[Transcript]

Jan Griffiths: 00:37

Have you heard the news? Stellantis has reversed its decision on the new terms and conditions. Yes, they did. Allow me to quote you from the automotive news article. "Stellantis reverses controversial changes in contract terms for suppliers. The reversal is a victory for suppliers, which have watched the top and bottom lines bleed amid supply chain volatility. While automakers haul in profits. The move follows Stellantis naming a new purchasing chief last week." Wow. There it is. Amazing. Congratulations Stellantis! I am so glad that you did the right thing. I'll be interested to see what they plan to do next, to rebuild the lost trust. Yes, the trust was not particularly strong to begin with. And what we've been through in the last several months was Stellantis did not help. It has further eroded trust. And the cost of the supply base has been significant. And quite frankly, needless the time and energy spent understanding and responding to the new terms, along with the legal cost to draft letters and the overall bad feelings and mistrust generated. When all of this was really quite pointless. We would have all been better served focusing our energy on something more positive, like oh, I don't know, innovation, improving speed to market employee engagement and so many other productive things. But hey, I have to give them credit for making the decision to go back to the previous terms. And I'll be watching closely to see what they do next, to not only rebuild and regain the trust, but to strengthen supplier relationships and move their relationships forward with the supply base. But enough of that. Today, I'm talking to you from Wales, my home country. Yes, we're taking a short break. And it feels good to be home to be back in the country that I grew up in. This a certain sense of security, safety and comfort. It's the little things like not having to ask for milk in my tea. I can't tell you how much that drives me crazy. To give you a sense of what I'm looking at right now. I am looking out over this vibrant green grass. I am on the coast, the Glen Morgan heritage coast in South Wales in a town called Southern down. And this beautiful vibrant green grass falls off to a very steep cliff. Lots of rugged coastline, jagged rocks. It's a rough yet breathtakingly beautiful coastline. And then the sea. The sea is choppy today. It's windy outside, and the sun is starting to stream through and it's going to be a beautiful day. And I'm taking a break from the normal routine. And I believe there's something really powerful about doing that about taking a break from the norm. Sometimes you just feel like a hamster on a wheel, right? You do the same thing over and over again. And you get stuck. And your brain thinks a certain way. When you do that you limit your thinking, and it's good to shake that up. I'm on a blended vacation, if you will. It's a blend of work and personal time. And it makes me think back to my corporate job. And I always wish that I could spend more time in the places I visited all the beautiful countries and towns that I visited all over the world for work, and never really took the time to enjoy those places. And I think that's something we need to do more of. Because in the corporate world, particularly in automotive, it was all about get there, work hard, get the work done, work these crazy hours and get back. And I think we've got that wrong. I really do. I think we should take the time to enjoy the culture. Enjoy the countries, the beautiful places, understand the people and make connections with the people. Imagine what we would learn about the culture of this country. Raise, if we took the time to do that, imagine how much better our decision making would be if we took the time to understand the culture. So I'm going to do more of that. I'm going to make that commitment to myself and to you that I'm going to spend more time in the countries that I visit for business.

Jan Griffiths: 05:22

Being here in Wales has given me the opportunity to step back from day to day. And think about the mission of the business. Think about the mission of the podcast, where am I going? What improvements can I make to the content? am I serving my clients needs with leadership courses with the internal podcast and with keynotes? Am I doing the right thing, all of this is extremely valuable time. And I have with me all the books and reports that I've been meaning to read and haven't, and have just kept pushing off. I know you got that list too. I'm gonna be bold and ask you to do something. I really believe that there's tremendous value in stepping outside of the day to day. And not only just your your day to day routines, but to think outside of your industry silo. Most of my audience is in my beloved automotive industry. And I would ask you all to please step out of your normal, go to. Don't roll your eyes when it's something that's outside of automotive and say, oh, yeah, but they wouldn't understand it's different. We're automotive. We're a different breed of people. Don't do that. Stay away from your go to and go back into some of our back episodes that are outside of automotive. And I'll provide an easy link in the show notes for you to take a look and listen to some of the interviews that are outside of your industry silo. Listen to them. challenge you're thinking about where the leadership model is going in automotive.

Jan Griffiths: 07:01

Let me give you an example. There are two interviews in here from Navy SEALs. I did not understand anything about SEAL team leadership. But after interviewing two incredible Navy SEALs, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about trust. I learned that military leadership is not actually about command and control. Who knew. There's two interviews in there, episode number 12 with Nick Norris, who's an amazing leader, and episode number 29 with Clint Bruce. Clint Bruce is a special ops guy. And he's also previously in his career was an NFL player. You'll learn about the sand table exercise and what it means to be in life and death situations and how trust is such an important element.

Jan Griffiths: 07:56

The next area is technology. Episode number 33 with Aled Miles. Aled is the president and CEO of Sauce Labs. Let me spell that out. Because I know my accent will throw you. Sauce Labs is S-A-U-C E. And Aled is a cybersecurity expert. He's often featured on CNN business interviews and publications. He's grown up in the technology industry previously with Symantec. And I wanted his take on leadership in that high tech environment, and he shares it all in this interview.

Jan Griffiths: 08:34

Then, let's take a moment to talk about creativity. There is nobody better to talk about creativity than David Chislett in Episode 35. There is nothing that this man doesn't know about creativity. And if you really want to go deep, and understand some of the myths and some of the misguided thoughts we have about creativity and how to unleash creativity with your team. This is the one for you.

Jan Griffiths: 09:08

And how about a Gen Z perspective? How about a Gen Z perspective from a Gen Z CEO Michael Chime. You're gonna have to get into the detail to understand what Michael is all about. He is a Yale student and he started his company when he was at Yale. In fact, he's still at Yale.

Jan Griffiths: 09:29

And then, one of my personal favorites. Kristy Fercho, Head of home lending at Wells Fargo and chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Listen to what she describes as the organization that's male, pale and stale. But she talks about breaking the mold and her relentless focus on developing her personal best. And that's really what she's all about. She looks to develop the personal best in others. That's her leadership style.

Jan Griffiths: 10:01

And then let's not forget the buzz around United Wholesale Mortgage lately. Tune in to my interview with Laura Lawson, episode number three. She is the chief people officer and architect of culture. Do you know she actually started at Chrysler many years ago, she was an associate producer on the Ellen Show. And then she moved into United Wholesale Mortgage and she is responsible for their culture. It's true what they say she is the architect of culture. There's a lot happening at United Wholesale mortgage. And if you want to learn more about that culture listening to this episode.

Jan Griffiths: 10:48

So please take a moment and listen to something do something that's outside of your industry silo, something you wouldn't normally do, and see where it takes you. Challenge your thinking, and then drop me a line. I'd love to hear what you're thinking, which episode you listen to, and how it challenged your leadership thinking. You can reach me at jan@gravitasdetroit.com. If you've got any suggestions for content improvement, or for guests on the show, I want to hear it. We'll be back on June 2 And we'll continue to produce an episode every two weeks. Strong and firm in our mission to provide interview stories and examples, real-life examples of what authentic leadership is all about and how you can get it. Join me on your quest for Gravitas.