Stuck at your current job but you're afraid of making a move?
Tired of sending 100+ of job applications with no reply?
Not getting interviews even though you're qualified?

I help senior professionals get referred and hired without applying online in under 90 days.

And yes, it works!

But it didn’t start that way.

In 2011, I landed in Singapore with no job and barely enough to survive...
I gave myself 6 months to find work. I almost gave up but didn’t.

One special friend kept me going and eventually, she offered me a beautiful family with two wonderful boys ❤️

That journey shaped everything I teach now.

After 15 years in Recruitment & Talent Acquisition, I’ve:
→ Reviewed 150,000+ CVs
→ Interviewed 23,000+ candidates
→ Hired 16,000+ professionals globally

I saw what really works behind the scenes.

Today, through TalentFB, I coach Directors, VPs, and senior leaders using AI-powered job
search strategies that skip the online noise.

Here’s what my clients achieve:
✔ Up to 30% salary jump
✔ Job offers in under 12 weeks
✔ Interviews in weeks, not months
✔ Total clarity on their next role
✔ Confidence that feels unshakable

Ready to stop the blind applications and start attracting opportunities? 

*DM me to talk
*Follow me here -> https://linktr.ee/coachfrederictalentfb
*Book a discovery call (below 👇🏻)
*Email: frederic@talentfb.net
*Website: www.talentfb.net

Frederic Bonifassy

What would you feel if your whole world is shaking and you don't even have a job?

I’ve been there..
There were days I had no job.
No direction.. 
No idea what to do next..

But here’s what I learned:

Nothing is impossible.
Not when you use the right tools.

And that’s when I realised..
LinkedIn can change your entire job search.

The truth?

Senior professionals STILL take LinkedIn for granted.. 
They treat it like a CV platform…
when it’s actually a visibility machine.

LinkedIn changed my life.
And it can change yours too.

When you build your brand on LinkedIn:

✔ Recruiters start noticing you
✔ Hiring managers know who you are
✔ You look like an expert in your field
✔ You start getting coffee chats & interviews
✔ You even get invited for speaking opportunities

Yes, this happens.
It happened to me.
And it happened to my client Franck too.

Franck’s story:

He didn’t just get job DMs.
He didn’t just get recruiter attention.
Even ex-employees reached out
to invite him for coffee chats 
because they wanted to refer him internally.

That’s what visibility does.
That’s what positioning does.
That’s what LinkedIn can do
when you use it the right way.

The truth is simple:
LinkedIn works!

But only when you do the right things.
And that’s exactly why I’m going to live.

Join my FREE live webinar on Friday at 12th December 12pm SGT..I’ll teach you how LinkedIn helps you get a job 10x faster in 2026..
Join here: https://lnkd.in/gnNqrHgv

How Senior Leaders Can Share Meaningful Content..

Not sure what to post?
You’re not alone.

Here are 6 ways to do it ↓

1. Share real struggles
Talk about tough moments.
Share what tested you.
Share what grew you.
Growth > perfection.
Honesty builds trust fast.

2. Share your wins
Big wins+Small wins.
Break down the thinking.
Break down the process.
Teach, don’t brag.
Your path = their lesson.

3. Share failures
Mistakes show humanity.
Awkward moments connect.
Leaders who admit flaws
build trust 2x faster.
Messy > polished.

4. Share the lighter side
Funny calls.
Unexpected moments.
“I can’t believe this!” stories.
Humor = humanity.
Humanity > hierarchy.

 5. Talk about your work
What you do.
How you do it.
Who you serve.
What you’re building.
Your daily work = insight.

5. Use any format
Stories.
Lessons.
BTS moments.
Quick insights.
Your voice > format.
Your tone = your brand.

Takeaway: 
Your experiences = relatable.
Your lessons = valuable.
Your stories = memorable.
Show up human.
That’s how leaders grow.

