Julie Nguyen Sivanthaphanith's Linkedin Analytics

Misread disagreement today. Spend 10x more fixing it next quarter. Your team nods. No pushback. You assume alignment. Then deadlines drift. Ownership fades. And no one tells you why. In Vietnam, silence isn’t agreement. It’s pressure. It’s protection. It’s often a quiet “no” no one voiced. Across cultures, disagreement sounds different: 🇫🇷 “I disagree. Let’s talk it through.” 🇺🇸 “Let’s challenge that, no hard feelings: it's just business.” 🇻🇳 “Who’s aligned?”, (smile) “What’s the risk?” Pushback takes many forms: a delay, a deflection, a quiet pivot, a silence. Miss it, and you don’t just lose clarity. You lose time, trust, and momentum you’ll pay 10x to rebuild. 🟧 This is what I coach senior leaders on: How to catch cultural resistance before it hits delivery. So they lead from Day 1: with clarity, not cleanup. Because misalignment doesn’t just delay you. It drains ROI. It slows teams. And it quietly chips away at your credibility. My clients don’t second-guess anymore. They lead faster, with clarity, control, and teams that actually follow. 🔶 What signs of pushback are you still missing and what’s it already costing you? #CrossCulturalLeadership #CulturalFluency #Keystoners

If I say it's cultural, will they blame me?  Will they think I'm the problem?  Will they think I'm failing? Those questions echoed more times then I can count: ➝ Joining international teams ➝ Starting over in China ➝ Leading in Vietnam ➝ Even back in France Because with a name like mine, I've always lived in-between 😉 And every time, I hesitated. If I said nothing, I stayed stuck. If I said “maybe it’s cultural,” I feared sounding ignorant or arrogant. Or like I didn't belong. Or worse, like I'd failed. Saying “this might be cultural” didn't feel safe. I was hired to lead, not to question the environment. Expected to adapt, not to challenge unspoken rules. Brought in to deliver, not to doubt every turn. I wanted to be respectful, not reductive. To integrate, without crossing a line I couldn't see. To succeed, without losing myself in the process. And when no one could tell me what was really going on, I started to wonder if the problem was me. Here's the truth: Culture is often the reason. But no one inside can name it. Not because they’re hiding it. Because they’re living it. Like fish in the water, they don't see it. And if you’re the outsider, you feel the current,  but you can’t find the source. It’s not in your head. It’s not just your style. And no, it’s not that you’re too direct, too soft, too foreign, too new. You’re not imagining the friction. You’re just trying to lead through it, without a map. I see this in every global leader I coach: They second-guess. They (over) adjust. They walk a tightrope between being respectful and being real. They feel the drag. They see things drift. But naming it feels risky, and fixing it feels impossible. This is where outside perspective isn’t just helpful, it’s a strategic edge. And that’s where I come in. 🟧 Not to simplify. Not to stereotype. 🟧 Not to drop in culture theory and disappear. 🟧 Not with one-size-fits-all playbooks. But to turn the culture fog into focused clarity that leaders can act on - fast. I don’t help you "name" the culture. I help you lead through it. → With traction in your team → Influence in the room → And confidence in yourself Because cultural fog doesn’t just confuse. It misaligns teams. It clouds priorities. It costs you time, trust, and execution power. 🔶 What if clarity & results were just one conversation away? You don’t need another theory. You need traction.  Let’s unlock it. #CrossCulturalLeadership #CulturalFluency #Leadership #Keystoners

Did you get the playbook for Vietnam? Most leaders waste weeks trying to build credibility... the wrong way. They lead like they did back home. Clear. Fast. Driven. And it backfires. They explain the strategy. Ask for input. Push for alignment. The team nods... then goes quiet. Decisions stall. Respect fades. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath? Cultural signals they can’t read. Leadership habits that suddenly don’t land. ↳ Cultural friction that drains their ROI and career. I've lived it. My clients face it everyday. 🟧 I help leaders building their cultural accuracy. It's a leadership skill, practiced in meetings, emails, even silences, for example. Like learning how not to challenge ideas in a group, but build support quietly beforehand. That changes everything. 🔶 Why waste time & energy, instead of building trust that moves your career forward? #CrossCulturalLeadership #Leadership #Keystoners #Vietnam

