Meet Lynn Kier, VP Corporate Communications at Diebold Nixdorf

[Transcript]

Jan Griffiths: 00:00

It's time for a subject matter expert from the world of communications. Somebody who understands the challenges of external communications in today's world, someone who gets it when it comes to authentic leadership in both automotive and non automotive environment, somebody who's willing to be honest and transparent, and tell us like it is. Today you'll meet that person, you'll meet a dynamic leader who sits at the top of her game, appointed to the Forbes Communications Council. She's published several articles, and she's a member of the Board of Directors of women in manufacturing. Today, you'll meet Lynn Keir. Lynn is the Vice President of Corporate Communications at Diebold Nixdorf. You'll hear her story from GM through Delphi, Schaeffler and her entry into Diebold. She'll share openly about her experiences, and why she feels so passionately about the culture diebold. Lynne is a skillful practitioner in the art of self promotion, and believe me, it is an art. And she understands the power of relationships. She shares her advice to leaders communicating in this COVID world that we live in today. Because yes, it is vastly different. And we talk about getting away from corporate speak and finding your voice on social media, how do you stay true to yourself and stay consistent with the company vision and message? It's challenging, right? We laugh about some of the crazy things we did early on in our careers, to try to fit the mold. All of this and much more from the energetic, inspirational and extremely talented, Lynn Keir. Lynn, welcome to the show!

Lynn: 02:00

Good morning. I'm so happy to be here, Jan.

Jan Griffiths: 02:03

It's great to have you on. Let's get right into it, shall we? Because you have a fascinating story you have experience in automotive and non automotive. You're on the Forbes Communication Council. You're on the board women in manufacturing oh so much. So, let's hear it. Lynn, what is your story?

Lynn: 02:25

I'm going to take you way back to 1997, which seems like yesterday, but it's a long time ago when I graduated from the University of South Carolina, Darla Moore International School of Business. And at that time, the big three said, wow, everybody we hire is from the Detroit and metro area in the Midwest, we have to diversify. They were pressing it right. I'm going to go down to the University of South Carolina. It's a strong international business school, and we're going to recruit, I got the attention of GM, GM got the attention of me. Before I knew it. I was in Detroit, working in finance, finance, I was a financial analyst in their rotation program, which was amazing for a true financial professional. But for someone like me, who really loves interacting with people, I learned a lot about finance, but I couldn't wait to get out of there. Well, let me tell you what I learned at GM, once. Networking is everything, who you know, is everything. And what someone promised us promises you in an interview isn't necessarily going to be what they deliver. I chose GM because the time I was in the Japanese language track, I spoke Japanese, I spoke French and I spoke Spanish. Don't ask me to speak those now. Because I've never had the opportunity to work abroad. But they said come, you can work abroad, we can't find people to go, I settled in and found out that that was not the case. But so but I saw all these other people getting beautiful assignments, and some of them didn't even want to go abroad, but it was connections and networking and who you knew. And I realized, if I want all this, I gotta get networking and I got to get connecting. After about three and a half years in the finance rotation. Through one of my connections, Jerry Pittman, who was a Director of Finance. He was starting General Motors University. And within each training module, they had a finance college, HR college, and I I just begged him I said, Jerry, please, you are amazing. I want to work with you. I want to do this. He brought me into the team. Lesson number one, be assertive, maybe be a little aggressive. Don't Don't stop asking for what you want. I went back to grad school and got a second master's degree in training and development because I loved it. Next lesson. They were downsizing the group and I was the only one in the group that Jerry felt that could go on and move on and do something different. But but let me back up one more. One more thing, Jerry, under Jerry, I received my very first promotion, my very first professional promotion. But I had to lobby like crazy for that. I had to go in every time we had a meeting, especially on career development. I said, I'm ready, I'm ready. I'm ready. Where's my promotion, it took at least a year to lobby for that. So after five years working at GM, I got a promotion, which seems like a long time because when you're brought in at that level, there's way easy to be promoted within bands or whatever it may be. So fast forward to moving from training and development into operations, learned a lot in operations. Then I found myself out of a job because I said, this position doesn't really need to exist, you can farm it out to all these people and save yourself a position. Then I caught the eye of someone in communication or customer management, Jan. And I found my my home. I was like, This is awesome. And then what do you think happened in aggressive automotive industry world? I was, I was the first woman in this group. And right before I took like, the Friday before I was going to take the assignment, one of the gentlemen came over, got really close in my face, and basically said, We don't want you. You can't do this. We're not going to support you. That was the Friday before I took the job. I'm in my 20s. I'm in my late 20s. I'm not ready for this. I've never had someone talk to me like that. But what do you think I did? I said, You know what, I'll show them. Not only will I outwork them, and outsmart them, but I'll be their manager one day. Now, I didn't stay there long enough for that, because they harassed me every single day, every single day, Jan. It was awful.