📌 P.s. If you’re a senior leader who’s jobless right now…

I know exactly what you’re facing:
→ Recruiters aren't calling back
→ Your network has gone silent
→ You’re unsure how to position yourself today
→ Your confidence is taking a hit

You don’t have to do this alone.
Join my FREE live webinar on YouTubeFriday, 12th December at 12 PM SGT..I’ll teach you exactly how senior leaders get hired in today’s market.. webinar.live.talentfb.net

Every day, thousands of senior professionals apply for jobs online…

And guess what they hear?

Nothing.
No replies.
No interviews.
Just silence.

But here’s what happens when you fix the real problem.. Your positioning + visibility! 

Let me show you a real example: 

Franck spent 5 months applying.
5 months of frustration.
And he wasn’t the problem.
His visibility was..

Then he joined my
AI Job Accelerator Program.

What happened next shocked him:

Within 6 weeks:

✔ Hiring managers started DM’ing him
✔ Recruiters reached out first
✔ Ex-colleagues invited him for coffee chats 
(because they wanted to refer him internally)

When your visibility rises,
opportunities stop hiding..

And then it happened…

Franck landed a role at Grab
as a Senior Product Manager.

If you’re tired of the silence…

Stop applying harder.
Start positioning smarter!

📌 Senior leaders, join my FREE live webinar on YouTube Friday at 12th December 12 PM SGT I’ll show you exactly why your resumes get ignored and how to fix it in 2026. 
Link: webinar.live.talentfb.net

Keystoners

🟧 Leadership Coaching for Vietnam's cross-cultural reality
When high-performing leaders don't stall in Vietnam, China or across Asia because they’re unqualified. They stall because culture changes the rules, and no one hands them the new playbook.
Some arrive here and get blindsided.
Others lead from here, and get misread out there.
That’s where I come in.
At Keystoners, I coach expats and global Vietnamese leaders to fast-track their credibility, influence, and impact in Vietnam, without losing who they are.
You’ve delivered before.
But here, the logic changes. Trust builds differently. Missteps erode momentum quietly - and early.

🟧 I help leaders:
	•	Be respected from Day 1 - without over-adapting or shrinking.
	•	Decode unspoken cultural signals and lead with clarity under pressure.
	•	Navigate Vietnam with confidence, respect, and real traction.
	•	Scale their leadership presence across borders - grounded, credible and real.
My approach blends sharp business instinct with deep cultural fluency and performance coaching.
Not theory. Not textbook models. Just clarity, traction, and transformation - fast.

🟧 Trusted by:
	•	Expats in Vietnam → To be respected from Day 1
	•	Global Vietnamese → To scale across cultures
	•	HR & Talent Leaders → To accelerate integration and team trust
Cross-cultural performance isn’t a soft skill - it’s your edge.

⬛ Global Leadership Coaching • Cross-Cultural Leadership • Vietnam & China & Southeast Asia

Global Leadership Coach • Consultant • Founder

Antler

Developed startup strategies and market expansion models with agility, explored innovative business models, and collaborated with founders & investors in a global venture-building program.

Entrepreneur in Residence

Independent Professional Development

Transitioned from corporate leadership to focus on executive coaching, leadership transformation, and career resilience. 

This period was a deliberate investment in refining my approach—combining leadership, career, and executive coaching with a mind-body connection for high-performance leadership.
🔸 Earned certifications from iPEC & NASM, strengthening expertise in leadership coaching and resilience.
🔸 Explored leadership agility & self-mastery, shaping my unique coaching framework for global leaders.
🔸 Guided executives & rising leaders through strategic transitions, helping them accelerate impact & career growth.
🔸 Embraced the philosophy of impact-driven leadership—as Mother Teresa said, “What has been given to you is not to be kept but to be shared.”

This transition led to the creation of Keystoners, where I now coach global leaders such as executives, managers, young professionals, and organizations to strengthen leadership pipelines, enhance decision-making, and drive sustainable business impact.

