A New Year, A New Approach to Leadership

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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.

: 2024

We are seeing the industry not only transform but completely reinvent itself. And as John McElroy said way back on episode 100, and we're now up to episode 141, he said when we talked about leadership and culture, that the alarm bells are not ringing loud enough. And he's right. When I talk about culture, I use that term in its broadest sense. So, it's about who we are as an industry, who you are as a company, as a tier one, as a department, who you are as a leader, how you do things, but that also goes all the way into the processes that we use. It's what we do and how we do it.

To me, culture is all of those things put together. And never, ever before has there been a more important time for us to examine our culture. It's not one of those soft, nice to have HR kind of things. Oh yeah, we just all want to get along together. Oh no, no! It is much more than that. It is absolutely paramount to our survival in this industry. If we don't figure out the path to EV adoption, what it looks like, how we will get there, how we will operate with speed, how we will handle all the new technologies, how we will attract and retain talent, how we will stop playing those stupid, bullshit political games in the conference rooms, you know what I'm talking about, that waste time and energy. How we will stop operating in silos and start trusting ourselves, our people. And yes, operate as authentic leaders, questioning everything we do and why we do it, and the answer had better not be, "Well, we've done it that way for 10 or 20 years." Oh, this is the spec that we use for an ICE vehicle, and now we need to use it for an EV vehicle. I learned that from Terry and CareSoft in the MEMA conference this year. I can't believe that's happening.

ck on our accomplishments for: 2024

And I used to say, "Who are you as a leader?" But I was corrected by Daniel Goleman, the psychologist and author of the emotional intelligence books. And he said, "No, no, no, it is not about who are you as a leader. The question is, how are you as a leader?" The mission and the purpose of the Automotive Leaders Podcast is to bring to you examples and stories of leaders who truly practice authentic leadership, who understand the massive transformation that's happening in this industry, and how they need to adapt their leadership style. It may not have been the leadership style they grew up with. Command and control is dead. Authentic leadership is my friends, very much in. And if you want to know what it means, we will put a link in the show notes so that you can download the 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership.

I am often asked if there were a few podcast episodes in the Tier One space that talk about authentic leadership and how to practice it, who would it be? It's so hard for me to choose, but here goes: I would say John Husby, President and CEO of ADAC, how he drives a positive culture. Yes, he drives for results, but he knows how to bring the people along with him. Marques McCammon, President of Karma Automotive, listening to his story and how he came through in his early career, as I did, many doubters. He would be in a room, and people discounted him and doubted what he said, but how he worked through that and rose to be President of Karma Automotive and the culture that he drives at Karma. And then Hadi Awada, President of Global Mobility Coatings at Axalta. So many people over the last few years have told me about this guy and what a great leader he is. And so I had to get him on the show. And it's important to talk to these leaders in the Tier One space. These are CEOs or presidents in the Tier One space, so they have evolved through command and control. They've seen command and control around them in their early years, what they liked and what they didn't like about it. And they have chosen to be the authentic leader, to understand who they are, and operate within their values. And it's very powerful to hear their stories.

n he moved back to Detroit in: 2011

Then, I like to bring a different perspective from different generations. We've had several episodes this past year from our Gen Z: Listening to the Gen Z perspective, episode 134 with Victoria Shubelyak and Andrew Stocke. That's a good one to get a different perspective. And, of course, in 2024, I launched Auto Culture 2.0. I've never published a book before in my lifetime, but I have to tell you, it was the best night of my life seeing all of my industry colleagues around me. It felt like that was exactly where I was supposed to be in life, to talk about my commitment to architecting the new culture that we need in this industry.

% in: 2024

So, let's go to the other side of that. I want to talk about a leader who we've had on the show. He really is an authentic leader, and he has now been promoted to a much larger role in a major Tier One, and that is Martin Fischer. Martin Fischer was previously the President of ZF Americas. I didn't expect him to be a truly authentic leader. I'm just being honest here because maybe it's the stereotype I have in my head of what a leader of a German Tier One is like. I still feel and expect them to be very much command and control, very much dictatorial, a lot of hierarchy. And that's my fault; that's my bias and my experience coming into play, and I need to give these guys or ladies a better chance and keep an open mind. So, that's a lesson to myself. But when I met Martin Fischer, you know, nothing could be further from the truth. He's not a command and control guy. Yes, he drives for results, but he's also very people-focused and people-centric. And he left ZF, I think it was mid-2024, and recently, he has just been announced as the Global CEO of FORVIA, which is a big step up in responsibility.

So, look at this: we've got Carlos Tavares, commander control dictator, out. Out completely. And now, you've got a guy like Martin Fischer, who truly understands and practices authentic leadership being vaulted into an even bigger role. To me, there it is; it tells me that authentic leadership is the way to go. But before you get into all of that and the culture and the culture workshops that I do with Tier Ones, always talking about who they are and what they need to do to move their culture forward. What do they need to do to move quickly, to move with speed, to be able to transform their Tier One businesses?

One of the things you really have to know is who you want to be as a company and as a department. What is your identity? What is the identity that you want? Because remember this: it is identity that drives behavior that gets the result. So, if you don't have a clear vision of what you want your company culture to be, how you want them to operate, it can't be some pithy statements or just a few fluffy words; it's got to have meaning. It's got to have an emotional connection to it. So please take some time to understand what your company identity is. What is your company's brand? How do you want people to feel about your brand externally and internally? Because it is identity that will drive the behavior that will get the results that we all crave.

hink about it as we close out: 2024

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.