Lynn: 06:58

So I moved from there to Delphi Automotive. So Delphi was formerly part of GM, automotive supplier. And I was ready to try something new. And I figured I would go to Delphi because the cult it well, they had a position that someone introduced me to. And I'll tell you something, Jan, it was connections, it was asking for what you want. This is a theme that carries through my whole career, especially after i i saw what happened those first few years at GM, that I thought if I just put my head down and worked hard, I would get what I want what I deserved, it doesn't work that way. You really have to be a promoter of yourself and get out there and demand what you want. And I think a lot of times, women, but this is everybody but women don't think they should have to say that are afraid to ask or think that they something might happen if they don't ask for what they deserve. But you have to do that you have to self promote, you have to be in there and you have to lobby for yourself because nobody else is going to do that for you. There may be one or two key coaches or mentors or champions in your world that might help you do that. But that's really rare and really difficult to get. So you must self promote and champion yourself. Joining Delphi changed my world. I joined to sales. I was fabulous. I did everything I could I had fun. And you know what set me apart. It was not the technical knowledge. It was the relationship building. It was listening to the opportunities that were out there. It was gaining the trust and support of the customers. And it was being present and it was so much fun. Jan, it was so much fun. And I had another fabulous boss at Delphi. His name is Jose Morente. He, I..oh that poor man, he I love him. He loves me. I lobbied so hard and so set incessantly for my promotion, and my raises and more responsibility. And what happened is I was just about ready to get something great. And Delphi went into chapter 11 reorganization. And they stopped all movement within sales. But my boss being my boss said go out on the opportunity awareness line at that time they had it online and see if there's a job out there to take you to the next level. And guess what it was senior communications manager for the powertrain division and being naive. And like, Oh, this looks like fun. This is easy. I can do it. I had no communications experience. I had no journalism experience, no PR, it all just looked fun and easy. And I could do it. And my I talked to Jose and he said you you would be great. I know the hiring manager. I'll put in a call. And before you know it, I was doing a phone interview because he was based in Luxembourg. And I got the job and I'll tell you One of the things I've learned, and it's not only is that you have to self promote, but you can do just about anything that's put in front of you, we have the skill set, you may not have PR specific, but you know how to do the job. And you know how to we know how to motivate people to get the job done. It's a huge learning. And again, I went in, and I was the first non journalism communications person to be put into a communications role. Because, again, a prescient moment with Delphi, they said, Hey, we need to promote the business. And a lot of the people in the journalism side aren't putting the connection together with business. We need someone that gets the business side. And that's how I lucked into this job. And I got that, but oh was there a lot of resistance? Even my team? Jan, this is the thing we know Automotive is tough. And people are not afraid to let you know how they feel. One of my team members, I called them my team. Well, they didn't like that. They're like, are my people my team? I tried. No, we're not yours. And then this gentleman, he'd been in the business for 25 years, super smart. Gave me an analogy one day, and he said, Lynn, you're like the new quarterback of a football team that needs to be taught a lesson. And we're gonna tackle you. And I was so shocked. Jan, can you believe that?

Jan Griffiths: 11:24

Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna tackle you.

Lynn: 11:27

Yeah, we're gonna all tackle you. You know how you're this hotshot new quarterback, and they teach you a lesson by showing you who's boss. And they, yeah, they tackle you or whatever. And I'm like, Wow, I'm here to anyway. So but I was like, okay, it all this does. Once you get past that, like stress and frustration, it's gives you power, because it gives you information and you understand the psyche of people. I just needed to make sure that they all knew that I was relying on them in their experience, I wasn't going to come in and turn things upside down. I needed them as much as as well. They didn't think they needed me. But they did. Because of course, what do managers do not only grow and develop, but position people for for recognition and things like that. So I think when I decided to leave Delphi, that same gentleman was calling me kiddo. So he went from wanting to tackle me to calling me kiddo. Because, I mean, that was very important that he revealed that to me, so that I could say, Okay, I need to take a different approach with him, as well as the rest of my team. Because, you know, we all grow and learn and develop we, none of us are superstars to start with. And even after 25 years, there's so much to learn. But he was calling me kiddo. And that, that that was a huge lesson. Huge lesson. And I feel like I've talked way too much about my career. But one more thing. I step i I'm working as a Senior Communications Manager, I'm excited as can be. I'm in Detroit. And I get this opportunity to move to the Charlotte area to work for Schaeffler, a huge supplier of automotive but also on the industrial side. And I am brought in to be the Vice President of Communications and Marketing for the Americas region. And that was something I hadn't had before. I had divisional. But I didn't have regional. I was divisional for the world. But now I had regional. And I had a lot of learning to do there, Jan. It was a tough industry. They hadn't had a communications and marketing person before. The I've reported directly to the CEO, which is a learning experience. For anyone that's moving into a position and you direct your port directly to the CEO. It's way different than any other EVP SVP experience you have ever had. There is 0% error. And if you're 99.999% Fabulous, all they do is tell you what you didn't do, right. I don't know if that's everyone, but I was like, where's my kudos? I'm fabulous, I'm moving mountains here, ah, not in his eyes. And they've never had a communications person. So they're like, We don't need PR. We don't need you. Go away, like, but I'll tell you what, what really made a difference for me there Jan, as it was my team of superstars. It was the colleagues that I worked with that got it. And they're the ones that saw me through and helped me really raise the game for Schaeffler in terms of PR and marketing and communications. at a regional level. They were powerhouses from a corporate standpoint, but from a regional level, we had a lot of work to do. And we went from in five years I went from we don't need any PR to I got us on the cover of automotive news.

Jan Griffiths: 14:40

Wow, that's impressive.