🟧 Let’s connect or explore my work at Keystoners: 
👉 https://s.mtrbio.com/coachjuliesivan

Executive & Leadership coaching development • Professional Development

AB InBev APAC

Led marketing & commercial strategy, driving business growth, market expansion, and brand leadership. Managed cross-functional teams and developed high-impact strategies in a competitive industry.

Country Marketing Head • Partner

Led innovation strategy, product development, and market expansion for AB InBev China, driving business growth through disruptive product innovation and strategic partnerships.

Marketing Director, Innovation • Partner

Led portfolio strategy, project management, and cross-functional execution, ensuring alignment between business objectives and market expansion priorities. Drove strategic decision-making, operational efficiency, and high-impact marketing initiatives.

Marketing Director, PPM & PMO • Partner

Supported portfolio strategy and project management, ensuring operational alignment between marketing, commercial, and business objectives. Played a key role in optimizing processes, improving cross-functional collaboration, and driving execution efficiency.

Associate Marketing Director, PPM & PMO

CEIBS MBA Programme

Completed a globally ranked MBA program, deepening expertise in strategy, leadership, and business innovation. Specialized in cross-cultural leadership, strategic decision-making, and market expansion, reinforcing my ability to drive impact at the executive level.

MBA • CEIBS (China Europe International Business School)

Construction project funding

Founder & Consultant

Sonepar

Group Consolidation & Reporting Controller

Publicis Groupe

Autodistribution

Consolidation and Reporting Controller

Group Consolidation controller

What I help solve
High-performing leaders in & from Vietnam, China, across Asia don't stall because they lack skills.
They stall because culture rewrite the rules, and no one hands you the new playbook.

Whether you're an expat in Vietnam, or a global Vietnamese working across borders, chances are:
• you’re adapting fast, but trust stays thin.
• you’re delivering results, but early missteps cost momentum.
• you sense the codes, but playing them feels like shrinking.
• you need traction now, but trial-and-error is too expensive.

This isn’t about starting over.
It’s about becoming the leader who lands: clearly, credibly, and fast.

What I offer
Cross-cultural leadership coaching.
No textbook theory. Just results that stick.
Visible credibility. Trusted leadership. Faster alignment.

•  Decode cultural cues - without compromising who you are.
•  Earn trust early - so your influence grows.
•  Lead with a global presence that lands locally.
•  Perform under pressure - with clarity, resilience, and results from Day 1.

Because when your leadership lands,
➝ Projects move faster
➝ Teams align quicker
➝ Impact becomes visible
➝ Trust compounds

Who I work with
I coach leaders who are navigating Vietnam’s complexity to build trust fast, land their leadership, and scale culture:
• Expats in Vietnam or relocating soon → Gain traction and respect, without missteps.
• Global Vietnamese → Scale your impact across cultures.
• HR & Talent Leaders → Build culture that sticks. Accelerate onboarding. Keep top talent.

Why clients trust me
I coach for performance where it counts:
On the ground. Under pressure. Across cultures.

• Cross-cultural in my DNA → French-Vietnamese. Born into it. Built a career through it.
• Proven business leader → 20 years in France, China & Vietnam. Rose to Partner at AB InBev.
• Fluent in growth under pressure → Led teams in Finance, Marketing & Innovation, where speed and ambiguity collide.
• Performance coaching that sticks → Strategic clarity. Grounded leadership. Physical resilience.
• Proven operational ROI → Faster ramp-up. Tighter team trust. Shorter lead times. Sharper execution.

Ready to land stronger?
Let's talk : that's the best way to check whether I can help you (link in bio & featured section)

Keystoners by Julie Sivan 
Global Leadership Coaching • Cross-Cultural Leadership • Vietnam | China | Asia

P.S. French-Vietnamese. Been the outsider, the bridge, the decision-maker. 20 years of global leadership. Ex-partner at AB InBev. Still no superpowers, just hard-earned clarity and cross-cultural scars.