Dear Younger Julie, you mastered time to be unshakable. Until Vietnam taught you to trust the present over the plan. Calendars: flawless. Vacations: locked in months ahead. Deadlines: nailed. It felt powerful. Safe. Predictable. And then I moved to Vietnam. And nothing ran on time. Meetings shifted. Plans dissolved. “Let’s see” was the most honest answer anyone gave. I panicked. Just sand under my feet. But it wasn't chaos. It was trust: Trust that life happens. Trust that presence earns more than precision. Trust that leadership adapts, it doesn't grip. I didn't let go of my standards. I let go of certainty. And found something deeper than control: Presence. Adaptability. Leadership across cultures, not just calendars. That’s the shift I now help leaders make, when stepping into new teams, new cultures, and new expectations. To lead through change, fast, without losing themselves. Because the leader you become next won’t be the one who controls time. But the one who earns trust, in moments no plan could prepare for. 🔶 So let’s ask it clearly: Where is your grip on control slowing down the leader you could already be? #CrossCulturalLeadership #Coaching #Keystoners

“They’re lying.” another leader told me last week.  Frustrated. Disappointed. Blindsided. He’s built teams in four countries. Delivered results on three continents. Now: stuck in Vietnam. “I gave clear KPIs. They said yes. Then nothing.” For 8 months now, what he doesn’t see is this: He’s still leading like elsewhere. Still expecting culture to flex. Still believing strategy beats context. And it's draining, Every day it's a quiet but constant tension. Here, “yes” doesn’t mean yes. It can mean: 🔸 I heard you 🔸 I’ll think about it 🔸 I won’t challenge you, here and now 🔸 I disagree, but won’t say it It’s not deception. It’s protection. And when you refuse to adapt, you mistake self-protection for sabotage. That’s not just friction. That’s a leadership liability. He’s not failing from lack of intelligence. He’s failing from lack of adaptability. And lack of cultural fluency, the one thing his title can’t give him. 🟧 I don’t teach etiquette. I coach my clients to:  ✔️ Unlearn what no longer works ✔️ Decode what teams won’t say ✔️ Rebuild credibility in a culture that won’t say it twice Because if you don't shift : 🔸 Decisions get reversed 🔸 Trust erodes 🔸 Credibility fades 🔸 Results slips, and no one tells you why And the rupture? You won’t see it coming. But you’ll feel it when the next promotion passes you by. 🔶 What promotion are you skipping because you haven't built cultural fluency? #CrossCulturalLeadership #Leadership #GlobalLeadership #Keystoners

France taught me to give feedback directly. The US to sugarcoat it. Vietnam to make it feel not personal. As a manager, I’ve always believed feedback is how we grow talent. But across cultures, it sounds very different. 🇫🇷 “This isn’t deep-dived enough. Here’s what needs to change.” 🇺🇸 “You’re doing great, just a couple of areas to work on.” 🇻🇳 “This is just my humble view... maybe we can look at it again together.” In Vietnam, I learned that feedback easily feels personal, even when it's meant to help to improve the work only. But I don’t believe in skipping it. I believe in making it land, in saying what matters, in a way that still builds trust, across cultures. That’s the shift I help leaders master. And feedback drives growth, not distance. 🔶 What does feedback sound like on your team? #Leadership #CrossCulturalLeadership #Coaching #Keystoners

