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.

“Don’t take it personally.”
But in her culture, feedback is personal.

It’s where respect shows up, or disappears.

You wanted to be helpful. Clear. Straightforward. Fair.
She heard: public shame.

You walked away thinking: “Handled.”
She walked away thinking: “He doesn’t respect me.”
And now?
You still think she’s quiet because she’s shy.

But she’s not. She’s protecting herself.

Because in Vietnam, feedback isn’t just about what you said. It’s about how you performed the relationship while saying it.
Tone. Timing. Who was listening. 
Whether she felt safe enough to respond.

You were focused on improvement.
She was deciding whether to ever trust you again.

Different culture. Different rules.
Different performance of respect.

When you expect direct feedback and open challenge,
but your team avoids confrontation and softens the truth,
When you push for clarity,
but the team pulls for harmony,
That’s when the whole performance collapses.

Erin Meyer’s Cultural Map helps to spot where good intent gets lost in translation.

Feedback isn’t just a message.
It’s a cultural performance of respect.
If you skip the emotional labor, you don’t land the feedback. You lose the room.

Before giving feedback, ask yourself:
“How do I push for more while showing respect?”

Respect doesn’t look the same everywhere. But it always leaves a mark.

Leaders I coach don’t just give feedback that sounds right to them. They give feedback that feels respectful to the people receiving it.
→ Land feedback without breaking face
→ Keep performance conversations constructive
→ Protect both truth and trust
→ Earn loyalty across cultures
→ Build credibility that travels
→ Get seen as ready for their next leadership step

If this sounds like your last team debrief, performance review, or your last 1:1…
What are you waiting for to ask for my help?

A signal?
This is your signal.

Julie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith

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

8 months ago, I hit “post” and wondered if anyone cared:
Can we make cross-cultural leadership easier, faster, 
and more human for those landing in Vietnam & Asia?

Today, there are 5,000+ of you here.
And the truth is simple: I wouldn’t have made it without you.

Without the fellow creators whose ideas stretched mine.
Without those of you who read, liked, commented, shared and reminded me this work matters.
Without every leader who trusts me to help them build credibility and trust across cultures.

And without Erin Meyer’s #TheCultureMap:
a book that shaped not just how I think, but how I coach.
a book I’ve gifted to so many leaders, because it’s more than a framework: it’s a bridge.
A spark for conversations that change how teams work, how trust is earned, and how leadership lands.

Every single one of you has placed a keystone on this path.
Every conversation has shaped Keystoners into what it is today:
a space where culture is not an obstacle to leadership, 
but the key that unlocks it.

So, from the bottom of my heart: thank you.

Thank you for proving that cross-cultural leadership isn’t a niche skill: it’s a keystone for growth.
Thank you for showing that trust, credibility, and results don’t have to compete: they can compound.

This milestone isn’t mine alone. It’s ours.

And it’s just the beginning: the best is yet to come.

What’s the one cultural insight that changed the way you lead?


#CulturalFluency #CrossCultural #Vietnam #Keystoners

Say "thank you" too often in Vietnam,
and they'll know you're not from here.

You think you're building rapport.
They think you don't understand how things work.

Every time you over-thank, you're creating distance.

What most foreign leaders miss:
Vietnam sits at the extreme end of high-context communication on Erin Meyer's #theCultureMap. 
The US: far on the low-context side.

Low-context leaders spell everything out.
"Thank you." "Great job." "I appreciate this."

High-context cultures embed meaning in action, timing, and relationship.
Your team lead is still here at 8PM without a word.
She looped you in before the decision was made.
She made sure you walked into that meeting prepared.

That's not support.
That's loyalty, respect, and commitment.

Here's the disconnect:
While you're waiting for verbal confirmation, she's already shown you everything.

When you keep thanking her for standard collaboration, you signal: "I don't know the rules here. I'm operating as an outsider."

She reads: "He doesn't see what I'm actually contributing."

This shows up everywhere:
→ Your team agree in meetings but don't execute
→ Your "open door policy" stays empty
→ Performance reviews land like grenades

You're speaking low-context.
They're operating high-context.

