Exploring Nissan's path to workplace excellence with Michael Colleran

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Now, you have a senior leadership role at Nissan today, but that's not where you started. You did not start your career in the auto industry now, did you?

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Not to establish all the rules. Yeah, we need accountability, we'll get to that. But this ability to really articulate a vision for the company, for their function, for their team, and to connect with people at a very deep and meaningful level, human to human, how on earth, Mike, do you do that at a company the size of Nissan?

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And so, one of the things that we try to do at Nissan is reject the status quo. Now, certainly, there are things that we've learned over the years that are really good, around quality and taking care of customers. And we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater because we've learned so many good things. But at the same time, in this period of transition, you better learn to reject the status quo and at least question yourself and say, "Are those things that we've done going to get us to where we need to be? If not, let's stop doing them. Let's start doing new things." That's a big culture jump. And every day, I would say it's rolling up your sleeves and ensuring that the old behaviors don't come back and that the new behaviors are deeply embedded into the organization. And, I have an old saying, it's kind of simplistic: wash, rinse, repeat, it's like right off the box of the old laundry detergent, and I believe that repetition is, especially when leaders replicate good behaviors, people will follow, they want to follow, they want that example out there, and so I think if leaders can get out there and set the example and use their experience, you know, you said it a minute ago, experience has a breadth aspect to it, and some of that, you just, need over time. And I truly believe that you know, really great leadership is forged in the furnace of experience. But for leaders today, I think experience matters. But if you rely on the behaviors within that experience, you might find that you're just doing the same thing you've always done. And so, we're working really hard to break people out of their paradigms and to essentially ask questions. And it gets back to something, you know, I discussed before the show: curiosity. I'm a big believer in looking for curiosity in people. Curiousness to me means you're still growing and I can't coach and mentor someone that stopped learning, but someone that's thirsty for learning, they'll ask, why, why? Just like that five-year-old child. Perfect, I want to hire you.

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And she's the old CFO there. And she wrote down, this is your final piece of advice from me, WAIT. And I'm like, wait, what am I waiting for? Because I don't like to wait, I'm impatient. She goes, no, it's not wait. It's "Why am I talking?" And I've always thought that that was brilliant. And I still write it today. Most days when I'm getting ready, I'll put wait at the top of my notebook for the day, date it in, you know, with my agenda. And the three things I want to accomplish for the day. And I write the word, wait, because I know that if I talk less and listen more, I'm going to have a better day. But ultimately, I think at the end of the day, when you're really trying to pull people out, I love your description of true leadership, of authentic leadership, and you know, the Gravitas 21 principles that you have put forth, I think are really good in defining leadership versus management and management's not what's needed today. We need leadership, people that will come in and be willing to do all those things that you said and have the gravitas to lead. But at the same time, you're listening. And you're engaging with your employees and you're giving them an opportunity to be great. Part of that trip to Vanderbilt, we sat with the Vanderbilt Symphony Orchestra.

We actually sat with them. And it was fantastic as we watched the conductor. And the conductor took us through a number of different iterations. Very controlling, you know, very, very much hitting adagio and making sure that, you know, the fortissimo was giant and it felt a little stilted. And he goes, now I'm going to show you the difference. And he said all I'm going to do now is let the musicians know what's coming next. Is it a right turn? A left turn? All I have to do is let them know in the score where we're headed and the music will be so much better. And so, he played and he took half a step back and he just, he let them know that, you're going to have to bring it up a little bit. You're going to have to bring it down a little bit here, in a moment, right? And it was all leading direction. And guess what? The music was so much better. Not surprisingly, because the artistry of each of those employees or musicians, in this case, came through. I really love that moment. Because it told me, wait, let them show you how good they are. And they're almost always going to overachieve. They're almost always going to beat your expectations. And I love that. I hope that that's part of my legacy is that I was one of those leaders that let people be everything they could be. That sounds like an army commercial, not perfect for a Marine, but good enough.

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But what happens when one of those leaders reverts back to commander control, or you start to see those leadership behaviors that are not in line with what you believe that leadership model should be? How do you handle that?

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And it just, it’s kind of its own regulator, to some extent, you know, if more leaders every day said, look, I'm going to accomplish this. I'm going to do it the right way.

These are the most important things of the day, whether it's helping out employees or pushing a new program into the marketplace, or designing a new vehicle.

When, you know, you focus on those things and leadership focuses on them, they tend to stay on the good behaviors. It's when you start to lose your focus and start to get away from your core values, that things start to unravel. And you have to very quickly push it back onto the path. And if you don't push it onto the path, it will just roll downhill. The problem will get larger and larger. You can't put a band-aid on cancer. When you find it, you got to take the chemotherapy and fix the problem.

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It's a nice way to sum up a more complete, as-you-use, authentic leader. But within those, there's a couple that really stood out: ownership, accountability, responsibility. You mentioned that you've interviewed Navy SEALs. I know Jocko Willink. I should say I know him, I know of him, and I've read Extreme Ownership.But I relate to that one. I truly believe that if a leader sees the business as their own, they're going to make better decisions for the company, for their people, for their partners, and for their customers. And so, ownership to me is part and parcel of what I do every day. And it really kind of drives me when I feel that this is my company to make better, even though it's not. And I have shareholders and employees that, and all the key stakeholders. When I feel it's mine, I feel like I do a better job. The other one is resilience. It's the last one, actually, and number 21 in your list. And I like resilience. I look for people that are resilient on my team. I look for talent that is able to take one on the chin, get knocked down, but still able to, you know, pull themselves together, dust themselves off, get ready for the next day, the sun will always come up. Be resilient and be determined and you'll get to where you want to be. Just don't give up.

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Just, I love all kinds of music and still occasionally will pick up a saxophone and play it.

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