Lynn: 14:42

Yeah, that's what I thought. But after five years of that excitement and tremendous stress, our the CEO retired and a new CEO came in who I knew very well, but I decided this was a good break for everyone that He could bring in his own communications person and I could find a new opportunity. And I found a fabulous opportunity with Diebold Nixdorf, where I am now the Vice President of Corporate Communications. So I handle all outwardly facing corporate communications, customer communications, Media Relations for the entire company.

Jan Griffiths: 15:19

How big is that company? Lynn? That's a pretty big company, right? Diebold, you make all the ATM machines, right?

Lynn: 15:25

We make Yeah, we make ATMs. We make point of sale devices, SCO devices on the retail side. So we've got financial, and we've got retail. And then we have we develop the software that powers the machines. And we have a whole fleet of service technicians that keep the machines maintained and repaired. So it's a whole different world. It's a whole different culture. And I love it. I love it, Jan, that, I always used to tell people, if you can survive and thrive in the automotive industry, you can do anything, anything, right? Anything. And I love who I work with. I love the culture, I love our mission. And I have fun, even with the crisis. Okay, so COVID-19 threw everyone on their heads. I don't think I saw the sun for months because of just being responsible for communications for the entire company, and charting new territory and working with people all over the world. But at the same time, that was so energizing. And it can catapulted me into a different role or perspective at Diebold Nixdorf. I went from Lynn Keir handling corporate communications to the single point of contact for all COVID communications, all of them external facing all external facing all, all of a sudden, people knew who I was. And because of my training in automotive, very responsive. And also my CEO who said I want it yesterday, right, though. I'm responsive, I get it done. I don't know how I really don't know how it happened. But even through all of that craziness, I love it. And and I made a name for myself, my team was already a powerhouse, but didn't self promote. So again, you got to get out there and let people know what you're doing. And that's how you continue to thrive and make a difference, and feel good about what you're doing. And I absolutely love it every day. I mean, this whole week, Jan, I was supposed to be on vacation. This whole week. There's been all sorts of stuff. New York City has a new mandate that says no one can go into any building, even if you're just repairing something without being fully vaccinated. So we had to get all sorts of communications prepared and sent out and you know, but it's okay. It's been very energizing in a very weird way.

Jan Griffiths: 17:44

What is it? Lynn? What is it about this the culture that you love so much at Diebold? Let's go a little bit deeper into that. Well, what is it about this culture that you love so much.

Lynn: 17:56

They're supportive. Ah, and if they empower you to do what you were brought in to do. There, I am not micromanaged. I am empowered. I'll tell you. The first, the first few months, I was with Diebold Nixdorf. Were working we work with a really powerhouse, PR agency. But I didn't know them very well. And I wasn't overly impressed at the time. Now, let me tell you now, oh, my God, they're rockstars. But at the time I, I didn't have all the information. And I go into my boss and I say, Devin, I'm sorry to tell you this. But I think maybe we might want to reevaluate our contract. And he's like, don't apologize, that's what you're here for. Go get it done, do whatever you need to do. I was like, what that would not have happened in in my other worlds, they would have micromanaged it, they would have questioned, they would have said I want 10 reams of data on why this is happening. No, he said, that's why you're here. Go do what you do. That's leadership, that is empowerment, that is trust in your people to get the job done. And I love that. But let me just go back to our PR agency, there was a breakdown in communication between both sides. And both sides got a little complacent, you know, quality in his quality out but not quality and is not quality out. And so it was just a couple of meetings. And it was okay, let's change our approach. And now. I mean, I would tell the whole world go go find this agency and work with them. They are powerhouse. And they make they make my life easier too. Because they're, you know, all of these relationships. All of us working together for a common mission makes a big difference. And I just, you know, my team is supportive. We meet every day. That's one another thing I did, right when COVID hit so everyone got out of the office, and my team had I've always been remote since for two years now but my team worked every day in the office. So I set up what was a 15 minute huddle, everyday, just a touch base. That morphed into an hour, Jan, we were so hungry for that connection. But what it's done is not only keep us connected as a very strong, well functioning team, but we are more informed what each other is doing than we could have ever been in the office. It's, it just really has brought us together in a way that I, I mean, COVID has done so many things, in a weird way, the silver lining to help me and my team really blossom. I've been doing all the work, but nobody's really recognized it.

Jan Griffiths: 20:37

And I agree with you. I've often said that if I were to go back into the corporate world, gosh, I hope that doesn't happen. I would switch from the traditional weekly staff meeting and monthly reviews to daily huddles, I learned it's so much more powerful. And I learned that from Laura Lawson, who is the Chief People Officer at United Wholesale Mortgage when I interviewed her. And that's what they do. They have daily huddles, and the thing is when you have these weekly staff meetings, too much time elapses in a week. And it tends to be a meeting where people are trying to get the boss up to speed, which is a total waste of time. And if it's just if a meeting is just okay, you know, what are you working on? What do you need help with? The guys the support part of it? Right? What do you need with? And then if you don't do what you said, you were going to do that? That day, you know, the next day when you come back? It's all okay, you know, they can be no judgment, there can be no fear of, oh, no, I didn't do what I said I was gonna do, they're gonna fire me, you can't have that for somebody to thrive in an organization, you cannot have that fear. So I agree with you. And I think more and more people are moving to a daily touchpoint meeting, and moving away from this weekly monthly type cadence.