Julie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith

Vietnamese think they’re bad at small talk.
Foreigners think they’re good at it.
Both are wrong.

Foreigners use small talk fast.
Vietnamese do it deep.
Only one of these builds trust that matters here.

"You're so good at small talk," my client told me.
She meant it as a praise.
I heard the truth behind it: 
"I can't do that with someone I don't trust yet."

Because in Vietnam, small talk isn’t a skill.
It’s a trust cue, a sign you've earned safety.

Foreigners chat to build rapport.
Natural, friendly, warm.

Vietnamese respond politely: warm, but careful.
Not distant, just not personal yet.

Foreigner think: "why so reserved?"
Vietnamese think: "this is polite, but no connection."
Same moment. Same small talk. Different trust logic.

In performance-first cultures, 
small talk is a task-lubricant.
Quick. Light. Functional. A way to ease into work.
You talk first → then you deliver.

In Vietnam, small talk is a trust ritual.
Slow. Layered. Felt.
Something that happens after the relationship feels safe.
You trust first → then you open.

Vietnamese aren't bad at small talk.
They're waiting for it to feel real.
That's what unlocks generosity.

Foreigners aren't good at it.
They're doing it too early.

Two cultures.
Two perceptions.
Two trust systems trying to meet in the same room.

On Erin Meyer’s Trusting + Communicating scales,
some cultures bond through performance,
others through interaction.
And in Vietnam, meaning lives around the words, not inside them.

Small talk isn’t communication.
It’s timing. It's safety.
It's the moment trust reveals itself.

Foreigners do it before trust.
Vietnamese do it after trust.

If you want them to open up,
don't push for connection.
Signal safety.

One question to sit with:
what part of your “friendly small talk” might feel premature here?

The Leadership Coach for Expats in Vietnam & Global Vietnamese • I make sure you thrive in & from this Culture | Corporate & Individual trainings

Your Vietnam team knows what you earn.
Not roughly. Exactly.
A credibility gap you didn’t choose, but must close.

Down to the package.
The housing allowance. The schooling. The flights home.

Whether anyone says it out loud or not…
It's costing you credibility every single day.

You didn't set your salary. HQ did.
But you're the one standing in front of a room full of people who earn a fraction of it.

The moment you walked in, 
you stepped into a trust deficit you didn't create.
Not because you're unqualified.
Not because you lack experience.
Because the system that sent you here already told your team:
"This outsider is worth 5+ of you, and doesn't even speak Vietnamese."

So when you give feedback, 
They hear privilege talking.

When you push for change,
They see someone who doesn't understand their reality.

When you make decisions,
They question whether you've earned the right.

The resistance isn't personal. It's structural.
And in Asia, structure matters more than anything you 𝘴𝘢𝘺.

They're not resisting you. They're resisting a system that pays you more for a job they believe they could do.

What most expats miss:
You can't close that gap by pretending it doesn't exist.
You can't apologize your way into credibility.

My clients close it by making their value visible in terms that matter to their local teams.
- Deliver results that improve their standing within the company.
- Champion their growth so visibly that HQ starts noticing them
- Show you understand what failure costs them, not just what success means to HQ.

The salary gap is real. The skepticism is rational.

But trust, that's still yours to earn.

If you want to close that credibility gap faster,
ask me how.

graphical user interface, text, application

Hierarchy ≠ Power distance
In Vietnam, that's why your empowerment ends up with you carrying the load alone.

You empower your team.
But at the end of the day,
you still feel like a one-person team,
dragging everything by yourself: alone.

Draining, demotivating, isolating.

But your loneliness has nothing to do with hierarchy.

Hierarchy is the 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 on the org chart.
A reporting line. A chain of command.

Power distance is a 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘹.
A lifetime of wiring about who speaks first, decides, whose voice counts, how disagreement is shown (or hidden), how authority is 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵.

