AutoCulture 2.0 ft. Jan Griffiths of Gravitas Detroit

[00:00:00] Now in the middle of one of the most significant eras in automotive, Carl Anthony amplifies

[00:00:05] the minds and voices behind this historic transformation as the host of AutoVision News Radio.

[00:00:10] My check, my check.

[00:00:11] All while coming to terms with middle age, father loss and what it means to be successful

[00:00:16] in Detroit.

[00:00:17] In the winter of 2004, I was into my second semester of broadcasting school at Iowa Western

[00:00:24] Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

[00:00:27] Around that time, a new program director, Sophia John was hired to oversee our college radio station,

[00:00:33] K-I-W-R or 897 the River, the cutting edge of rock.

[00:00:39] A short time after Sophia arrived, she held a meeting with all the students involved

[00:00:44] with 897 the River as part of the electronic media studies program.

[00:00:49] By the time that meeting ended on that winter afternoon in Stewart Hall, only a few students

[00:00:55] remained in her corner.

[00:00:57] You see the broadcasting students or radio kids, as was the slang term around campus, had

[00:01:03] a reputation for being poor students.

[00:01:06] They had a reputation for thinking they were a bit too cool for school because they were

[00:01:11] on the college radio station.

[00:01:13] Sophia came in and busted all of us down a notch, having cut her teeth in corporate commercial

[00:01:18] radio and discovering and managing one of the biggest metal bands in the world, a group

[00:01:25] of nine from Des Moines, Iowa who still wear their signature mask when performing.

[00:01:31] In that meeting, Sophia said being on the radio was a unique privilege, not a guaranteed

[00:01:36] right, and that to crack the microphone on 897 the River meant that everyone needed to

[00:01:43] up their game both academically and in terms of media performance.

[00:01:48] 897 the River's massive 100,000 watt tower meant that us as college students could compete

[00:01:54] with the likes of the corporate radio giants in the Omaha Metro.

[00:01:58] Few college stations are afforded that large of a tower with that far of a reach and if

[00:02:04] we wanted our voice on those airwaves, we had to earn it.

[00:02:08] That meant stronger critiques of our on-air work, more focus on broadcasting formatics and

[00:02:14] zero emphasis on us being cool.

[00:02:18] Most of my classmates hated Sophia from that day forward, many called her the B word,

[00:02:24] some the C word.

[00:02:26] In my life there has never been a greater mentor.

[00:02:29] The day after that meeting I went into our office and begged her to work with me outside

[00:02:34] of class so that I could get better on the air.

[00:02:38] I told Sophia that if I didn't succeed at Iowa Western and at 897 the River, I didn't

[00:02:43] have anywhere else to go.

[00:02:45] That the circumstances in my life at the time were such that college was a make it or break

[00:02:50] it thing for me.

[00:02:52] I told Sophia that when she spoke, she had lit a fire under my ass and that I would be

[00:02:58] okay with her holding me to the flame for the next couple of years so that I could complete

[00:03:03] the broadcasting program and graduate.

[00:03:06] She did and I will be forever grateful.

[00:03:09] This forward two decades to the evening of March 7th, 2024.

[00:03:14] The automotive culture 2.0 book launch by the founder of Gravitas Detroit and the architect

[00:03:20] of cultural change, Jan Griffis.

[00:03:23] As Jan was speaking at the event I saw my longtime mentor Sophia John.

[00:03:28] As Jan talked about challenging the status quo in automotive and changing the conventional

[00:03:34] notion of leadership, I felt that same fire being lit.

[00:03:38] That same fire that knocked me out of complacency 20 years ago.

[00:03:43] Armed with the skills she learned in the Welsh farmlands and a degree from the University

[00:03:47] of Wales, Jan moved to the United States at 23.

[00:03:51] She rose through the corporate ranks of the auto industry ultimately serving as chief

[00:03:55] procurement officer for a $3 billion tier 1 global automotive supplier and later earned

[00:04:01] a spot on automotive news as list of the 100 leading women in the North American automotive

[00:04:07] industry.

[00:04:08] Being at the speed of mobility, this is all to vision news radio with Karl Anthony

[00:04:13] in Detroit Michigan.

[00:04:14] Jan, let me begin by saying that and I'm not blowing smoke at you when I say this, that

[00:04:21] when it comes to being an automotive podcaster and broadcaster or just whatever it means

[00:04:29] to be in the automotive industry to be successful in Detroit to be successful in automotive,

[00:04:35] you have to know that I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for you.