Lynn: 21:59

Yeah, and you know, one of the things when you see people every day, you can see it, are they overloaded? Yeah, are they stressed is something going on personally, that that I wouldn't have otherwise known about that, you know, I can then respond to and offer assistance to, it has brought us together like a, like a family. You know, and I do think it's important. And again, you're treating people like human beings, you know, we are a team there it isn't. I'm a boss. And no, we are a team of people. We are all equal people. And we all play a part. And we work beautifully together to support each other to get the job done. And that's that, I mean, to me, that's why I love this, this company on this job and my team and the people that I work with, because I feel like that's replicated throughout the company. And I really, I just feel empowered.

Jan Griffiths: 22:53

Yeah, I can, I can hear it, the excitement and enthusiasm and the energy in your voice. And you've been a great supporter of me and my business. And I could tell right from the very beginning that the idea of authentic leadership totally resonates with you. Of the 21 traits of authentic leadership, Lynn, which trait resonates the most with you?

Lynn: 23:15

Empowerment? Empower your team. And they will empower you. Yeah, it I mean, I looked at all of those 21 traits. And while Jan, there that I want to say all of them, because they're all so important and powerful. But being a empowering your team, to be to do their jobs, to demonstrate their expertise to be the best that they can be as to me the what you what really sets a an authentic leader apart, just empower them.

Jan Griffiths: 23:51

I agree. But you've got to trust them, to empower them. And I think that's where a lot of people fall down. Right? They don't, they're scared because they're afraid of if somebody on the team screws up that that's going to come back on them, and they're afraid.

Lynn: 24:06

And, and that goes back to leadership. So we, you have to know that your leader has your back. Yes. And if you know that your leader has your back, then you aren't afraid if you mess up. Or if something doesn't go according to plan because we can't control everything, Jan. Preparation is everything. But there's stuff that happens like COVID-19 that takes you off your plan. And how do you respond and react and adjust. If you have a leadership team that has your back and isn't going to attack you if something doesn't go right, then you're that you have that trust you have that transparency you have people are willing to do whatever it takes and if they make a mistake, you work on it, you fix it. You learn from it. That's how I feel here. We had an experience the other day, there was a Apache Java kind of a cyber attack for the whole wide world, right? It's not it's not it wasn't any company. It was third party software and all that mumbo jumbo. And we were trying to get in touch with all of the customers. And oh was like COVID. So many customers coming in what's happening? What's happening, I need to know. And we're still trying to diagnose what's going on, right? It's like in the first 12, 24 hours, you have to figure out what's happening. So you can tell the customers what's going on. So we sent out a communication far and wide. And we didn't tell the sales team. That was a big oops. It was a big oops, we had customers saying is this spam? We had customers saying, What are you doing? It was a it was it was a huge lesson. We won't ever do that again. But instead of my my boss that and I talked to my boss about it. I said, listen, here's all the pros and the cons. And here's why we want to do this. He's like, go. He he took a lot of flack. I took a lot of flack. He had my back. He said, Listen, I saw the note that he sent to the leadership. And it was, hey, we're all in this together. We did the best we could at the time, we are going to come up with another plan. And we won't let this happen again. But he had my back. I could have been a scapegoat. But I wasn't Jan.

Jan Griffiths: 26:15

Yeah, that's leadership. That is. Yeah. Yeah.

Lynn: 26:19

And that happens all the time. I don't. I used I don't know, maybe there's some people in the audience like, you know, if you get a phone call, and you say to your boss, you're like, Oh, what is it now? What did I do? What did I do that horrible sinking feeling? I don't feel like that when when Devin calls me? Yeah.

Jan Griffiths: 26:35

See, that's and that's it. Right? You should not feel that way. You should not have that fear. And I used to feel that way. Many times in my automotive career, you know, the boss calls, it's like, Oh, no. What have I done? Now? You know, what's wrong? Is he? Isn't he like me anymore? Is he gonna fire me? You know, we have to fear that way. That is not that is not leadership. That is not how you're going to empower and get the most and the best out of your people.

Lynn: 27:00

Absolutely. That's absolutely right, Jan.

Jan Griffiths: 27:04

You know Lynn, you as an external communications expert for your your company, not only for your company, but you're a recognized expert in the field, you sit on the Forbes Communication Council, and I came across an article that you had contributed to with other council members, and it was giving advice to people about communications in a post COVID world, or current COVID worlds, whichever way you want to look at it. And I do see that communications, and I'm no expert in communications, but I see that the world of communications has changed. So what what advice would you give people to give leaders as they communicate externally, in this world, what's changed?

Lynn: 27:50

Well, first of all, I would highly encourage leaders to listen to their communications team. Because the communications team has their ear to the ground, that's their job. They're there to make sure that you put your best face forward, and you're representing the company, and they want it to be a huge success. But for me, it's storytelling. It's being authentic. It's making sure that you know that your audience are people, and you're not speaking, marketing speak or whatever it is, we used to do. Like, you need to show the company for what it is not as a machine. And remember that the people in the audience are human beings. So you got to be authentic, and you got to help them. You got to tell stories, Jan. I mean, I think communicators have been talking about storytelling forever. But it's finally like, yes. Like all of the social media, if you look at all of the social media out there, and the people that are very these influencers, who are really successful, they're telling stories, that's what they do. And it resonates with people. So you have to make sure that you're authentic, but you're telling stories that people can understand and relate with.