You can flatten the hierarchy on paper.
You can draw a "matrix organization."
You can say, "My door is always open."

But your teams don't respond to your structure.
They respond to what your signals mean in their culture.
And the smallest things you do still signal power,
even when you don't intend to.

→ You give your opinion first.
To you: context.
To them: the final answer.

→ You ask "do you agree?"
To you: an invitation.
To them: a trap with one safe response.

→ Someone disagrees and you stay neutral.
To you: professionalism.
To them: a warning that disagreement wasn't welcome.

→ You sit in the most senior seat.
To you: just a seat left.
To them: confirmed authority.

→ You speak with confidence.
To you: clarity.
To them: another reason not to contradict.

That's the gap: the decoding you're missing.
And your empowerment doesn't land.
The signals they receive don't match your intentions.

If you want less power distance, you need different signals. Nothing else.

Top 3 signals to reduce power distance in Vietnam:

#1: Let others speak first.
It opens the room instantly.

#2: Ask questions that require perspective.
"What am I not seeing?"
"What would you change if this were yours?"

#3: Appreciate disagreement openly
Even a simple "Thank you, that helps" shifts the whole team.

You don't lower power distance by acting informal or friendly. You lower it by changing the signals your team reads from you.

When my clients master this, they fast-track their credibility.
Teams open up sooner. Hard truths surface earlier.
And decisions move faster, without pushing, forcing, or "Westernizing" anyone.

If you want to understand how your team interprets your authority in Vietnam, we can map it together.

HQ thinks Vietnam is highly engaged: the survey says it.
You know the truth feels different.
And you’ve known it all along.

Your engagement score is lying.
And the people who know it best are the leaders in Vietnam who look at the dashboard…
and then walk into a silent room.

High scores. Green heat maps. Stable trend. 
Invisible problems.

What most MNCs don’t capture:
In Vietnam, an engagement survey doesn’t measure how people feel. It measures consequences.

Not: “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭?”
But: “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺?”
Not the same questions. Never the same reality.

In a high-context, harmony-driven, hierarchical culture:
A survey isn’t a feedback tool. It’s a moment of exposure.

A low score invites trouble.
A neutral score creates suspicion.
A high score keeps everyone safe.

Not safe to speak. Safe to avoid risk.

So you get politeness instead of precision.
Reassurance instead of truth.
Compliance instead of perspective.

Your 98% isn’t truth. Your 88% isn’t trust.
Your “stable score” is not safety.

It’s protection.

Protection of relationships.
Protection of face.
Protection of psychological safety that doesn’t actually exist.

And you’ve felt that protection long before you ever saw it in the data.

This is where HQ get blindsided.
If people are protecting themselves, your baseline is already broken.
And if the baseline is broken, the trend is a fiction.

Because safety shifts every time the ground shifts:
A new leader arrives. A conflict simmers.
A trusted manager leaves. A reorg begins.
The room changes. The risk changes.
So the answers change.

How can you compare “year 1” to “year 2”
when the level of danger wasn’t the same?
You can’t. Not truthfully.

You can’t benchmark truth with a tool people don’t feel safe using.
When safety drops, honesty drops.
And when honesty drops, scores rise.
Every answer becomes a performance, not a data point.

So the real question isn’t 
“How do we get better survey scores?”
It’s:
“How do we design a corporate culture in Vietnam where people no longer need to protect themselves from the survey?”

Because until that happens, 
your engagement dashboard may glow green…
while your real culture is quietly turning red.

"Do you know who they are?"
You hear a name.
Your Vietnam team: the relationship map to build trust.

You think:
• You're prepared: title, LinkedIn, company bio.
• "Why does this matter? Let's just get to business."

But that's not how it works here.
That question is not about special treatments or gossip.
It's the context you need to read the room.

In Vietnam, identity isn't a line on an org chart.
It's your connections. Your history. Your reputation.
The web of relationships that decides how trust lands.