[00:04:42] Wow, thank you.

[00:04:44] That's quite an opening.

[00:04:46] I'm not really sure what I want to be when I grow up but when I look at gravitas to

[00:04:51] Troy, I listen to the automotive leaders podcast, I come to things like your book launch,

[00:04:57] I think Jan is somebody that's who I want to be.

[00:05:03] Why, Karl?

[00:05:04] Why?

[00:05:05] What is it that you see in me that what draws you to that?

[00:05:11] I think because you had the dream job if you will and I'm going to use your word trappings.

[00:05:19] You had all the trappings that go with that and then you followed your heart and you walked

[00:05:26] away to do something that was close to you, something that meant a lot to you and you

[00:05:34] did it.

[00:05:35] And if I'm understanding right from the night that you got up and spoke at your book

[00:05:39] launch, you did it because it was the right thing to do.

[00:05:42] You felt called that the conviction was very strong and you do it with such grace, Jan.

[00:05:48] Thank you.

[00:05:49] Thank you.

[00:05:51] So at the beginning of the automotive leaders podcast, you introduce yourself as that

[00:05:56] passionate and rebellious farmer's daughter from Wales.

[00:06:00] I want to go back to Wales, I want to go back to the farm.

[00:06:04] Where does the passion come from?

[00:06:06] Where does the rebellion come from?

[00:06:08] The Welsh people are a rebellious sort of people.

[00:06:12] In fact, if you watch Braveheart, Mel Gibson will say, let's bring in the Welsh because

[00:06:20] that's who we are.

[00:06:21] We're rebellious, we're rebellious nature.

[00:06:23] We have a dragon on our flag.

[00:06:25] What's that tell you?

[00:06:26] Right?

[00:06:27] We have a lot of fire, a lot of passion.

[00:06:30] It's just who we are.

[00:06:32] But I use that tagline if you will at the beginning of the podcast because that's it.

[00:06:38] That's who I am really.

[00:06:39] I am that passionate rebellious farmer's daughter from Wales and there's a lot in that

[00:06:44] statement.

[00:06:45] I'm passionate about everything that I do.

[00:06:47] I love to challenge the status quo and I love if there's a rule, I want to break it

[00:06:52] or challenge it or find out why it's there or something.

[00:06:55] So that rebellious nature is in me.

[00:06:59] The farmer's daughter from Wales, I am a farmer's daughter from Wales and I think a lot of that

[00:07:04] brought in my work ethic and my ability to function in a male dominated environment

[00:07:09] because I grew up with farmers and farmers' sons around me.

[00:07:14] That taught me a lot.

[00:07:16] You taught me my negotiation skills.

[00:07:19] You've probably heard me say before, I learned my negotiation skills and the pub with

[00:07:22] my dad and I did.

[00:07:23] Yeah.

[00:07:24] I didn't go to some fancy negotiation school.

[00:07:27] That's where I learned it.

[00:07:28] Bryce attract the parts and hey, you see that these guys haggle in the pub?

[00:07:33] You learn a lot and I sat there and I was M's daughter.

[00:07:36] I didn't even have a name because women, well respected in the farming community back

[00:07:43] then.

[00:07:44] Just M's daughter.

[00:07:45] Oh yeah, M's daughter, whatever.

[00:07:49] And I remember you had said, I believe you've said it in your podcast also in your book,

[00:07:54] the pub was really divided into two sections.

[00:07:56] There was the male section and then that's where all the guys were drinking and then where

[00:08:02] the women were was basically the family section.

[00:08:04] I do remember you saying that at one time it was very clearly divided in half.

[00:08:08] Yes, and it was the norm.

[00:08:10] I mean, it wasn't a bad thing.

[00:08:11] It wasn't considered a bad thing.

[00:08:12] It was just the way it was.

[00:08:13] I mean, the culture had grown up over decades and it had a stone floor in the bar and the

[00:08:20] lounge area had carpet and the men, the working men went into the bar.

[00:08:25] Women didn't go in there.

[00:08:26] I went in there and I was daddy's little girl and I would sit there and I would listen

[00:08:31] to what he had to say and what the other guys had to say.

[00:08:34] I wasn't really encouraged to contribute too much but that's okay.

[00:08:39] You can sit back and you can learn a lot from these people.

[00:08:42] How old are you, Jan, when all of this is happening?

[00:08:46] About what age are you?