Jan Griffiths: 29:03

But Lynn, as I look back at my career, all the communications people I've dealt with, they, I'm just gonna be honest with you. You're right. They were a hindrance to me.

Lynn: 29:15

Oh, we have that reputation.

Jan Griffiths: 29:17

Because they wouldn't I couldn't speak with my voice, right. Everything had to be sanitized, or you know, we got to manage the message and control the narrative, right. And, in fact, I was just watching succession. I don't know if you ever watched succession on HBO. No, I It's amazing because it some of the things they say on there. I've heard a million times in my corporate life and I've even said myself and they go oh, yeah, we got to control the narrative and, and can we just not speak to people like they're just human beings. So why do we have to have this corporate speak which really is another language and big shocker people can see right through it. Yeah. Anyway.

Lynn: 29:57

So so it's complex because you You know, you've seen in the past, someone on in a company can do say something in a tweet and get fired. You can see stock prices plummet. So One wrong word, one wrong message can bring down a company. So it's extremely important that you do understand what the key messages are of a company, and understand how to articulate that in your own voice, externally. I don't I think if you, you do try to tie someone's hands around behind their back and say, you can only say this word, they're going to mess up, or they're going to be like, Well, I don't want to bother. This is not me, this is not how I speak. And you can tell, I speak my own speak. I think my whole world knows that I use fabulous, like way too much. So is that really a corporate word? Is that really professional, not when you use it 10 times in a sentence, but that's my authentic me. But I understand what the key messages are of our business and our segments and CEOs, C suite. Anyone that's an authorized spokesperson has to understand those messages, understand his or her business and what she's going to be talking about. You have you can have those documents for them to understand the background. But they are to put that in their own words, use your own words. So you get the theme, right? But you're talking like a real person. We don't, there is no memorization here. It's all about your experience and your understanding. But here's, you know, one, it Delphi I had a leader who said, Don't ever talk numbers. If someone says, What's the stock price doing? He said, I don't I don't have, you know, I can't talk about finance, because you will be fired. Because that's forward looking. So we in these key messages, it's like, please don't if someone asks you a question that's not contained in these key messages, don't just politely say that's not your area of expertise, or something polite and move on. Because you could say something that could damage the company, and you're not expected to talk about things that you don't know, and Don't speculate. But still be you and still talk about your experiences in your area of the business. So communicators play an incredible and an important role in helping craft the messages and define the messages. But we also need to play an incredible role to say, you still have to be you speak from your own experience. Yeah.

Jan Griffiths: 32:18

And I think it goes back to the leadership at the top, right? And if you're, if you're, if you understand the vision and mission of the company, part of your job as a leader is to be able to articulate that, and disseminate that throughout the entire company. Yeah, and if people feel like they get it, you know, then they can use their voice and be very comfortable in communicating the values and what the company is all about. Given that there are certain things that you shouldn't say, like forward looking statements, and there are certain things that can impact the stock price that you definitely don't want to go near. But other than that, you should feel comfortable in talking about the company, what the company is doing. And putting your your spin your voice to that. But so many leaders out there Lynn, you know, they're they're listening to this idea of storytelling right now. And they hear it, it comes through over and over again. But they have no idea how to do it. So if you're a leader, right now, particularly in automotive, because, you know, a lot of the leaders there have trouble with this idea of storytelling. What advice, you know, can you give these leaders a couple of points is help them? How do they do this? How do they use storytelling, to articulate their vision? And to get that message out to the company into their teams?

Lynn: 33:44

Well, I would say that you're absolutely right, a vision and mission statement have to be straightforward. It has to be clear. If you can't repeat it, it's too complex. If your employees can't repeat it and understand it and remember it, it's too complex. And the power of a story is that it resonates with people, it's like take what you're going to share externally and think about sharing it with your 10 year old son or daughter or niece or nephew. You're not going to talk with them. In high level terms, and corporate speak, you're going to help tell them a story about what it is you do, where you're going, what your business is, why it's important, you know, help at a point where they can relate with it. So if you're talking about going to, to a bank to talk with them about their fleet of ATMs, you can say you know, when we go to the ATM and mommy or daddy wants to get money out, they just go to the ATM but they can't deposit their check. If it's not with that bank. They have to go inside bubba. Tell them a story about why this technology of you know this extra software to help it this ATM function like a branch why that's important. And then you can go and talk to CNBC or whoever to say, hey, well, this is what we're trying to do so that everybody in the audience can relate with an ATM. And everybody can say, I don't really want to go in the branch anymore, at least for a few minutes. I mean, I still go into the branch because I like interacting with people. But some people want don't have time, and they want to go through the ATM, but they want to do what they would normally do in the branch. So you're, it's a story that you're telling your 10 year old niece, nephew, son, daughter, that then you tell to your customers, or you tell in a tweet or you tell at CNBC. It's pretty simple.

