Glenn Daniels II

Touch Stone Publishers

Chief Operating Officer

Touchstone Publications

The Science of Goal Setting
Why Smart Goal Setting is Dumb
●   Ted Talk
●   Personal Development Seminar
●   Management and Leadership Development


http://touchstonepublishers.com
http://glenndaniels2.com

Author and Speaker

Optum

●   Helping employees cultivate their skills and knowledge
●   Providing skills, techniques and resources in ways that motivate employees

Operational Effectiveness Team

Experiential Keynote Speaker & Engaging Content Creator for Senior Level Leaders | Empowering Leadership Excellence for Your Organization

"I help leaders across all industries create a multi-generational legacy of excellence through transformative keynote speeches, impactful coaching, and content that inspires actions.

What I Do: I specialize in helping organizations enhance their leadership capabilities, which leads to measurable increases in productivity. We achieve success through an experiential learning program that is tailored to your company's unique culture. By focusing on communication skills, we help reduce turnover, increase employee accountability, and build a highly productive team, thus alleviating your stress. Our leadership programs and keynotes are interactive and enjoyable, designed to drive genuine transformation. We utilize the Kirkpatrick Model to demonstrate sustained learning within your organization.

How We Do It: We offer a comprehensive training program that includes on-site training, followed by up to six months of online coaching and weekly assignments to help refine your leaders' skills continuously. We are dedicated to developing workshops that provide real improvements to your leadership team. Our keynote presentations are designed to be highly experiential, ensuring that you gain long-lasting benefits that extend well beyond the event itself.

Why It Works:With over 30 years of coaching experience, I have recognized the importance of training programs—especially those focused on soft skills—having a measurable impact on return on investment (ROI). We accomplish this by reducing labor costs through lower turnover rates, improving coaching and counseling processes, assisting your team in selecting superior candidates, and empowering leaders to inspire and motivate their teams effectively. This comprehensive approach not only increases overall productivity but also ensures that your leadership team is equipped with the skills, techniques, and motivation to implement what they have learned. Additionally, they will continue to develop their capabilities with our support for up to six months following our on-site training. 

**Your Satisfaction 100% Guaranteed**
Looking for a keynote speaker to inspire and transform your leadership team? Let’s connect."
"Read my latest blog post for practical insights on effective leadership: https://touchstonepublishers.com

📞 Schedule a brief call with me now:
- Call: 720 767 1827 and leave a message for a call back.

The resignation didn't happen in a dramatic boardroom showdown. It happened via a Slack message at 9:14 PM on a Tuesday.

"I'm out. Sent the formal letter to HR."

This was my Lead Architect. The person holding the keys to our AI integration. I called him immediately. 

"It's not the money," he said, his voice flat. "It's the latency. I spent six months waiting for approval to refactor the core loop because the annual objectives were locked in January. By the time we got permission, the market had moved. I can't work in a museum."

We hadn't failed him on compensation. We failed him on clock speed.

We were managing him against a compliance rubric while he was trying to manage an exponential technology. The friction between our static governance and his dynamic reality ground him down until he simply disconnected.

High-velocity talent will not tolerate low-velocity infrastructure. We lost our best asset because we insisted on measuring him by last year's calendar.

We isolated the specific metrics for Learning Velocity in the 'Learning Velocity Architecture'. It is a triage kit for your HR stack.

Get the Quick Reference Guide: https://lnkd.in/gTCdVsMu

Empowering Senior Executives With Curated Intelligence | From Data to Decision—Leadership Growth, Clarity, and Results | Touch Stone Publishers

Access your Quick Reference Guide and unlock your AI Production Grid Lock!
https://lnkd.in/g8Rn9jtr

Most organizations are currently incinerating capital on what I call 'Innovation Pantomime.'

We analyzed 40 recent enterprise 'AI implementations.' The pattern is stark. 70% represent zero functional utility—they are merely legacy workflows with a generative interface slapped on top. This is the Capability Gap disguised as progress.

The math doesn't hold. If you deploy a tool that saves 15 minutes per employee per day, but requires 20 minutes of prompt engineering and verification to function reliably, you have not innovated. You have introduced structural friction.

The 2nd-order consequence is more dangerous: Organizational Cynicism. When leadership celebrates tools that do not actually work, high-performers disengage. They smell the theater.

Strategic leaders must pivot from 'adoption metrics' (how many logins?) to 'utility metrics' (what distinct economic value was created?).

If the output requires more human verification than the original task took to execute, kill the pilot. The goal isn't AI everywhere. It is leverage where it matters.

We have codified the framework for distinguishing high-value leverage from digital noise. Equip your leadership team: For the Quick Reference Guide check here: https://lnkd.in/g8Rn9jtr

You can access your Quick Reference Guide here:
https://lnkd.in/g8Rn9jtr

The AI Theater Detector: Separating Hype from Utility

The demo was flawless. The interface was sleek, 'Cobalt Blue' accents glowing on the 85-inch screen. The vendor promised us a revolution in our supply chain logistics.

Then the CFO, a woman who has navigated three market crashes and built this company from a garage, asked a single question.

"Walk me through the error reconciliation process when the model hallucinates an inventory shortage."