[00:08:47] I would say from the age of about 13, 14 onwards.

[00:08:53] Okay.

[00:08:54] Do you ever think that would be useful someday in the automotive industry?

[00:08:58] Did you ever have any idea of where that would go that that would be a skill set that you

[00:09:04] would fall back on someday?

[00:09:06] Did you ever envision that?

[00:09:07] Every one million years.

[00:09:08] I'd never heard the term automotive.

[00:09:11] I didn't know what automotive meant.

[00:09:13] I grew up in a farming community.

[00:09:15] I didn't know what a manufacturing plant was, what an office environment was.

[00:09:20] I had none of that sort of discussion around me.

[00:09:24] It was completely alien to me.

[00:09:27] How in the world, Jan, do you go from the farm to the automotive industry?

[00:09:34] How does that happen?

[00:09:36] How do you make that jump?

[00:09:38] That's the catalyst that sort of spurs that in motion.

[00:09:42] Just like many young people leaving college, you have a degree, you have a qualification,

[00:09:47] you have no experience.

[00:09:49] I signed up with a temp agency in Wales and they said we got this job at a company called

[00:09:56] Borg Warner and I thought Borg Warner, huh?

[00:09:59] I've seen them.

[00:10:00] I see the plant when I drive to college because they had a plant in a place called Kenfig.

[00:10:08] I would see it as I was driving to college and I thought, they make batteries.

[00:10:12] I don't know.

[00:10:13] They made transmissions at the time.

[00:10:15] They made manual transmissions for a sob and for jaguar.

[00:10:19] And I thought transmission was that.

[00:10:21] So anyway, my mother calls me in from the field.

[00:10:24] I was riding my horse on the field and before cell phones obviously.

[00:10:29] And she calls me in and I took the call and they said we have a job for you.

[00:10:33] You're going to be a temp in a manufacturing plant for this company called Borg Warner

[00:10:38] and I walked onto that shop floor and I inhaled that air in the coolant

[00:10:43] and I fell in love with manufacturing at that very moment.

[00:10:47] And the rest they say is history.

[00:10:48] And it was really that quick, Jan, just the smell and the environment.

[00:10:52] It was that quick.

[00:10:53] It was that and the ability to earn money.

[00:10:55] Yeah.

[00:10:56] I saw the ability to earn money at that point.

[00:10:59] It wasn't a lot of money.

[00:11:00] I don't remember how much it was, but it was probably just a few dollars an hour back then.

[00:11:04] And I was doing a lot of the grunt jobs and making coffee and copy and blueprints

[00:11:08] and sending tell access.

[00:11:10] I always left to tell people that because the young people are like, what?

[00:11:13] What's that?

[00:11:14] Google it.

[00:11:16] I'm going to have to Google that.

[00:11:21] I'll know what a facts machine is.

[00:11:22] I know that I tell like so.

[00:11:23] I have no idea Jan.

[00:11:25] Prefax.

[00:11:26] Prefax.

[00:11:27] Prefax.

[00:11:29] But this temp stuff builds though.

[00:11:33] I mean, it builds and I've heard you talk about this.

[00:11:36] You talk about this in your book, Automotive Culture 2.0 that at a certain point, you couldn't

[00:11:41] get enough of it.

[00:11:42] So you started asking questions.

[00:11:44] You started, you wanted to know more.

[00:11:46] Yeah.

[00:11:47] I don't have an engineering background.

[00:11:49] I have a business degree.

[00:11:51] And I'm not particularly good at math.

[00:11:53] For me, this whole idea of engineering was fascinating.

[00:11:57] There was this blueprint.

[00:11:59] But then there were two blueprints.

[00:12:00] There was a casting print and then there was a machining print.

[00:12:03] Well, why was that?

[00:12:04] And why were the numbers the same but not really but different?

[00:12:06] And why did one of more dimensions than the other?

[00:12:09] And then how do these parts come together?

[00:12:11] Oh, in a thing called a bill of materials.

[00:12:13] Oh, okay, what's that?

[00:12:15] And then the parts come in the plant and there's logistics and there's purchasing and there's

[00:12:19] supply chain.

[00:12:20] And I was all over it.

[00:12:21] I could not stop asking questions.

[00:12:24] And then I got into purchasing.

[00:12:27] They made me a buyer at a very, very young age.

[00:12:29] And they made me materials manager at 23, I think.

[00:12:34] Okay.