What many foreigners miss here:
Trust shapes everything: 
support, influence, performance,
and whether people shield you from next obstacles.

You can't skip to the competence part.
The relationship is what unlocks everything else.

Erin Meyer calls this relationship-first trust in her book #TheCultureMap.
In task-first cultures, trust forms through delivery.
In relationship-first cultures like Vietnam, trust forms through connection.

What to collect:
→ Ask for context and stories.
→ Note universities, families, past leaders/mentors.
→ Build a relationship map, not an org chart.
→ Listen to intros to see where the person sits in the network.

These clues tell you how to approach them.
What matters to them.
Where trust is likely to form.

These aren't throwaway lines.
They're telling you how the room actually works.

Knowing "who they are" isn't extra work.
It's how you deliver anything in Vietnam.

The 80% foreigners obsess over in Vietnam delivers almost nothing. 
They avoid the 20% that gets the truth. 

Leading remotely makes that gap even harder to close.

They cling to those 80%, because it's the only system they know: decks, agendas, dashboards.
Safe tools when the culture makes you doubt.

You feel productive... but powerless.
Because none of it brings you closer to what matters:
knowing what is actually happening on your team.

You're disconnected,
so you double down on efficiency, structure, logic.
It feels like control, protection,
A way to stay competent from 10,000 km away.

But you know it doesn't work...

"𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘐'𝘮 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮, 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦. 
𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵."

There it is: the real reason you avoid the 20% that brings 80% of the results.
It's everything you've never been trained for, 
everything you don't have rules for.

Yes, connections here require:
• time upfront
• emotional presence
• ambiguity
• cultural intuition
• and no guaranteed ROI

It's not oversharing. Not awkward intimacy.
Just small, consistent human signals saying:
"I see you as a person, not just a performer."

Remote makes that even harder:
No hallway pauses. No subtle looks. No energy shifts.
Everything flattens through the screen.

So you retreat to the familiar but useless 80%.

And that costs you:
no connection → no trust → no truth → no big wins.

The 20% my clients implement 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴:

→ Join calls 5 minutes early to feel the energy
→ 2-min videos for warmth
→ Occasional voice notes for warmth + clarity
→ Personal but not private: “How are things on your side this week?” rather than “How’s your weekend?”
→ Share small slice of your life sometimes, just humanity: a morning run, a new coffee place, your kid’s drawing on your desk

They’re relationship-first leadership moves for a culture where trust comes from familiarity, not efficiency.

Practice them consistently, and everything shifts:
silence breaks, risks surface, “yes” becomes commitment, and execution stops feeling like guesswork.

If you want to stop leading blind and understand  your missing 20%, send me a message.

You’re closer to that 20% than you think.

He flew 10,000 kilometers for this role.
But nobody told him what success looks like here.

He landed in Vietnam with family and boxes,
and a whole new life to build.
Exhausted but hopeful.

Big move. Big opportunity.
Still, no picture of what “success” actually means.

His boss said: "Go fix Vietnam." Whatever that meant.
His team heard: "New foreign manager incoming."
He reassured himself: "I'll figure it out. I always do."

13 months in, the fog's still here.

Are you here to transfer knowledge?
Build the team?
Hit revenue targets?
Transform operations?
All of it?
None of it clearly?

You work hard. Rewrite decks. Visit the market.
Join meetings out of obligation, not purpose.
Chase HQ KPIs no one contextualized.
Your team waits for direction you're not confident giving.
Every decision feels like a risk you can’t quantify.
Your assignment end date approaches, and you can't point to what you actually delivered.

And this lingering, quiet fear:
You don't know if you're winning... or just busy.

My clients know this truth:
You can’t deliver impact if you don’t know the job you were actually hired to do.

