Why Authentic Leadership Matters Most in Times of Crisis

[Transcript]

[: 00:00:00

I'm your host, Jan Griffiths, that passionate, rebellious farmer's daughter from Wales with over 35 years of experience in our beloved auto industry, and a commitment to empowering fellow leaders to be their best authentic selves.

Stay true to yourself, be you, and lead with gravitas, the hallmark of authentic leadership. Let's dive in.

This episode is brought to you by Lockton. Lockton redefines business insurance and people solutions with a personal touch. Their global team of 11,000 is driven by independence, not quarters to tailor success for your business.

Discover the Lockton difference, where your goals become their mission. Independence, it's not just how you think, but how you act.

Don't do it. Resist the temptation to slide back into command and control mode. Stay true to authentic leadership. You can do it. I know in times of crisis, the times that we're in right now with tariffs changing daily—sometimes even within the same day. So much uncertainty.

Should we move our supply chain? Should we not? Should we consider other sourcing options? Should we not? Should we assume an X percent tariff rate on this country? Do we even know? Do we have full visibility into our supply chain? So many questions. Swirling uncertainty. And I know that there's an urge to slide back into command and control because that makes you feel safe, because that top-down decision making, that hierarchical decision making where you are in control, it's based on micromanagement. It's not based on trust, it's based on control and compliance. And it may feel good for a minute. And it may get you through a battle, but you are not gonna win the war with command and control.

Stay true to yourself. Stay true to authentic leadership. Remember, authentic leadership is when you lead from the heart, you are true to yourself and your values. And those don't change—crisis or not. You don't change who you are. In fact, I would say lean in more to your humanity, to who you are as a human.

Authentic leadership is about connecting your teams. It's about empowering your teams. Allowing them to make decisions. Yes, do you need a war room kind of environment to navigate through this crisis? Absolutely, you do. But you need the brain power of every single person on that team to be contributing quickly to the decisions, and maybe making an adjustment to your strategy as a business.

Remember this, command and control is about managing through fear and uncertainty. Taking control. Authentic leadership is about inspiring through trust and partnership. When you inspire people to take the right action in a time of crisis, you'll build trust. That foundation of trust will deepen even further and will allow you to get things done faster. And yes, they will sustain. Command and control in this situation is very short term.

So my message to you is simple. Please resist the urge to go into command and control micromanagement mode. Stay true to yourself, your values, and the principles of authentic leadership.

Let's take a look at a company who many of us thought would go right back to command and control during this difficult time, and that is General Motors. If we look at the Plante Moran Working Relations Index, many of us thought that General Motors would go right back to their old habits, more command and control micromanagement, leading through compliance, and all of that coming out into the supply base, but they did not. If anything, they doubled down on authentic leadership.

And I'll read you a quote from Dr. Angela Johnson, who is now the new owner of the Plante Moran WRI study, and she says. "For GM, we would expect with all the turmoil to see more emphasis on old school behaviors and that's not present. Instead, we see suppliers talking about them like they talk about Toyota and Honda." End of quote.

Toyota and Honda stand right at the top with the highest rankings of supplier relationships in the WRI. This year, GM's supplier relationship score jumped by 11 points, which now they've crossed that 300 point threshold. That's the first time in their 25 year history. And let's not forget that, at one point, they were at the very bottom. So, that's a real sign of culture change that we see taking place in General Motors.

And what are the key factors driving this? Senior leadership engagement and accessibility, transparent and regular communication, empowerment of buyers and cross-functional teams. A focus on equitable partner-based relationships. A focus on empowering buyers.

When you look at the results of the WRI, suppliers want to be able to deal with buyers where they can make a decision for them, they can advocate for them, that they don't have to go through multiple levels of bureaucracy. Or even worse, in the case of Ford, suppliers didn't even know how to navigate the system for simple transactional things like getting an invoice paid.

So now is not a time to lean into that urge to micromanage everything to get through that crisis. It might feel good for a minute, but it is not going to sustain. Now is the perfect time to double down on authentic leadership.

This episode is sponsored by UHY. UHY and the Center for Automotive Research are digging into how suppliers quote and win with OEMs. The results drop at CAR MBS, September the 15th through the 17th at Michigan Central. Stay tuned.

Build those relationships with all stakeholders, customers, suppliers, people on your team, people in other functions. Double down on authentic leadership to get us through this crisis and beyond. It's one thing to get through a crisis, to get through a time of uncertainty, but we've got to move I would say probably faster in this auto industry than any other industry. Because we've got technology that we have to catch up with—remember, the Chinese are ahead of us, whether you like to admit it or not, they are—we've got to catch up with technology and we need the operating model to help us get there.

And the operating model that I'm talking about is that of leadership and culture. Now is the time to lean into authentic leadership. And take a look around you, take a look at all the leaders, the CEOs that I've interviewed on this podcast. They are all authentic leaders. They all lean in to that authentic leadership style. They are not command and control, and they are the leaders of the future.

Recently, we heard the announcement from Stellantis that Antonio Filosa, the current COO, was taking over as the global CEO. To me, this is a classic example of companies moving away from the command and control, that prehistoric type of leadership that we saw in Carlos Tavares—and look what that did for the company. Look what that did to the bottom line. He did not listen to his people. He did not make an informed decision with the input from his team. He thought that he knew best, and he obviously didn't, and the financial results are there to prove it.

Now, Antonio Filosa is much more relationship-based. He's already started to build relationships with suppliers, with dealers, and the UAW. That's the kind of leader we want for the future. And please don't make the assumption that this is soft skills. We need a soft skills leader. Far from it. We need a leader who's comfortable in their own skin. Who's not afraid to lead from the heart. Who's not afraid to be vulnerable and human. Who inspires and empowers people to do more than they ever thought they could do before. That's the kind of leader that we want, not the Carlos Tavares, Carlos Ghosn type of leader that leads with fear and control and compliance. Those kind of leaders are gone.

So my message to you is simple: think about how your leadership style has changed during this crisis. We're all suffering from tariff fatigue. Take a moment to think about your own leadership style, and have a conversation with your team, and talk about 'how' not the 'what,' we know the 'what'— the tactical things that we have to do to get through this. But how—how are we working together as a team? How are you gonna figure out how you get through this crisis together? And how can you view this as an opportunity to create a more authentic leadership style culture? If you need help, you know where I am.

And remember, be you, lead in line with your values, be your beautiful 100% authentic leadership self, and lead with Gravitas, the hallmark of authentic leadership.

Thank you for listening to the Automotive Leaders Podcast. Click the listen link in the show notes to subscribe for free on your platform of choice, and don't forget to download the 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership PDF by clicking on the link below. And remember, stay true to yourself, be you, and lead with Gravitas, the hallmark of authentic leadership.