Here's what my clients do differently:
✔️ Read respect in gestures, not just words
✔️ Adjust feedback style to match context
✔️ Recognize contribution before it's announced
✔️ Build trust through consistency, not transactions
✔️ Create traction for high-performance

To stop losing trust over invisible communication gaps, 
I creates the TeamOS: the system I use with multicultural teams to create shared communication codes and leadership trust bridges.
Instead of guessing how to show appreciation or give feedback, you define it together.

Strategic question for you:
How many high-context signals are you missing because you're listening in low-context?

Your team is showing up. Performing. Committing.
Just not in the language you were trained to hear.

Master this, and you unlock:
→ Influence
→ Trust
→ Execution

The leaders who crack this code stop feeling like outsiders managing from a distance.
They start leading like insiders who actually see what's happening.

Where are you on Meyer's scale, and where is your team?

That gap is either your blind spot or your next breakthrough.

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In Vietnam, credibility is built like a private joke:
You only get the punchline when you belong.

They all laughed: 
“Ah, it’s an old story. You had to be there.”
She wanted to ask. She wanted to join.
Instead, she smiled, pretending it would make her closer.

It works the same in Vietnam:
• You’ll hear the punchline:
the sentence that trails off, the team’s quiet nod, the glance that seals it.
• But unless you were there for the build-up: 
the side chats, the dinners, the cracks in the armor,
• You won’t get the joke.
And if you don’t get it, you don’t belong.
Which means no trust, no traction, no ripple.

Back home, my client would walk in, lay out the strategy, deliver on Day 3. And she’d earn trust by Day 4.
Here, you can be crystal clear.
You can have the perfect track record.
You can even hit targets from Day 1.
But none of it makes you belong.

→ It’s not how clear you are.
→ It’s not how impressive your CV looks.
→ It’s not how fast you prove yourself.
It’s how much they feel: you’re already part of them.

That’s how credibility works here:
Like a private joke → repeated, shared, earned.
Belonging is the backstory.
No backstory: then no punchline, and no credibility.

Erin Meyer’s Cultural map helps decode why my client’s strategy fell flat:
🇺🇸 She speaks low-context → “I say what I mean”
🇻🇳 They listen high-context → “I hint what I mean”
🇺🇸 She builds trust through performance.
🇻🇳 They feel it through shared history.

So every crystal-clear sentence she gave
→ landed like a punchline without a set-up.
→ sounded like strategy, but lacked the story.

That’s what I help my clients accelerate:
→ Build the shared context that makes every word land.
→ Earn the belonging that turns clarity into credibility.
→ Trigger the trust that unlocks traction, and traction that multiplies.

They stop delivering punchlines no one gets.
And start leading like insiders, where even silence speaks volumes.

That’s when the ripple starts:
Credibility. Traction. Step-up.

Ever feel like everyone else knew the backstory - except you?



I made the "5-min credibility decoder for Vietnam" for those moments.
Grab it in the comments.

"I finally understand why my team has been so quiet."
German client, in Vietnam for 13 months.

That's what he told me during coaching session #3.

Smart guy. Stellar track record.
Genuinely cares about his people.
And yet, completely blind to what was happening.

His Operations VP had been disagreeing with him for months. He just couldn't see it.

Because disagreement in Vietnam doesn't look like disagreement in Hamburg.
It looks like a slight bow of the head. Eyes that drop for half a second. A "maybe we should consider..." that means "this won't work."

But he kept hearing agreement.
His team kept trying to tell him things weren't working. He kept talking over their silence.

He'd been asking questions the German way: direct, immediate response expected.
She'd been answering the Vietnamese way: processing time needed, thoughts carefully formed before speaking.

Two people trying desperately to communicate.
Both failing.

After a team dinner, his VP finally said what no one dared to say out loud:
"You never listened to my concerns."
He had documentation proving he'd asked for her input dozens of times. She explained that asking isn't the same as hearing.
They were both right.

"You fill every silence and interrupting is rude. So we wait for you to finish. But you keep talking. Eventually the meeting ends and you think we agreed."