They thought alignment was there. But every culture heard something else. Lunches split by nationality. Teams agree in meetings, then pull in opposite directions. 🔸 Decisions made, then reversed. 🔸 Resources wasted. 🔸 Features delayed. 🔸 Execution misfires. A senior leader at a fast-scaling tech company told me: “Everyone sees the problem. But no one knows what to do.” This isn’t about awareness. It's not about understanding culture. 🟧 It’s about culture blocking traction, quietly. This is the hidden friction that eats execution from the inside. Alignment becomes illusion. Good intentions leak ROI. Strategy stalls: not from resistance, but misfire. ⬛ I don’t teach cultural theory. I coach leaders turn cultural friction into confident execution by tomorrow morning. 🟧 Because in global teams: ➝ If you don't upgrade your leadership to cultural fluency, ↳ you’ll keep fixing symptoms instead of solving the root problem: culture. But the moment you shift from awareness to fluency: ✔️ Decisions stick. ✔️ Teams follow through. ✔️ Trust builds speed, not delay. ✔️ Innovation moves. ⬛ And traction finally catches up to your strategy. 🟧 Where did your team align this week, only to pull in opposite directions? #CrossCulturalLeadership #CulturalFluency #Execution #Keystoners

If you don’t see the culture, you’ll keep blaming the team. Catching up with an old friend, I told him I was working on a leadership program for a company with 4 different nationalities. I shared this story: Indian colleagues eat lunch together. Vietnamese eat with Vietnamese. Russians with Russians. Brazilians with Brazilians. No mingling. No friction. Just isolation. Then he said: “Well, they just don’t know each other.” Typical answer. The assumption is: it’s personality. They need team-building. Or a better onboarding. But the problem isn’t that they don’t know each other. It’s that they don’t read the same signals. They don’t share the same rules of communication and trust. And that slows the system. So alignment looks fine… …until it frays in execution. Talents disengage. Projects get delayed. Clients grow frustrated. Then comes attrition, lost revenue, stalled momentum. Underneath all this: a quiet fog. Everyone feels the tension,  but no one names it. People wonder: Is it the culture of the team?  The company? The country? Or is it just them? But this isn’t a mindset problem. And textbook cultural knowledge won’t fix it. You need someone who speaks the unspoken. Who can surface what everyone feels,  but what no one knows how to say, in real time, in real work. 🟧 That’s what I coach leaders to do. Not just understand culture. But lead across it, in meetings, in moments, and in the decisions that move business forward. Because when culture shapes how trust, power, and clarity flow, and no one’s addressing it, it’s not just a human risk. It’s a leadership liability. 🔶 What’s one issue on your team that looks like performance but might actually be cultural? #CrossCulturalLeadership #CulturalFluency #Keystoners

If your team keeps saying “yes”, but delivers nothing, you're leaking ROI. It's not strategy. It's culture. 🟠 Deadlines slip. 🟠 Talent drifts. 🟠 Budgets burn. 🟠 Execution fails. 🟠 Credibility stalls. And those are just some visible costs. That’s not a communication gap. That’s ROI leaking. Cross-cultural fluency isn't optional, not if ROI matters: it's non-negotiable. It’s speed. Trust. Retention. It’s your credibility in motion. It affects how efficiently you lead, how your team performs, and how fast your work pays off. This is operational, measurable, business-critical. I coach executives to turn culture from a silent drag... into a strategic driver of ROI in Vietnam, from Day 1. Experience, clients' and mine, shows that rebuilding credibility always costs more than getting it right from Day 1. Ignore this, and the leak grows.

You didn’t lose the room. You gave it away. One silence at a time. 🔸 You lead the meeting. Silence. They follow someone else’s cues. 🔸 You present the plan. Silence. They wait for someone else to make it land. 🔸 You follow up. Silence. They respond once someone else reframes it. 🔸 You ask for alignment. Silence.  They look to someone else before deciding. And silently…  you’ve stopped leading. Not because you meant it, but because you're not culturally fluent,  And someone else stepped in. You lost ownership. These silences? They’re just the symptoms you can hear. They are not confusion. They are lack of buy-in. If your way of persuading doesn’t land, they’ll wait for someone else who does. And how to persuade is different in every culture. 🇫🇷 "Let’s begin with the logic. Here’s the framework." 🇺🇸 “It worked in two other markets, let’s move fast and test it here.” 🇻🇳 “Who’s aligned? What’s the timing? What are the risks?” You weren't hired to translate. You were hired to lead. But every time someone else fills the cultural gap, you give away the trust & the ownership, that should be yours. Cultural fluency is a skill. And I’ve helped leaders build it, in Vietnam, and across Asia. They don’t just adapt faster. They win trust, earn respect, and lead on their own terms. There’s never been a better time to own the room and lead like you belong in it. 🔶 What are you still outsourcing that leadership asks you to own? #Leadership #CrossCulturalLeadership #CulturalFluency #Vietnam #Keystoners