They start to get traction the moment they get ruthless clarity on their mandate before everything else:

→ What problems does HQ actually needs solved here?
→ What does the local team need from me that they can't get from anyone else?
→ What does success look like in 12 months on 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 soil, not a global slide?
→ If I leave tomorrow, what would I point to as proof I delivered?
→ What measures tell the truth about whether I'm winning here?

You have to go get that clarity.

Because once your mandate is a single sentence, everything changes:
→ Your priorities tighten.
→ Your influence grows.
→ Your team anticipates what you want.
→ HQ finally understands the terrain you’re navigating.
→ And suddenly, your work starts compounding instead of scattering.

If you’re 6 months in and still can’t answer “Why am I here?”, then it’s not you that needs fixing.
It’s the mandate.

Let’s rewrite it into one powerful sentence you can own, lead from, and win with.

You cost more than anyone else in that room.
So when locals outperform you on Day1: doubts bite.
Did they choose wrong?

They didn't.

They chose the only thing no local and no long-term expat brings: 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁.

Locals know the market.
Long-term expats know the culture.
You know how power moves at HQ.

And here, that matters more than fluency on week 1.

Your value isn't speaking Vietnamese.
It's speaking HQ: moving budgets, unblocking timelines, translating strategy without 12 rounds.

HQ trusts you to execute their vision while you build that fluency: that's your value.

The same value that builds your credibility in a market that won't slow down for you.

So the question is:
how fast can you turn that value into local trust & results?

3 ways my clients achieve performance:

#1.
Use your HQ access as currency
→ Stop apologizing for being new.
→ Your direct line to decision-makers solve problems locals have fought for years: Tet budget and bonuses, timeline conflicts, global reporting pressure etc.

That's influence: use it.

#2.
Build your cultural translators fast
→ You don't need to master indirect communication: you need 3 allies who do.
• The 15-year in-house Vietnamese deputy director.
• The HR manager who knows what humiliates.
• The expat who's married to a Vietnamese and gets the family dynamics that drive your team.

Find them. Protect them. Listen more than you talk

#3. Deliver what only you can
→ HQ sent you to drive change locals can’t escalate and long-term expats can’t influence.
Operational discipline. Regional alignment.
Financial discipline. Production quality. or Strategic clarity.

That's your job, that's your value.

Cultural fluency supports that mission.
It does not replace it.

And when your team sees you delivering results 𝘢𝘯𝘥 learning their world, the quiet in meetings disappears.

That’s the moment credibility flips.
That’s when you stop questioning whether you belong.

Tactical takeaway for this week:
• Identify your #1 translator.
• Ask: “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘮 𝘐 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯?”
• You’ll learn more in 5 minutes than in 3 months of guessing.

If you want to accelerate your credibility curve, this is exactly my work.

What are you waiting for to stop doubting whether you belong here?

No alternative text description for this image

10 minutes of discussion in Vietnamese.
10 seconds of translation for you.
The risk: only you answer for the gap between those 2.

You're in the room.
But you're not actually in the conversation.
Ten minutes of rapid Vietnamese.
Laughter. Side glances. Someone looks uncomfortable.

Then your translator turns to you:
"They agree with the plan."

That's it.

10 minutes collapsed into 5 words.
5 words you’re expected to lead with.
5 words you’ll be judged on.

Your smile stiffens. You nod.
Inside, you're screaming: "Wait...what did I just miss?"
Was it about budget, timeline, capacity or... you?
Did they raise a risk you needed to hear?
Did they volunteer for something they couldn't deliver?

You'll never know.

And tomorrow, when the project stalls,
or someone quits,
or HQ asks why targets fell short,

You'll be the one explaining.
With incomplete information.
From a conversation you weren't fully in.

This is the most isolating part of leading in Vietnam.
Not the language barrier.
The meaning barrier.
The context barrier.

To become insiders, what my clients implement:

→ Build a cultural interpreter, not a translator.
Not someone who repeats the words, someone who explains the why behind the words, the hesitation, the tension, the subtext, the emotional weather in the room.