That was brutal: a punch in his chest, no oxygen.
He'd spent a year thinking his team was passive.
They'd spent a year thinking he didn't want their input.

The turning point came during our coaching session.
We walked through every conversation that mattered.
We defined a strategy: sit in the silence - literally.

The first time he tried: 
He asked a question.
And forced himself to stay quiet.
Counted in his head.

38 seconds.

Then his product manager started talking.
Carefully at first. Then faster. Then others joined in.
They made a decision in 40 minutes that would've normally taken weeks.

When he told me this, his voice cracked.

It wasn't a miracle.
It was a shift in how he listened.

Yesterday, he told me his Vietnam team is outperforming his German operations.

Not because they adapted to him.
But because together, we built a way for him to hear them.

"I kept trying to make them communicate like me; making things louder” he said. "But it’s always about making space for what’s already there.”

He was so proud (me too ☺️).

The silence was never empty.
He was just too loud to hear what it contained.

What might you finally hear if you gave the silence space to speak?

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"I don't need a spotlight. I just don't want to be left out."
- every foreigner in Vietnam, silently.

You're in the meeting. Someone asks a question in Vietnamese. Your manager answers in Vietnamese. Everyone's aligned. You have no idea what just happened.

At lunch, they switch to English when you arrive. 
5 minutes later, back to Vietnamese.

The Zalo group has 47 unread messages about your project. All in Vietnamese. By the time someone translates, the direction is set.

Asking feels like demanding special treatment.
Not asking means being sidelined.

And here's what makes it harder:
You come from a culture that says,
"Blend in, don't be the exception."

But in Vietnamese collectivism: you ARE the exception.
The team operates on shared context, shared language, shared humor.
That's not exclusion. That's default mode.
This isn't personal. It's structural.
And defaults don't change without intervention.

What to do:
Designate a cultural translator. 
Not you. Not your manager. Someone on the team.

Their job:
"Let me catch Linh up on that."
"Let's summarize that decision in English before we move on."
"I'll post the key points in English in Zalo."

Make it a role. Not a favor.
This removes the guilt from you and the cognitive load from them.

When inclusion becomes structural,
it stops being awkward.
The translator doesn't wait for you to ask.
The team doesn't forget you exist.
You stop feeling like the problem.

You're not asking them to be less Vietnamese.
You're asking them to build a bridge with you.

This is the kind of bridge I help leaders build in Vietnam.

What's worked for you for inclusion?

The #1 mistake I see expat leaders make in Vietnam?
They think results = trust.

That logic works elsewhere.
Deliver big, get recognized.

But in Asia, especially Vietnam, results are expected. 
They don’t buy you leadership.

Here’s why:
→ Speed without reading the room looks reckless.
→ Expertise without context creates distance, not respect.
→ Proving yourself too hard signals insecurity, even arrogance not authority.

The leaders who land change the equation.
They earn trust early, then let results amplify it.

They know credibility is cultural before it is technical.
This isn’t soft-skills theory. It’s operational reality.

I’ve seen leaders burn six months “proving themselves” when one trusted signal could have made them credible in six weeks.

Trust first. Authority second. Results third.
That’s the sequence no one hands you when you arrive.

I created a masterclass on this exact trust equation.
The link is in the comments.

“Why do I have to approve everything?”
Here, hierarchy isn’t dominance, it’s protection.
Top 5 performance blocker in Vietnam for foreigners.

You don’t resist hierarchy because you’re rigid.
You resist it because, to you, hierarchy means oppression.
Obedience over voice. Power over fairness. Titles over truth.
So you flatten it, and bring that model in Vietnam.

But here, hierarchy isn’t about power.
It’s about care.
It tells people where to stand, who leads, 
who shields the team when things go wrong.

This runs deep.
Confucianism said: order protects harmony.
Colonization punished dissent.
Centralized system rewarded silence.
Fast-growth leaves no time to ask, only to act.

So hierarchy became a shield.
Not over people. For people.