Jan Griffiths: 35:33

I love I love that Lynn. I think that's great advice. Make sure it's something you can articulate to a 10 year old, because so many times I've seen his vision and mission statements, say things like, we're going to be the world class manufacturer of this widget, and we're going to create massive shareholder value. I you know, and it's like, it means nothing. Now imagine if you wouldn't say that to a 10 year old they they'd be what what do you what are you talking about?

Lynn: 36:03

Right? What does it mean to me? How can I relate? Right? There are only so many shareholders, they are extremely important. But that's not going to resonate with a person that's making a decision to whether they're going to go with your ATM fleet or your software or your service technicians or whatever you have to help them understand the value that you bring. It has to be pretty basic. Yeah. And engaging.

Jan Griffiths: 36:26

Yeah, but you know, again, I think there's a mold, right, and you hear me talk about break the mold all the time. There's a mold that I think people think that the more corporate'ey, either the statement sounds and looks, the better it is. And nothing could be further from the truth. It's time today for every single person listening to this podcast, to break the mold on their vision and mission statement and take another look at it right now. And this episode will be going out in January, it's a perfect time to step back, look at it and make sure that it's relatable, that you can explain it to a 10 year old and that everybody in your company is comfortable talking about it.

Lynn: 37:08

Yes. And you know, it's, I've seen a big shift. I have, I think we've all seen a big shift when you social media has helped with that. Especially say LinkedIn or Twitter where you only have so much that you can say so LinkedIn, I love to professional network, I find it really powerful. When I was first on LinkedIn, I was afraid to be me. I was like, Oh, I don't I don't I don't I'm not me, I gotta be corporate'ey. And everything was just boring. I had no followers, I had no engagement. Because I was fake. I was just this corporate cookie cutter thing. Once I finally saw other people break that mold and be real, especially you Finding Gravitas and seeing your authentic messages and posts, like, you know what, I got to be me. I preach being authentic. I gotta be authentic. I got to bring Lynn Keir out here, not, you know, VP corporate communicator? No, Lynn, this is Lynn, it's my point of view, I have a lot of value to add. And I'm going to do it my way. And some it'll resonate with some and maybe not with others. But you got to be human, you got to you got to relate. So I agree with you. And I think there's a lot of room to grow with be authentic and stop the corporate speak. But I have seen progress. And I'm very excited about that with social media. And while it's still it has its pros and its cons and we're not going to debate that now. You do see more people, people on their corporate professional profiles, letting you see a little bit of who they are.

Jan Griffiths: 38:50

Yeah, and I was the same way you were learned when I was in my corporate job, I would never have put a comment out on LinkedIn. I was afraid to do it and right now, you know, you see how active I am on LinkedIn. That's laughable, right, that there was a time that I was afraid to put a comment out there but I was because I was afraid of upsetting my boss (me too). But it was because I was afraid that I was gonna say something that was against his beliefs. But if you go back to that, what How come I didn't know his beliefs? How come I didn't understand the vision and the mission of the company you know, other than some statement that was stuck on a wall somewhere or PowerPoint presentation. In the leaders role and I'm not blaming him for for the fact that I was afraid to post on LinkedIn, but it does go back to the leader you have to People have to feel safe in putting their voice out there. And it goes right back to leadership. But I was I was very I would never have commented on anything and I had the perfect you know, corporate kind of profile and now you know the pictures everything's everything is different. You know, it's it's a completely different world. For me, I'm truly authentic out there. Because that's that's how I live my life these days, somebody told me once that the level of of authenticity is determined by the amount of daylight you have between your personal and professional self. And there was a time when I would have, you know, I thought that you were supposed to have two completely separate lives. Yeah, personal and professional. And in the past, that was probably true. But now that is definitely not the case.

Lynn: 40:32

I agree. I agree. When I was first starting, I felt like I had to have two different people, work person, and Lynn person, but I was always mindful of personal Lynn not doing anything that could possibly impact professional Lynn. And so even then I wasn't necessarily as authentic as I would like, over the over years and experience and observations you realize, oh, I'm not adding value to this company at the level I could if I'm not me. They're not they hired me for me. And if I don't bring me I'm not giving them the best. You got to be your your true, authentic self. But it's a shift between companies and leadership. You put a post out recently about oh, yeah, bashing suppliers for something that should be teamwork. And I was I was like, I was gonna write a comment. But you had so many good comments, but I was like, Go, Jan! Go! Because that That's old school. That's, that's not today. That's not today, we are partners, right? And you need to bring your who you are to the table, because you round everything out. That's why we need diversity. That's why we need inclusion. That's why dei is getting out there and getting traction. Because you have to see it from many different viewpoints. We can't just be cookie cutters anymore.

Jan Griffiths: 41:48

Yeah, you know, that was one of the strongest posts I've ever put out there. And I hesitated, but it did upset me so much that, you know, the CEO of Stellantis was blaming their tier one supply base for the chip shortage, it just it bothered me immensely. And I can't even begin to tell you the number of phone calls and emails that I got from people who were afraid to put there. They didn't want to put their voice out there. Because yeah, if if Stellantis is the main source of your your revenue, you know, you don't want to upset your your customer. Right. But the great thing about being an entrepreneur is, I know with that kind of leadership, they're never gonna hire me anyway, you know, they're never gonna go.

Lynn: 42:27

You don't want to work for that leadership either. Not that style.

