Managers earn trust from overseas Filipino staff by promising job security and never threatening to fire, dock pay, or publicly embarrass them. When employees feel safe, they stop just doing the minimum and start taking risks to improve performance.
I do things specifically to gain that person's trust in me, that I'm not going to yell at them, that I'm not going to fire them, that if they do something poor that they're not going to lose their job, that if they get sick they're not going to lose their job, that if they have a problem with their work or if they don't get along with someone else then they're not going to lose their job, that they're not going to not get paid, that I'm not going to dock them pay in the Philippines, they're scared of losing face. And if you don't reassure them that you're going to treat them well, that if you don't gain their trust that they trust you to treat them well, to take care of them, they don't want to go above and beyond and step out on a limb and risk doing something incorrectly versus just kind of getting it done and getting it done mediocre.
Stop Being the Dispatcher, Start Being the CEO: How to Scale Your Field Operations 🛠️