Yes, still, some companies here are authoritarian,
In family businesses, you may not challenge the top.
In state-owned orgs, control hides behind “respect.”
But that’s not Vietnamese culture.
That’s untrained leadership.

Hierarchy isn’t the enemy. 
Poor leadership inside hierarchy is.
Big difference.

My clients stop fighting the current. They ride it.
They use hierarchy to lead better, land deeper, earn trust faster.

If you keep seeing hierarchy as oppression,
you’ll keep fighting the very current that carries your team forward.

If you see it as protection,
you don’t just adapt, you fast-track trust.
You gain alignment, speed, and traction.
You move with the current - and go further.

Here, you don’t flatten everything. 
And you don’t throw away your values.
You translate them into what lands here.

How that shift looks like in action:

Empowerment
✖️“Speak up anytime.”
✔️“Here’s your space. I’ve got your back.”

Respect
✖️“We’re equals.”
✔️“I carry the weight. I protect your face.”

Inclusion
✖️“Let’s vote.”
✔️“You speak, I decide. No one takes the fall alone.”

Safety
✖️“It’s casual, no pressure.”
✔️“Clear roles. No one’s left exposed.”

Trust
✖️“I open up first.”
✔️“I hold steady, so you can rise.”

You’re not diluting your leadership. You’re anchoring it.

And the team steps up. Credibility lands. And traction finally sticks.

You feel clear. Trusted. Proud.

Because in Vietnam, trust doesn’t come from flatness.
It comes from the shield you carry,
The one that says “You’re safe. I’ve got your back”

What if it’s not hierarchy you’re resisting, but how you think it looks like?

You were sent to Vietnam for your expertise.
But your manager doesn't want your input.
They want obedience.

Not perspective. Not dialogue. Just:
"do what I say."

Your pride burns. You start doubting your value.
Years of expertise: dismissed. Your voice: gone.

Top5 expat traps in Vietnam:
Authoritarian leadership doesn't care what you know.
It cares that you comply.

Here, stakes aren't just professional.
Your visa, your apartment, your life is tied to that job.
One wrong move and you're packing your bags.

4 paths in Vietnam:

PATH 1: SPEAK UP

When: High stakes. Legal, safety, financial risk.
How to play:
→ Frame it as collective benefit, not personal opinion.
→ Do it 1:1, never in public.
→ Bring a solution, not just a problem.

PATH 2: WORK AROUND

When: You know better, but pushing won't land.
How to play:
→ Make it their idea. Face-saving wins.
→ Build trust with the team first.
→ Let them take credit publicly. You win quietly.

PATH 3: COMPLY STRATEGICALLY

When: Low stakes. You're building trust.
How to play:
→ Hierarchy runs deep: it's cultural, not weakness.
→ Document your compliance. Protect yourself.
→ Respect isn't surrender. It's cultural fluency.

PATH 4: LEAVE

When: Nothing changes. Health is suffering.
How to play:
→ Network before you quit. Expats hire expats.
→ Exit gracefully, reputation travels fast.
→ "New opportunity" beats "toxic boss."

This isn't about "being brave."
It's about being strategic in a context that plays by different rules.

The real power isn't in shouting louder.
It's in knowing when to speak, when to adapt, when to build alliances, and when to walk.

You can either feel trapped,
or walk this maze with a compass.

I built that compass through 20 years of global leadership and coaching.
And I give it to my clients: how to turn cultural power plays into strategic moves they control.

Which path fits your situation today?
And more importantly: are you walking it blind or with a compass?

A quick way to see how your leadership lands so your next move is clear & intentional: the 5-min Credibility Decoder.
Link in the comments.

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You expect predictability & plans.
Vietnam runs on context and fluidity.
→ Deadlines don't break first, trust does.

You said the project would be done Monday.
Monday comes: they say "Almost ready."
Tuesday. "We're making progress."
Wednesday. "Just a few more adjustments."
Thursday. "Sorry, some complications came up."

By Friday, you don't know what's real anymore.
The deadline keeps sliding. The answers stay vague.
You can't tell if it's 80% done or 8% done.
Complete fog.