Jan Griffiths: 42:31

No, my message isn't gonna resonate with them. And that's okay. It's yeah, it's fine. You know, you do you, that's fine.

Lynn: 42:37

But I must interject. I don't know. I didn't listen to his interview. I'm hoping that maybe he meant to May, first of all, I don't know if he listened to his communicators, because I don't know, any communicator that would have said, go ahead and bash anyone because we're all in it together. I'm hoping that he was misunderstood. But I don't I don't know that he was. But I'm like, this is this is a perfect example of you don't want to alienate all your supplier partners either do you? No, you don't. You need them. He didn't. If he intentionally wanted to upset suppliers, then I would question him, I doubt he did. But that's where the importance of a communications team comes in a PR team comes in. Before you talk externally, you really should have a conversation with your PR team. And let's just kind of roleplay what you're going to say. And we can back it up and say, Okay, I heard what you said. That sounds like you're bashing suppliers. I think what you meant maybe meant to say was XYZ. Yeah. And reframe it and rephrase it. And edit again, it seems like really, do we really have to do that. But that's storytelling practice. That's messaging practice. That's just being natural to talk to people practice. So you know, that is the role that communicators play. And I think it's really important that you listen and talk and work with them before you speak externally. I don't care how experienced you are. It's very, very important, because then you could say something about the chip shortage that you really didn't mean in that way that now alienates every single supplier out there and gets us on fire. Absolutely on fire. Okay,

Jan Griffiths: 44:17

It did. A couple of people who I think handle this really well handling communication on LinkedIn really well. And one is Don Akery, who's president of TTI electronics and he's one of the first guests that I had on the podcast. And what I've known Don because we've worked together, he was a supplier to a company I worked at many years ago. But I realized I saw differences so shift in him in the way that he was presenting himself on LinkedIn, and I saw a lot more personal kind of comments in his voice coming through and I thought, wow, you know, here's a guy is a CEO and it's a Warren Buffett owned company, Berkshire Hathaway company. And he even put a an article out there about running a warren buffett company. And, and I was so impressed with the level of authenticity that a man at that level had put started to put out there. So that's why I had him on the show. And but you see is, you know, he's a great leader, he truly is a wonderful authentic leader, and wasn't afraid of any repercussions, or he wasn't trying to fit a mold. You know, he is Don Akery. And Don is more senior, you know, in his career. But the other side of that is Katelyn Davis. And Katelyn was, I think I called her the ambassador for millennials and mobility. So she's much younger. And what I love about her is, it doesn't matter what title she has, or what company she works for. She is Katelyn Davis, and she has her voice out there on social media, she's active on Twitter, and also on on LinkedIn. But she is who she is, it doesn't matter the company she works for, you can tell she's not trying to fit somebody else's mold. She's comfortable in her own skin. And I would love to see more of that, Lynn, to see people just being who they are out there on social media not trying to fit a mold.

Lynn: 46:17

Well, me too. And and I wish I had what Katie has when I was in my 20s and 30s. Me too, because it took a long time for me to be authentic Lynn. And now I can't preach it enough. And I coached and everyone bring your authentic self to the table, be who you are. That's why you are here. That's your mission, you are who you are, don't try to be something plastic out there. Plus, it's, it doesn't feel good. It's hard to be something that you're not. And you don't want to keep you from being out there. It's difficult. I'm now able to post on LinkedIn, and in an authentic way and post pictures and things like that. But it took a long time, and the right leadership team to get me there. And I'm not saying it's leadership teams "responsibility" to let me bring my authentic self. But like we talked in the beginning, when you have leaders that set expectations or aren't flexible, or you perceive that you have to be a certain way to get ahead. You're not going to have pictures of your babies when I was you know, I don't have kids, but I wasn't gonna have any pictures on my desk. I was gonna bring the sports page to work for everyone to see and talk to talk. And that's silly. I mean, I love sports. But that was silly. That was so unnecessary. But I felt that it was to fit in.

Jan Griffiths: 47:42

I've got to tell you, that is so funny. You say that. I hadn't thought about that. I've done the same thing my entire career. In fact, it was kind of a joke about my office being so spouse and clean and there was nothing. I did eventually have a picture of my daughter on my desk. But other than that, uh, because I didn't, I didn't want people to see me as a woman and as a mother.

Lynn: 48:08

Exactly! That's what I mean, and how can they not see us as a woman? But it's like, yeah, yeah, you just try to genericized your workspace genericized how you bring yourself to work. I mean, I remember I kept the same hair color. And okay, this is kind of getting a little bit off the rails here. But I get the same hair color. Because I remember hearing someone say, oh, Sandy keeps changing her hair. She can't be very reliable. Oh, color. And I was like, really, the perception that you go from blonde to brown to brown, or red or whatever is showing that someone's not consistent or reliable. So I took I internalize that and have the same hair color forever. Isn't that the silliest thing? Oh, and the same cut the same style? Because God forbid that I'm not consistent. This was way back in the automotive world. But can you believe that?

Jan Griffiths: 49:01

I can because I had that black bob haircut. I've had it for decades. Yeah, was kind of my signature. And people knew me from that haircut. So for me to move away from that you want to talk about embracing your authenticity, and as a woman to go gray. Right. And yeah, I just I just went out there and cut it all off and said, Here it is, right. I'm going to embrace the fact that yeah, I'm in my 50s and so it's all good. You know, life's ever been better and gray hair is perfectly fine. It's okay.

