughly understood the expressions "Putting yourself in their shoes" and "Coming from your gut", two idioms we use in English and easily understand the figurative meaning. When I asked the group for the Thai equivalent, they translated as something that translates back into English as "Putting their heart in our heart" and "Coming from the heart". Very interesting how these expressions - with shoes and guts in English - both come back to the heart.

And I again came to realize that this is one of the keys of working with teams in Thailand. There is no secret formula, but too often I see foreigners struggling with finding a connection with their team. They say all the right things, try to motivate, do fun stuff, communicate, communicate, communicate, and learn a bit of Thai language. Yet despite all this, many still say that they are not getting the performance or engagement that they want out of their team.

So maybe the secret is in adding a bit of "heart" to things. Sharing your feelings. Asking others about theirs. These things are often looked upon in the West as personal, private and not really belonging in the workplace (or at least, they are not things for the manager/boss to bring into the workplace context or conversations). Yet, in Thailand, with so many things going to and coming from the "heart", getting comfortable and adapting your style by adding in a bit more "heart" will definitely go a long way.