One side wants certainty & visibility.
The other flows with context.
Neither side is wrong.
But when they meet, expectations break down.
And with it, trust and performance.

Using 2 scales of Erin Meyer's #TheCultureMap.
• scheduling: linear vs flexible
• communicating: low-context vs high-context

→ Quadrant I: Direct words lock the plan.
(linear + low-context)

→ Quadrant II : Plans shift and they'll tell you (flexible + low-context)

→ Quadrant III: Plans are firm, read subtle cues to track progress (linear + high-context)

→ Quadrant IV, the most complex quadrant:
Plans shifts and read the cues to know when they do (flexible + high-context)

This is the double complexity.
You're adjusting to flexible scheduling and learning indirect communication.
BOTH at once.

In Vietnam, the roots are deep.
Harmony beats the clock (Confucianism).
Time doesn’t hold, it flows (Taoism).
It bends for people, not plans.

That's not chaos.
That's a system designed around different priorities.

The upside of fluidity you didn't see coming:
• Fast pivots when priorities shift.
• Real-time problem-solving without layers of process.
• Flexible teams that adapt to context, not just plans.
• Space for life, because people matter here.
• Spontaneity = speed, not chaos.

What to do:
→ Build buffer: need it Monday, ask for it Thursday.
→ Invest in relationships: trust opens the real timeline.
→ Decode "yes": enthusiastic yes, polite yes, maybe-later yes.
→ Confirm same-day. Plans shift overnight.
→ Listen between lines. “We’ll try our best” = low confidence, "It might be difficult" means no. "No problem" means I heard you, not I agree.
→ Ask smart. “What might get in the way?” rather than “Can you do it?”
→ Pick your battles. Save firmness for what matters.

You can't eliminate the double fluidity.
But you can learn to move with it.

The ones who figure out both stop feeling lost in the fog. 
They see the patterns. My clients leverage them.

And they build the trust that makes everything else possible.

What's harder for you: the flexible time or the indirect communication? 
This is exactly what I help leaders close fast.

"You need cultural training."
No. You need to lead better.

There's a difference.

Training gives you knowledge.
Coaching gives you performance.

You can sit through a workshop and learn every nuance of Vietnamese culture, and still stumble the first time your feedback misses the mark.
My work is about helping you lead through that reality, not just recite the theory.

Intercultural training has its place: it builds the foundation. But leadership doesn’t happen in a classroom. It happens in the messy, high-stakes moments where trust can deepen or disappear.

That’s where cross-cultural coaching steps in:
to turn cultural awareness into leadership performance.

Training says: "Here's how feedback works in Vietnam."

Coaching says: "Let's work through how you're going to have that performance conversation with your team lead tomorrow without losing her trust or the message."

One is information. The other is transformation.
Information doesn’t change teams. Performance does.

You don't need another slide deck about high-context communication.

You need someone in your corner when you're navigating a tense team dynamic, preparing for a difficult conversation, or figuring out why your leadership style isn't landing.

Coaching is personal. It's ongoing. It's about you, your team, your real situations.

It addresses the emotional weight of leading across cultures. The doubt. The misreads.
The moments when you question if you're cut out for this.

And when it works, everything shifts.
You stop second-guessing every conversation.
Your team moves with you instead of around you.
And the credibility you used to fight for starts to follow you.

Cultural awareness is the starting point. Leadership performance is the goal.

If you want to understand culture, start with a training.
If you want that knowledge to lead better and advance faster, pair it with coaching.
And if that's what you need: let's talk.

What do you actually need right now?
More cultural facts, or the kind of coaching that gets your leadership landing faster?

Two cultures. One logo.
A constant tug-of-war over what drives results.

At HQ, speed is how results are built. 
In Vietnam, trust is how they’re unlocked.

At HQ, challenge makes decisions sharper. 
In Vietnam, challenge makes trust disappear.

At HQ, results create credibility. 
In Vietnam, credibility creates results.

At HQ, flat structure gives ownership. 
In Vietnam, authority get things done.

None of this is wrong.
But together, they split your company in two.

Two definitions of trust. Two ways of earning credibility.
Two ideas of what “good leadership” even means.