Tomorrow’s the day! Excited to join the Overseas Vietnamese community for a live session on: 🌏 Cross-Cultural Leadership for Global Vietnamese Because being “in-between” cultures isn’t a limitation, it’s a leadership edge. We’ll dive into real conversations, hidden expectations, and how to bridge cultures without losing yourself in the process. Let’s turn lived experience into credibility, clarity, and connection. 🟧 Let’s lead across cultures — together. https://lnkd.in/g3XhyZ7f

Lead with your title: you stay the foreigner. Lead with cultural fluency: you unlock what your title promised. They gave you the role, expecting traction, trust and transformation. But what your title promised... isn’t landing. You speak with clarity. They nod, then move sideways. You push for alignment. They say yes, then act differently. You follow up. And they check with your boss instead. And it’s not just your team. It’s peers who loop you out. Partners who stall. A boss who hesitates to back you. Because no one is sure of how much buy-in you really have. And neither are you. This is Vietnam. And here, influence doesn't come from hierarchy. It comes from quiet alignment, From emotional safety. From reading what others won't say out lout. From so much more. That's cultural fluency. The skill that makes you land 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 the system,  not just 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙫𝙚 it on the org chart. My clients don't just adapt: They earn the trust their title alone can't secure, and lead with credibility that sticks. Because once you stop leading like an outsider, everything changes:  No-second guesses. More honest input.  Real buy-in. You weren't hired to stand in the room. You were hired to move it. 🔶 Where are you still treated like a foreigner, when you were hired to lead? #CrossCulturalLeadership #Communication #Keystoners

What does it take to succeed in Vietnam? That question lit up our CEIBS GEMBA panel yesterday in Ho Chi Minh City. ▪️4 panelists. ▪️4 industries, real estate, green building, environmental sustainability, and executive coaching ▪️1 shared answer: 👉 Trust. Not as a buzzword, but as a strategic investment. Because in Vietnam, you don’t lead by pushing harder. You go slow 𝙖𝙩 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩: to earn speed through trust, not pressure. That's when execution becomes fast, loyal, and quietly powerful. Vietnam isn't slow. It runs on a different rhythm: built on respect, emotional safety, and quiet alignment. My clients who take time to earn trust here aren’t just respected, they become the ones teams run with, not just work for. I help them uncover their unique trust-building approach, rooted in who they are and not just where they lead. One participant asked, “But is Vietnam really worth the time it takes to get started?” Our answer: Absolutely. 🇻🇳 Because Vietnam isn’t just culturally rich. It’s economically strategic. 🔸 By 2030, 21 million Vietnamese will join the middle class 🔸 41% urbanization and growing 🔸 96% literacy  🔸 #8 in Asia for English proficiency 🔸 Median age of 33, with strong digital adoption Crack the code here, and you’re not just growing business, you’re building global leadership legacy. 🙏 Big thanks • to my fellow panelists Mark Petrovic, Guillaume Gimonet, Gaspard Lemoine-Scelles for the sharp insights on stage • to China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) GEMBA cohort, team and professor Bala Ramasamy for creating the space for real, grounded and high-quality discussion. Eddie Xi Ph.D/EMBA/PCC, Romain Decourcelle, PhD, Annabelle Cao, Yanye (Jenny) Jiang, Benoit Sassin, Kevin Loo, CPA,: I enjoyed so much to bond with fellow alumni. If you’ve worked across Vietnam, China, or France, what was your biggest trust-building surprise? #CrossCulturalLeadership #ExecutiveCoaching