→ Create space for private follow-ups.
Pull 1-2 people aside after. Ask what didn't get said. Signal safety with your tone, not just your question.

→ Learn key phrases. Not fluency.
Just enough to catch hesitation, compliance vs. agreement.

→ Name the gap directly.
"I noticed that it took longer than the translation. What am I missing?" You'll feel the energy shift: the moment you normalize honesty, they give you the truth.
You can't lead what you can't see.
And right now, you're leading blind.

If you want to close that gap fast, DM me.
I help leaders build credibility and cultural visibility in their first 90 days.

How much longer will you lead blind?

Nothing prepares you for the moment
everyone in the office in Vietnam knows your salary
before you've learned their names.

Not your role. Not your title. Not even your work.

Your life.

Where you live. Your family situation.
Your age. Your background.
Sometimes things you never said out loud.
Like your package.

All known. All repeated. All interpreted.

You feel naked. Exposed.
Off-balance in a way you can't explain.

You start asking yourself:
𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴? 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸?
𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘦?

It hits somewhere deeper than privacy.
It hits your sense of safety.

But most expats miss this:
It's not malicious. It's not careless. It's cultural.

Here, personal information doesn't sit in locked folders. It travels through relationships.
To reduce uncertainty, to place you in the social fabric,
To understand how to engage with you without misstepping.

You think it's a leak. They think it's context.

Because in relationship-first cultures, people can't work with you without first understanding 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦.

Not the LinkedIn version, but the human one.

If you don't see this moment for what it is,
you'll pull back.
You'll get guarded.
You'll interpret curiosity as intrusion.

And the distance grows before collaboration even starts.

But if you see the logic underneath,
you'll realize something else entirely:

You weren't exposed.
You were being woven into the system.

This is what happens when your privacy instincts meet Vietnamese relationship norms.

You land in Vietnam expecting boundaries.
They're building connection through context.

When you shut down, they interpret withdrawal.
When you stay open, they interpret trust.

The leaders who adapt fastest
They stop treating transparency as invasion.
They start treating it as the cost of belonging.

Because in Vietnam, you don't earn trust by protecting information.
You earn it by sharing enough to be real.
And trust is what turns struggling assignment into a career-defining win.

What would change if you treated transparency as strategy?

Many leaders ask me how to “perform” in Vietnam.
A handful realize the question is how to “be trusted” first.
This podcast goes deeper.

We talk endlessly about performance.
But almost no one talks about the moments that break you on the way there.

In this episode, I put words to the part leaders usually hide:
the trust that feels one-sided,
the culture silence you misread,
the early-month loneliness,
the moments your task-first instincts can quietly sabotage you,
and why the real work is emotional, not technical.

I also shared how I help leaders rebuild from there:
why I never do “just a workshop,”
why every program combines training and coaching,
and how the real shift only happens when leaders can learn the culture and process their own reactions to it.

And I opened up about myself too:
the investments that shaped me,
the ones that I regret,
and why I refuse to price my work like a transaction.

Thank you Davis Nguyen and Purple Circle for letting this be a conversation.
Not a performance.

Link in comments.

https://lnkd.in/gMUWui4a

🎙️ New Episode of Career Coaching Secrets

Leading across cultures requires more than strategy, it requires deep emotional intelligence.

Julie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith shares how she helps expats and multinational teams succeed in Vietnam by understanding Confucian values, trust building, and adaptive leadership.

Watch the full episode:

https://lnkd.in/gM_yMXH9

Open video: Delivering Value Across Borders: Julie Sivanthaphanith Coaching Philosophy on youtu.be

Delivering Value Across Borders: Julie Sivanthaphanith Coaching Philosophy

taplio

The Battle

Frederic Bonifassy

Julie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreFrederic Bonifassy's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJulie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Frederic Bonifassy

Julie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Frederic Bonifassy's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJulie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreFrederic Bonifassy's LinkedIn Performance