[00:12:35] And to be a materials manager and a manufacturing plant at 23 and not really know what the hell

[00:12:39] you were doing was pretty terrifying.

[00:12:42] But I throughout my entire career call, I have not been qualified for any job I've ever

[00:12:48] taken ever.

[00:12:49] I just have a belief in myself that I will figure it out.

[00:12:53] And I have.

[00:12:55] When you made the switch to gravitas Detroit and I do want to talk about that in a second

[00:13:00] but when you made that switch, were you asking sort of those similar questions?

[00:13:05] Why this?

[00:13:06] Why that?

[00:13:08] Did that come back into play when you were starting gravitas Detroit?

[00:13:12] Yeah.

[00:13:13] It's never left.

[00:13:14] I'm curious.

[00:13:15] And then I found out over the years that I became more curious about human behavior

[00:13:21] in how that behavior impacts bottom line results.

[00:13:25] And I saw that the way we were treating suppliers, when you're taught and trained to beat

[00:13:31] suppliers over the head of the baseball bat to get the result.

[00:13:34] It's something never felt right about that.

[00:13:36] And I did think that it got the desired result.

[00:13:38] I thought there was a better way.

[00:13:40] I think that there's a better way to handle staff meetings to handle leadership team meetings.

[00:13:47] There's a better way to get things done.

[00:13:49] I think we waste a lot of time and energy in this industry by following an outdated model

[00:13:54] of command and control.

[00:13:56] So the more those questions started to come and the answers came back, and I was thinking

[00:14:01] you know, we're not going to make this transformation as an industry.

[00:14:05] If we don't really change the culture, how we do things?

[00:14:10] That transformation.

[00:14:12] So on your website gravitas Detroit.com, I'll leave a link in the show notes, but you

[00:14:16] have written there on the homepage.

[00:14:19] Technology is evolving at an alarming rate yet company culture remains stuck in the past

[00:14:23] with outdated beliefs, as you've just said, Jan.

[00:14:27] So two part question here.

[00:14:28] First, what is gravitas Detroit?

[00:14:31] Take us through that.

[00:14:32] And then second, help me, Jan, understand from your perspective the contrast between technology

[00:14:39] and company culture because it's clear that they're not progressing at the same rate.

[00:14:45] And why is that something that we should care about?

[00:14:47] Yeah.

[00:14:48] Yeah.

[00:14:49] Well, gravitas Detroit, I founded in 2018.

[00:14:51] I walked away from my corporate role.

[00:14:53] I believe that there's a better way to do business in the auto industry and we do that

[00:14:58] at gravitas Detroit by providing workshops, off-site leadership team meetings for companies

[00:15:05] to help people understand what their culture is and what they need to do to amplify their

[00:15:10] vote, their values.

[00:15:12] And then secondly, I produce podcasts, internal podcasts for companies to help them really

[00:15:20] amplify those values internally because you know, Carl, we can't reach the shop floor

[00:15:25] in this industry.

[00:15:26] We can't reach them.

[00:15:28] They don't have a corporate email.

[00:15:29] So I love taking this medium that you and I both love called podcasting and using that

[00:15:35] internally to help companies really amplify their values.

[00:15:41] And that's what we do.

[00:15:43] And I'm in there every single day working with tier ones, helping them figure out what their

[00:15:47] culture is and what they need to do to make it better.

[00:15:50] The technology portion, why is it something that we need to pay attention to?

[00:15:55] If you look how fast technology is accelerating, we talk about it all the time.

[00:16:01] What about the model of leadership and the culture to go along with that?

[00:16:07] Does anybody seriously believe that the model that got us to where we're at today, which

[00:16:11] is to command a control, is going to take us into the future?

[00:16:14] And in the book, you'll hear their statement about would you run a 4K video on a 95

[00:16:20] Windows operating system?

[00:16:21] Yeah, it's a great analogy by the way.

[00:16:23] Right.

[00:16:24] You wouldn't would you?

[00:16:25] Yeah, you wouldn't.

[00:16:26] So what makes you think that you're going to transform an industry to EVs, autonomous

[00:16:30] driving, smart cities, all the things that we need to do?

[00:16:33] We know that when there's a vehicle in the EV space, we'll pick on Tesla as an example.

[00:16:40] If there's an update to that vehicle, it's a OTA update.

[00:16:44] It just happened.

[00:16:45] All design vehicle manufacturing, all of those lead times are shortening.