The room went quiet. The vendor clicked to a backup slide. "Well, the human in the loop would..."

And there it was. The gap. The shiny tool wasn't replacing the work; it was hiding the complexity. We weren't buying leverage; we were buying a subscription to a new kind of headache.

Real value is rarely cinematic. It looks like dirty data being cleaned, boring governance protocols being established, and your best people quietly getting 10x faster at the hard stuff.

Don't fall for the glow. Look for the gears.

We have codified the framework for distinguishing high-value leverage from digital noise. Equip your leadership team: For the Quick Reference Guide check here: The AI Theater Detector: Separating Hype from Utility - Touch Stone Publishers LTD

Stop celebrating 'AI Adoption'. It is a vanity metric.

I see leaders patting themselves on the back because 80% of their staff have ChatGPT accounts. This isn't a strategy; it's a license for chaos.

Here is the uncomfortable truth: Most of what passes for 'AI Strategy' in the C-Suite right now is just fear of missing out, dressed up in a slide deck.

You are likely backing 'AI Theater' if:
1. The use case is 'content creation' rather than 'decision intelligence'.
2. No one can explain the data lineage.
3. The 'efficiency gains' are projected, never measured.

We need to unlearn the impulse to buy the tool before defining the problem. Real capability building hurts. It requires retraining your workforce to think probabilistically, not just handing them a text generator.

If it feels like magic, it’s probably a trick. If it feels like engineering, you’re on the right track.

We have codified the framework for distinguishing high-value leverage from digital noise. Equip your leadership team: For the Quick Reference Guide check here:

Open article: The AI Theater Detector: Separating Hype from Utility by touchstonepublishers.com

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

"Why doesn't it feel safe to be honest?"
In Vietnam, speaking up can look like stepping out of the line.

You ask your team for honest opinions.
You get silence.

They DO have thoughts.
But sharing them feels like defiance.

In Vietnam, disagreement isn't just risky.
It's a performance of disrespect.

You think you're building trust by inviting debate.
They think you're testing loyalty by watching who speaks up.

That's the invisible gap.

Vietnam is at the crossroads of two cultural forces:
→ Avoids confrontation: disagreeing feels like disrespect
→ Hierarchical: the leader decides
per data of Erin Meyer's #TheCulturalMap

When you push for open debate, you're not building engagement. You're creating stress.

Your team isn't resisting. 
They're protecting relationships.

The cost shows up later:
Slow execution. No buy-in. Quiet exits.

What actually works:
Instead of: "What do you think about this approach?"
Try: "I need your help to make this better. What am I missing?"

Instead of: "Does anyone disagree?"
Try: "I want to test this with you privately. Can we talk after?"

Instead of: "Let's talk about this as a team."
Try: "I'd like your input before I finalize this. Coffee tomorrow?"

Frame disagreement as helping you succeed, 
not challenging your authority.

Give people private channels to be honest.
A 1:1 conversation. A follow-up message.

Then decide clearly.
Don't ask for input and then ignore it.
Don't leave things ambiguous.
Say: "Thanks for your feedback. Here's what we're doing and why."

Clarity gives them confidence to execute.
Ambiguity makes them wait for you to decide anyway.

In Vietnam, influence isn't earned by being right in the room. It's earned by making it safe to be honest outside of it.

My clients don't force "Western-style" debate.
They adapt how trust gets built.
And their teams move faster because of it.

Ready to build trust without breaking honesty?

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

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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?

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.

You can't reprogram your team.
Culture isn't a preference.
It's a lifetime of wiring.

It's not a habit they picked up last year.
It's decades of conditioning.

Family dinners. School discipline.
How respect is shown. How conflict is avoided.
How hierarchy works.
Years of patterning before you ever became their leader.

Then you arrive, trying to "shift" 10, 15 people who've been programmed since birth.

In every Cultural Lab session I run, I see this:
across countries, industries, and seniority.

Leaders lean in and ask:
"But why do they behave like this?"

They want the answer: the pattern, the key to unlock their team.
I give them the why: the cultural logic, the years of shaping behind every behavior.

They think they're asking to understand.
Most of the time, they're asking to 𝘧𝘪𝘹.

And the moment you get the answer, you're still one person trying to rewire 15.
That's a losing strategy: mathematically and culturally.

Not a smart use of your energy.

But changing yourself: that's one person.
That's doable. And practical.

When you stop fighting their programming and start navigating it, the whole system unclogs.
Meetings flow. Resistance softens. Trust builds.
They move with you instead of bracing against you.
Performance accelerates because you're no longer pushing against the current.

The math is simple:
𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝟭 (𝘆𝗼𝘂) → 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝟭𝟱 (𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺).

Culture isn't something you fix in your team.
It's something you learn to navigate, so your leadership actually works.
That’s the only strategy that actually gets results, fast.

Start with the one variable fully in your control: how you show up.

What's the first shift you know you need to make?

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.

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

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?

taplio

The Battle

Glenn Daniels II

Julie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith

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taplio

The Battle

Glenn Daniels II

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);}Glenn Daniels II's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJulie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreGlenn Daniels II's LinkedIn Performance