And in that invisible tug-of-war, decisions don’t stick.
Trust drains. Projects stall.
Great leaders look smaller than they are.
Great teams lose their edge.
The company trades speed for drag, growth for friction, and potential for politics.

This isn’t a people problem. It isn’t a leadership gap.
It’s a culture operating system problem.

Most companies try to run one system on two cultures, and bleed performance in the gap.

That’s why I built CultureOS:
a system that decodes how HQ and Vietnam define trust, leadership, and success, then turns those differences into a custom-built operating system that accelerates execution, scales performance, and fuels growth.

It doesn’t erase either culture.
It builds an OS that makes both work: together.

When your company runs on one OS:
✔️ Strategy lands.
✔️ Growth compounds.
✔️ Scale accelerates.
✔️ Impact multiplies.

While your company still runs HQ values on a local OS, 
how much speed and trust is it costing you?

I don’t usually lead with my background when I coach leaders.
But sometimes it helps explain why I care so much about this.

I’m French-Vietnamese.
Which means I’ve always lived in-between: the insider who also feels like the outsider.
I spent 20 years building a career across France, China, Vietnam.
Rose to Partner at AB InBev. Led in finance, marketing, innovation.
All high-speed, high-stakes environments.

But what shaped me most weren’t the wins. It was the moments where my identity didn’t land: where I was misunderstood, or where my “global playbook” fell flat.

Those scars taught me something most leadership books never cover:
Credibility doesn’t travel automatically. You have to land it, every time, in every room.

That’s why I coach the way I do.
Not to teach theory, but to pass on what I wish someone had told me years earlier.

When leaders move into Vietnam, they often think they need:

❌ To prioritize performance to earn credibility
❌ Months of “quiet work” before speaking up
❌ To mimic local styles completely

But here’s the danger: every one of those moves makes you smaller. And smaller leadership doesn’t land.

Because what lands here isn’t output, silence, or full adaptation.
It’s presence.
It’s traction built through trust.
It’s clarity that respects the culture, without erasing you.

What you actually need:
✅ Clarity on cultural cues → so you know what’s expected vs. what’s just noise
✅ Signals of early trust → a few right actions that compound into credibility
✅ Resilience under pressure → because it’s not the smooth weeks that define you, it’s the tough ones everyone remembers

The belief shift is simple:
It’s not about proving harder.
It’s about landing earlier.

That’s why the leaders I coach don’t waste a year trying to “blend in.”
They show up clearly, credibly, and fast,
And the culture meets them there.

What’s one move you thought would help, but held you back instead?


Want to know how your leadership is landing today in Vietnam?
I built a tool for that: the 5-min Credibility Decoder in Vietnam
Link in comments.

In Singapore, she led with speed. In the US, strategy.
In Vietnam, neither landed.
Fast forward six months:

She’s landed her leadership:
✔️ Her team takes ownership and steps up
✔️ Trust grows thicker with each project
✔️ Her credibility travels, room to room, border to border

But 6 months earlier, she led like results = trust
✘ She ran twice as fast to cover invisible resistance
✘ Small missteps kept eroding her momentum
✘ she’d still feel like she was proving, not leading

The hidden cost wasn’t lost time, it was lost compounding. Because in cross-cultural leadership, trust is the interest rate.
The earlier you earn it, the faster everything grows.

TeamOS is the system I created to fix that.

Not a feel-good workshop.
Not culture theory.
It’s an operational OS for cross-cultural teams that need to deliver, fast.

We map your team’s trust reflexes across Erin Meyer’s dimensions.
We decode hidden resistance.
We rebuild team habits that fit the context, without diluting your standards.

The shift isn’t cosmetic. It’s structural.
From passive meetings → to clear contribution
From vague alignment → to visible accountability
From polite agreement → to real traction

Because in Vietnam, aligned trust isn’t a bonus. It’s your fastest lever to performance.

The leaders who install TeamOS don’t just reduce friction. They unlock a team that moves with them, not against them.

Want to see what friction is costing your team?
Let’s map where your team’s traction is stuck.

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