Lynn: 49:34

And it looks great on you. It's really powerful and fabulous. And you know, it's this is a really important part of the of the female narrative. There's a lot of stuff that we're paying attention to, especially if we're in a male dominated field and I shouldn't say male dominated I don't like that we're not dominated but if it's primarily men, that you're trying to figure out your way not every not all of us are as confident or as informed As Katie who's getting out there saying, This is me. And I'm going to and she's going to shine because of it. Yeah. Because she has that inner confidence. And she's, she's true to herself. So many of us need that. And I'll tell you, something that changed my world was when I was first introduced to women in manufacturing. I was with Schaeffler. I was in Charlotte, women in manufacturing had a North conference in Detroit automotive, and then they had a self conference, automotive, they asked me to speak on a panel. I was like, wow, really me I was so flattered. So excited. It's the first panel I've ever spoken on. And it changed my world I was there speaking my language, all these shared experiences, exposure to leaders like yourself, it changed my entire world. And I think it's again, it's it's making sure people know that they can bring their authentic selves to the work at that they're not the only ones with all this stuff going on in their head wondering, Can I do this? Can I do that? Should I wear this? Should I wear that? I remember that was 5-6 years ago, Jan, and a young woman asked questions at the end, can I wear a skirt to work? If I'm in manufacturing, like these were the questions that they had, because they weren't sure what they could or couldn't do. So women in manufacturing, and these kinds of associations are very powerful for women. And Detroit has so many powerhouse associations, right? You've got Inforum, you've got Katie, you've got all these incredible things. I think it's important to make sure you find an organization that can level set your expectations that can help you see that you're not alone, and what you're experiencing. From the entry level to senior level leaders, we all have very similar experiences and concerns. Maybe you and me, Jan, because we're in our 50s. And we've had a lot of experience, we're a little bit more in control, a little more confident, but we still have those moments of, should I have said that? Should I have done that? Should I it's natural. You just need to be reinforced with people that support you and get you and and that and it goes both ways. And then you support those people. And it's a it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Jan Griffiths: 52:03

Yeah. And that's why I have the podcast. That's what Finding Gravitas is all about. It's for people to hear stories from other leaders, successful leaders, so that they can give themselves permission to lead in a more authentic way is that there was nothing like a podcast, you know, when we were starting our careers. We just thought that we made up our own stories in our heads as to what we thought we should be or how we should act. Yeah, we we didn't have these organizations like women in manufacturing. We didn't have podcasts to listen to people weren't talking about this stuff, right? It wasn't important. It was all about fitting the mold. It was back in the day. And we did it. We did it. Well, we assimilated into all these cultures. But now that has changed and people have to recognize that that's changed.

Lynn: 52:53

Yeah. And when I was in automotive, so I'm from the East Coast, I talk loud, I walk fast. I've got a lot of energy. I never thought of it as an East Coast thing. That's just a Lynn thing. And I had a female mentor who was a vice president powerhouse. And I Okay, I'm ready for some advice. Let's go. And she's instead of giving me the business advice, she's like, You talk too loud, you should have your hearing checked, and you walk too fast. And people don't trust people who walk fast. Take your time. Now, there's some semblance of truth there to you, like you're always in a rush. You look like you're going crazy. But I was like, that's my advice. And you know that I went and got my hearing checked, and it's perfectly fine at that. I really took that seriously. It's like, you know what, I show up now, to where I am now. And you know what people say they if I, if I tone my energy down, they're like, "Lynn, are you okay?" We need where's Lynn like they like it's where it works, because it's consistent, and it's who I am. So I would just say that to everyone. Please, please, please be your authentic self. Bring your authentic self to the table. Have confidence in who you are. Because that's your best you bring it?

Jan Griffiths: 54:05

Yeah, that's That's great advice. Linda, looking back on your career and your life. What advice would you give to 25 year old Lynn today in today's environment?

Lynn: 54:20

Oh...25 year old Lynn would be just getting ready to go to grad school. And I would tell 25 year old Lynn be you through and through. Not just through school, I thrived in school. I love school because I brought Lynns to school. I got into the corporate world and I changed immediately. Don't change. Take Lynn and go soar and go just be you Be your authentic you. Don't be afraid to change your hair color to talk loud, to walk fast to have energy to use the word fabulous. Go ahead and put the pictures of your family on your desk. Go ahead. Don't be afraid. That's your best asset is you and I would tell that to me And I tell that to everyone that I talked to that I, you know, that's afraid to bring themselves to work. And I had a conversation, Jan. This last week with a colleague who has a small child who is not bringing her authentic self to work. And I said, you have to. And she's conflicted. She's in the auto industry said, You've got to be you you're unhappy at work, you take that back home. If they aren't happy with who you are, you're not in the right spot.

Jan Griffiths: 55:34

That's true. That's true. And that is great advice. And that's a great way to wrap it up today, Lynn. It has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for being on the show.

Lynn: 55:44

Jan. You're a true professional. I admire you so much. Thank you for having me on your show.

Jan Griffiths: 55:50

Okay, take care. Thank you.