[00:16:52] Changes need to be rapidly implemented software defined vehicles.

[00:16:56] All these things that I know you are really heavy into.

[00:17:00] Yeah, yeah.

[00:17:01] But you're not going to do that when you've got a culture that is divided into silos

[00:17:06] that's playing games.

[00:17:09] The badge of honor is how as a leader, how far down in the weeds you are and how harsh

[00:17:15] you are and how aggressive you are with your people or your suppliers, these are cultural

[00:17:20] issues that are slowing us down call.

[00:17:23] And until we get our arms around that, we're never going to transform this industry at

[00:17:27] speed that it needs to be transformed at.

[00:17:30] Yeah.

[00:17:31] I've heard you many times, Jan, cite the work of Stephen Covey, you know, the command and

[00:17:37] control versus trust and inspire.

[00:17:40] But Jan, where does command and control come from?

[00:17:45] Where does that, where does that ideology originate?

[00:17:48] Why does it take hold and automotive for so many years and maybe further to that?

[00:17:53] Why is it still so prevalent in automotive?

[00:17:56] Where does that come from, the command and control in automotive?

[00:17:59] It comes from military originally.

[00:18:01] Sure.

[00:18:02] But it really started at the beginning at the industrial revolution because as we moved

[00:18:07] from cottage industries more to the factory concept, it was all about scaling and efficiency.

[00:18:14] It was all about standardized work.

[00:18:15] So it's all about putting people and jobs in boxes and controlling the output, controlling

[00:18:21] the inputs and controlling the outputs.

[00:18:25] And at that point in time, it worked great.

[00:18:28] Nobody wanted anything different but the world has evolved into COVID was the catalyst

[00:18:34] that caused us to look at the way we work in a, and put a really put a microscope on

[00:18:39] it.

[00:18:40] It was happening anyway, Carl, but COVID said, woo, wait a minute.

[00:18:45] Why do we have to go in the office five days a week and work nine to five?

[00:18:48] Oh, wow.

[00:18:49] Whenever I ask that question before, let's think about that.

[00:18:52] Right.

[00:18:53] And then you've got startup culture in California.

[00:18:55] You've got technology companies.

[00:18:56] You know, they have their own culture.

[00:18:59] There's no right or wrong culture.

[00:19:02] There's no California startup culture is right and we're all wrong in legacy order.

[00:19:06] Sure.

[00:19:07] There isn't.

[00:19:08] There are good elements to both.

[00:19:09] There is only the culture that you want in your business, but your organization, your

[00:19:15] values, your brand to meet your industry and your customers.

[00:19:20] And we got to get our arms around that and understand that it's our responsibility

[00:19:23] as leaders to drive that culture.

[00:19:27] If I'm a company out there and I say, I get this, I get this trust and inspire model

[00:19:33] but I'm looking around at command and control everywhere I turn.

[00:19:37] I know that's not the way for the future.

[00:19:39] I know that trust and inspire is going to be better, but I don't know how to get there.

[00:19:44] That's where gravitas Detroit comes in.

[00:19:46] Am I understanding that right?

[00:19:47] Okay.

[00:19:48] Exactly.

[00:19:49] Exactly.

[00:19:50] So you have a few choices.

[00:19:51] You can hire some big fancy high price consulting firm and that's great.

[00:19:55] And I'm sure they're awesome.

[00:19:56] But it's going to cost you billions of dollars.

[00:19:58] Right.

[00:19:59] Right.

[00:20:00] Where gravitas Detroit fits in is that nice niche area where we could come in and exactly

[00:20:05] is I have my title on my emails and all over the place.

[00:20:10] I am the architect of cultural change.

[00:20:12] So I'm going to come in with you.

[00:20:13] Yeah.

[00:20:14] I'm going to bring all of my experience, everything that I've learned from leaders I've interviewed

[00:20:17] on my podcast and I'm going to help you craft that plan.

[00:20:21] Now I may play a role in that plan.

[00:20:23] I may run a few leadership workshops for you.

[00:20:27] I may do some speaking events for you but I'm the architect of that cultural transformation

[00:20:33] plan for you.

[00:20:34] Does that help?

[00:20:35] And it does.

[00:20:36] It does again gravitas Detroit dot com.

[00:20:38] Janima Liva a link in the show notes.

[00:20:40] I want to set up two different pictures here.

[00:20:45] So the night of your book launch automotive culture 2.0 also a link in the show notes.

