Some leadership styles thrive at home yet stall abroad.
A confident communicator in Singapore comes across as aggressive in Laos. A detail-focused planner from Germany finds that timelines unravel in Indonesia. A collaborative Danish manager struggles to gain traction with his hierarchical Vietnamese team.
These aren’t failures in leadership. They’re mismatches in cultural code.
The question for contemporary global executives should not be, “How do I lead?” It should be, “How do I lead here?”
Leadership that travels well isn’t just a soft skill. It’s a strategic one. And it starts with cultural intelligence—the ability to interpret cultural codes, adapt your strategy, and then act effectively according to the cultural setting.
Leaders arrive at their international assignments with a toolkit built from experience. You can hardly blame them for that. They know what’s worked before, what behaviors have been rewarded previously, what feels natural. But acts of leadership don’t happen in a vacuum. Every act of leadership takes place in a specific cultural context and must be aligned with that context.
In ASEAN, cultural contexts differ from country to country. An approach that inspires initiative in Malaysia might breed discomfort in Myanmar. A coaching style that encourages openness in the Philippines might be met with a wall of silence in Thailand. Even within each country, cultural codes often differ according to geographical location, economic class, ethnicity, generational differences, and a host of other variables.
When leaders apply the same style everywhere, the result isn’t consistency. It’s friction.
What travels well across ASEAN isn’t rigid leadership style. It’s adaptive leadership guided by culturally intelligent habits.
Leaders have good intentions. But sometimes the best of intentions can backfire and lead to disappointing results.
You may intend to empower your team by encouraging direct feedback. But in a culture where indirectness is a form of respect, your constructive attempts to hold someone accountable may be met with silence.
You may intend to promote openness, empowerment, and transparency by pushing decision-making downward to junior team members. In many Western cultures, this would be seen as a good thing. It signals trust, transparency, and empowerment. The leader is saying, “I trust you. You’ve got this. You don’t need me to micromanage.” But in many Southeast Asian cultures, including Thailand, leaders are expected to be more directive and present—especially when important decisions need to be made. When leaders says,“You decide—I’m stepping back,” people may feel lost, unsupported, or even abandoned. The move that was meant to empower actually ends up feeling like the leader has disengaged.
What I’m talking about is a gap between good intentions and the interpretation of those intentions by others. You might intend to be approachable by sitting casually during a meeting. But in a culture where formality signals respect, others might interpret your posture as unprofessional or too relaxed for serious leadership.
Cultural intelligence helps you perceive this gap between intention and interpretation so you can adapt your leadership to get the results you want.
So what does culturally intelligent leadership actually look like on the ground? Here are five habits that help leaders operate with greater agility across ASEAN and beyond.
1. Observe Before You Act
Culturally intelligent leaders pause to study the room. They’re curious. They notice details. They notice who speaks first, who defers, how decisions are made, and “how things get done around here.” They are students of the cultural context.
They understand that listening isn’t a prelude to action. It’s a form of action that must precede other forms of action.
2. Build Trust in Local Ways
In some cultures, trust is built through competence (cognitive trust). “Demonstrate your expertise and I’ll trust you.” In other cultures, trust is built through relationship (affective trust). “I care that you are competent, but to trust you I need time to get to know you as a person.”
Executives with a global mindset adapt their approaches to building trust: showing credentials in Singapore, building rapport in Thailand, breaking bread in the Philippines.
Trust is the golden currency we can’t do without. But trust must be built according to the cultural context with it’s local codes of conduct.
3. Don’t Judge Too Quickly
Most of us have a natural inclination to judge cultural differences as good or bad. But the truth is, most of the time different isn’t bad. It’s just different. It may feel uncomfortable, but in the end it may actually have its merits.
Culturally smart leaders know this, so when confronted with culturally different ways of thinking, they have learned to slow things way down. Withhold judgment. Give a different approach the benefit of a doubt.
4. Practice Cultural Due Diligence for Each Encounter
One of the most remarkable things about being a global business leader is how many cultural contexts you can encounter you in just one day of work. A meeting with your Thai engineers. Then a call with the head office in Germany. Next, a video call with managers from 11 different cultures across the Pacific Rim. Followed by an afternoon with your leadership team consisting of French, German, Spanish, Israeli, Malaysian, and Thai colleagues.
Culturally smart leaders think ahead. They take a few minutes to remind themselves of the cultural gaps they are about to step into. They go with a plan for adapting their style in each meeting of the day.
5. Stay Curious
When a strategy or an initiative doesn’t land well, these leaders don’t double down on style—they double down on learning.
They ask, “What am I missing here?” They stay open to being coached by local counterparts. They lead with curiosity instead of control.
This humility isn’t weakness. It’s wisdom.
A common myth is that adapting your leadership style makes you inconsistent or inauthentic. But the opposite is true. Adaptive leadership is anchored in purpose. What changes is the delivery, not the direction.
The best cross-cultural leaders don’t sacrifice the clarity of their direction. They boost their relevance. They hold steady on principles, but flex in their approach. They’re not trying to fit in everywhere. They’re trying to connect meaningfully in each place.
That’s the kind of leadership that earns trust, mobilizes teams, and creates long-term impact.
As ASEAN continues to grow as an interconnected region, the ability to lead across borders is no longer reserved for expatriates or regional heads. It’s fast becoming essential for anyone guiding teams, partnerships, or change across cultures.
So pause for a moment and ask:
- Do I notice when my leadership style creates confusion?
- Am I building trust in ways that make sense here?
- How can I adjust my delivery without losing my direction?
Cultural intelligence isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about becoming the most actualized version of yourself. It’s about adapting your leadership style so that others buy in and want to follow.
And that, in the long run, is what ‘leadership that travels well’ looks like.