[00:20:51] When you got up to speak, you talked about the dreaded Monday morning meetings that

[00:20:58] were sucking the life out of you and you're like, I got to do something different.

[00:21:03] I know it's my dream job and it's everything I've ever wanted but I got to do something

[00:21:07] different.

[00:21:08] So there's one visual now this second visual as you said a moment ago, you're the architect

[00:21:14] of cultural change.

[00:21:16] Take us through that progression.

[00:21:17] Okay.

[00:21:18] So see sweets conference room, executive leadership staff meeting every Monday.

[00:21:25] Same type of PowerPoint same agenda very little engagement and interaction find yourself

[00:21:31] drifting to your personal email more than paying attention in the meeting.

[00:21:35] I will, I will openly admit and I know there's people out there that can totally relate

[00:21:39] to what I'm talking about right now.

[00:21:41] Absolutely.

[00:21:42] So then you have to wonder why, why am I, why am I disengaged here?

[00:21:45] What's going on?

[00:21:46] Okay.

[00:21:47] So we make the decision to leave and I start gravitas Detroit and I have no experience being

[00:21:53] an entrepreneur really have no idea what I'm doing perfectly.

[00:21:56] I don't.

[00:21:58] So I've started to learn how to be an entrepreneur, starting to put some structure around what

[00:22:03] this business is.

[00:22:04] The mission is true and it's in my heart and it is to impact the way we work on the culture

[00:22:09] in this industry but how to do that?

[00:22:11] How to define a business around that?

[00:22:13] How to market that?

[00:22:14] I thought to learn that.

[00:22:16] And then somebody said start a podcast and I thought oh that's great.

[00:22:19] What's a podcast?

[00:22:20] So I had to learn all about that many YouTube videos hours of YouTube videos later and I

[00:22:26] launched the podcast and then the pandemic hits.

[00:22:29] So you come off of the C-suite job with a great comp package, single mom, house in Birmingham

[00:22:35] and then all of a sudden like you're on your butt because it's COVID.

[00:22:41] Yeah.

[00:22:42] So I was on unemployment.

[00:22:43] It was brutal.

[00:22:45] Yeah.

[00:22:46] I had two job offers that came along during that time and I said no to both of them.

[00:22:51] What was that like saying no to both of those?

[00:22:54] I wondered if I had seriously lost my mind at that point.

[00:22:58] Because the ego was screaming.

[00:23:00] Oh, this is and it was a great job.

[00:23:02] This is a great job.

[00:23:03] It has lots of is a big title.

[00:23:05] There's a lot of responsibility and a lot of comp to it.

[00:23:08] But something inside me called was saying oh don't do it.

[00:23:14] And I said no and when I think the universe tests you it's like okay lady so you think

[00:23:20] you architect the culture change and all that.

[00:23:23] All right, let's see how committed you are.

[00:23:25] Say no to this.

[00:23:26] Right, right, right.

[00:23:27] Yeah, prove it.

[00:23:29] And I did and then another one came along and still the other business wasn't generating

[00:23:34] hardly any revenue was rough.

[00:23:37] But then little by little, you know the entrepreneurial journey you start to get a little bit more clarity

[00:23:42] on the business and then it starts to grow and you get some traction.

[00:23:46] Podcast starts to take off.

[00:23:49] We got our first podcast sponsor.

[00:23:51] Then the book comes somebody comes up with this idea of a book and I thought well okay,

[00:23:56] that's not a bad idea because I really need that to get the higher level speaking gigs.

[00:24:02] Sure.

[00:24:03] But now it's grown into a whole it's got a whole life of its own.

[00:24:06] Now the book is just people are taking pictures of themselves with it putting it on social

[00:24:11] media.

[00:24:12] Yeah.

[00:24:13] And they're really using it as a tool to open up the conversation of culture with their

[00:24:17] team, which I absolutely love Carl.

[00:24:19] So it's it's having more impact than I originally anticipated, which makes me happy.

[00:24:24] Absolutely.

[00:24:25] Absolutely.

[00:24:26] There's so much that I have learned from podcast interviews from interviewing great leaders

[00:24:31] on the podcast.

[00:24:33] I wanted a way to really boil that down to just the key points that leaders in the

[00:24:38] auto industry could take on board and open up that conversation with their team.

[00:24:44] And there's an ego thing that comes into play here and that is that if you write a book,

[00:24:48] you think that if it's not like 253 hundred pages, it's not going to be taken seriously.

[00:24:54] And you've got to get over that.

[00:24:55] Yeah.

[00:24:56] Yeah.

[00:24:57] Do you know a lot of books most people only get like a third of the way through?

[00:25:00] I didn't know that no.

[00:25:01] A statistic out there I need to find it.

[00:25:03] I found it when I was researching for the book.

[00:25:05] So a lot of people you know they start a book and they're like eh because books typically are

[00:25:09] written by writers who like to use words and write a lot.

[00:25:14] Yeah.

[00:25:15] Yilty.

[00:25:16] This book was written by me a recovering supply chain person who doesn't like to read words

[00:25:25] for the sake of reading.

[00:25:26] I just it's just tell me what I need to know and then tell me what I'm going to do with

[00:25:29] it.

[00:25:30] And oh, by the way, give me a place to go if I want to go deeper.

[00:25:33] So once we came out with the structure for the book, I used a ghost writer to help me really

[00:25:39] dial down out of those podcast episodes.

[00:25:42] What was important to the message?

[00:25:44] I came up with a call to action so things you can talk about with your team.

[00:25:48] And then we put a bar code in there.

[00:25:50] So if you want to go deeper and listen to the full episode, you can't honestly call

[00:25:54] it.

[00:25:55] I'm shocked.

[00:25:56] People are loving it.

[00:25:57] They're saying thank you for writing such a short book.

[00:26:00] Yeah.

[00:26:01] And like the podcast, I have enjoyed seeing many people on LinkedIn from our industry posting

[00:26:08] with that book and giving you the accolades that you deserve.

[00:26:13] And Audrey, mast as well, your ghost writer, you've taken, you've gone to great links to

[00:26:19] acknowledge her.

[00:26:20] Tell me a little bit about Audrey.

[00:26:22] Yeah.

[00:26:23] Well, when you write a book again, like podcasting, I didn't know anything about it

[00:26:26] about being an author.

[00:26:27] And there's this concept of a ghost writer.

[00:26:30] And I'd heard of it but I didn't really know what it was.

[00:26:32] A lot of authors and a lot of people who write books use ghost writers, but they don't

[00:26:37] talk about it.

[00:26:38] Right.

[00:26:39] And that to me, seems a little bit disingenuous.

[00:26:42] My whole thing about leadership is giving credit to people.

[00:26:47] Audrey was a critical part of it.

[00:26:49] She works for a company called Podreacher and they worked on the show notes for my podcast.

[00:26:56] Right.

[00:26:57] So she already knew my voice so she knew a lot about me.

[00:27:00] She knew the mission and she had a line back into automotive because of her grandmother.

[00:27:06] Okay.

[00:27:07] So when I was writing the book together, I said, Audrey, I'm totally going to acknowledge

[00:27:10] you.

[00:27:11] And she said, oh, you don't have to do that because people don't with ghost writers.

[00:27:14] I'm like, no, no, you're going to be acknowledged in this.

[00:27:18] So that's why you see, you know, I had her, she has a her own section in the acknowledgment.

[00:27:24] So that's Audrey at the beginning of the book, the dedication to Gwen, your daughter on

[00:27:30] the inside cover.

[00:27:31] Tell us about Gwen and what her support means to you.

[00:27:35] You saw it.

[00:27:36] You saw me actually dedicate that book to her in person doing the book launch.

[00:27:40] I did.

[00:27:41] It was pretty cool.

[00:27:42] And I believe that we have a look at our legacy here in the auto industry and how important

[00:27:50] it is that we leave it better than the day that we walked into it.

[00:27:54] And I want to dedicate it to her because it's just, it's just her and I, you know, I've

[00:27:59] been a single mom for many, many years.

[00:28:02] Sure.

[00:28:03] And I should mention she does have a great dad in her life.

[00:28:05] I don't want to discount him.

[00:28:07] We're no longer married, but he's a phenomenal dad.

[00:28:11] But it's just the two of us really and she holds that mirror up to my face.

[00:28:16] So when I'm saying something or doing something that is not right, she'll call me out on

[00:28:21] it.

[00:28:22] And I, in a nice way and I love that.

[00:28:24] I love that she will challenge and question just having that support.

[00:28:29] And she had grown up with a very comfortable lifestyle with my corporate job.

[00:28:34] And when I made the decision to leave the corporate world, I talked to her about it and

[00:28:37] I said, look, no more expensive European vacations ships to the designer malls, all those kinds

[00:28:44] of things, right?

[00:28:45] And then she turned around and she was what 16, I think at the time, 15 at the time she

[00:28:50] said, Mom, if we got to eat ramen noodles, that's who we're going to do.

[00:28:55] And that's why I put that in the dedication because there it is.

[00:28:58] There's a support right there.

[00:28:59] I love that when she said that, how did that make you feel?

[00:29:04] It was validation that I was doing the right thing because she could see that I would be

[00:29:09] much happier doing what I loved.

[00:29:12] Even though we knew that the money was going to take a long time to come back to anywhere

[00:29:18] close to a corporate salary, and she was right there with me.

[00:29:23] And I needed to know that she was, she was right there with me.

[00:29:26] And everybody I talked to that's really close to me about leaving my job and doing this.

[00:29:34] They all said you should do this, you were born to do this.

[00:29:37] And what's interesting, Jan is that I only know you in the context of gravitas to

[00:29:43] troide an automotive leaders podcast.

[00:29:46] So I only know this part of you, but I would still say that I cannot picture you doing

[00:29:54] any other thing other than being an architect of cultural change.

[00:29:59] Yeah, it's funny.

[00:30:00] I think you're right.

[00:30:02] But most of the people in the industry have known me a while.

[00:30:04] What know me as supply chain, right?

[00:30:06] They know me as automotive supply chain or program management.

[00:30:11] I worked in for many years and a little bit of manufacturing for a while.

[00:30:15] So I've worked in a lot of different functions, but people know me more as supply chain purchasing

[00:30:20] in the tier one space.

[00:30:21] And it's taken, well, it's taken all of five years to rebrand myself quite frankly.

[00:30:26] Sure.

[00:30:27] Sure.

[00:30:28] The 21 traits of authentic leadership available on gravitas to troide.com, link in the

[00:30:33] show notes, of course.

[00:30:34] So I want to turn this around on you because this is something you ask all of your guests

[00:30:39] so allow me to flip the tables of the 21 traits, Jan, which one speaks to you the most

[00:30:46] and why?

[00:30:47] A leader today has to have vision.

[00:30:50] It's more important in automotive than ever before.

[00:30:53] And if you think about that a lot of the OEMs, the senior purchasing people at the OEMs,

[00:30:59] in my mind they come down into the weeds way too much.

[00:31:03] Yeah.

[00:31:04] We know we need to be looking onward and upward.

[00:31:08] And the whole idea of leadership is to get the team all working together and really

[00:31:14] helping people thrive.

[00:31:16] So as a leader, the very first thing you have to do is have a clear vision.

[00:31:21] You've got to know who you are as a leader and where you're going because you've got

[00:31:24] a whole team of people that you want to take there.

[00:31:27] And if you're not clear on what that vision is and please don't tell me it's to be the

[00:31:31] world class manufacturer of a widget.

[00:31:34] That is not a vision.

[00:31:35] That is a bullshit corporate statement that somebody put on your website.

[00:31:39] A real vision that people can really get behind.

[00:31:43] The best kind of vision is one that you co create with your team.

[00:31:46] You're all behind it.

[00:31:48] You all know how you contribute to it.

[00:31:49] And as a leader, you are in there with that rally and cry every single day.

[00:31:54] So to me, call vision is everything.

[00:31:56] Yeah.

[00:31:57] Jan, everything we've talked about and but by the way, thank you for doing this.

[00:32:03] And again, I mean it when I say that I have tremendous admiration and respect for

[00:32:07] you and for the work that you do.

[00:32:10] The legacy, what is the legacy that you would like to leave at the end of your life?

[00:32:17] I want to know that I have made a difference in this industry.

[00:32:20] I want to know that I have made an impact that people are happier working in the auto industry.

[00:32:26] People want to come to work in the auto industry that people see it as a place to thrive

[00:32:31] as a place to be, as a place they want to come and work in.

[00:32:35] I want to know that I've had that impact call.

[00:32:38] That's my legacy.

[00:32:39] For more information on Gravitoss Detroit, the Automotive Leaders Podcast and the book Automotive

[00:32:45] Culture 2.0, see the links in the show notes.

[00:32:48] AutoVision News Radio is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podbean and more.

[00:32:55] In Detroit alongside Jan Griffiths, I'm Carl Anthony.

[00:32:59] AutoVision News Radio.

[00:33:09] AutoVision News Radio.