In this solo episode, Jan Griffiths opens up about something we all need but often ignore—a break. Reflecting on a conversation with Hadi Awada, President of Axalta Mobility Coatings, Jan explores the guilt and pressure many leaders feel to stay "always on" and why it's vital to step back and recharge.
Jan also shares exciting professional developments, including two new projects: an innovative solution for creating multilingual internal podcasts using a combination of AI and human expertise and the upcoming "AutoCulture 2.0: Leading with Gravitas" online course centered around the 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership.
On a personal note, Jan shares her experience of moving her daughter into a high-rise in Detroit, reflecting on how much the city has evolved over the past 30 years. She openly admits her need for a break and encourages listeners to embrace rest without guilt, leaving them with a teaser for an inspiring upcoming episode.
Stay true to yourself, take that much-needed break, and prepare for more authentic leadership insights on the next episode.
About: Jan is the architect of cultural change in the automotive industry. As the President and founder of Gravitas Detroit, Jan brings a wealth of expertise and a passion for transforming company cultures. Additionally, she hosts the Automotive Leaders Podcast, where she shares insightful conversations with industry visionaries. Jan is also the author of AutoCulture 2.0, a groundbreaking book that challenges the traditional leadership model prevalent in the automotive world.
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It's time to take a break. I'm tired. I need a rest. Why is it that I feel bad saying that? I feel guilty saying that. Why do we feel the need to be always on in this beloved auto industry of ours? Have you ever noticed that? You feel like you can't say, 'Hey, wait a minute. I need a break. I need a rest.' As if it's going to be perceived as some sort of weakness. We feel this constant need to be on 24/7, don't we? That's quite ridiculous, you know. Even though I have subscribed to that for most of my career, we're human beings, we need a rest. We need a break and we're so much better and so much more effective when we take a break, aren't we? I talked about this quite a bit. It came up quite naturally in conversation with Hadi Awada, the President of Axalta Mobility Coatings. He talked about the day that his wife simply questioned him on that issue and said, 'Why is it that you feel the need to be on all the time?' If you want to go deeper into that conversation, check out his episode. We'll put a link in the show notes. So, it's a short episode today. I am indeed taking a break because I need it. And there's a couple of reasons why. I'll give you the professional and then the personal. On the professional side, yes, we've been recording a lot of tremendous interviews lately, and I need to take a break from it, as that side of it. But, secondly, we've been developing two new products that I'm excited to tell you about. The first one is this, and this is a solution to a client problem. I think most of you know that I have a few clients that I work with to develop an internal podcast. That's their own podcast, for their own company, for their employees only. It doesn't go on Spotify or to the outside world. It is to share stories, share values, and help drive engagement, and, of course, enhance internal communication. And I have a client who said, 'You know, this is great, but if we could only have this podcast in another language if we could get it in Spanish, then we could reach over 80 percent of our entire employee base.' And I thought about that for a minute and I went into my research mode and my creative mode, and I found a way to solve that problem. There's plenty of AI tools out there that will take English audio and translate it to text, to Spanish text, to a number of different languages. There's plenty of tools out there that will do that. But imagine this, imagine you could take an audio, a podcast in your voice and translate it into another language, still using your voice. So, it's not using some robotic AI-generated voice; it's actually using your voice. Well, I figured out how to do it. Now, if you just use AI, AI gets it about 75, maybe even 80 percent right, but it doesn't get it quite right. It can't pick up some of the nuances in the language. It can't pick up; for example, I said in one podcast episode, 'Oh, we need to rip the band-aid off of that.' Yeah. AI doesn't quite translate that. I'm not sure what the translation meant, but it didn't mean that. So, I've added a human element, a translator, into the process. And then the other thing we have to deal with is speed because sometimes, when AI translates from one language to another, the speed is off. So, using a careful combination of AI, a real-life human translator, and a real-life audio editor to work with the speed. Putting this team together, we can get it about 98 percent right. So, I'm thrilled. We're in the pilot stage right now, and you can expect to hear more about that. If you're interested in a pilot, give me a call or pop me an email at jan@gravitasdetroit.com, and we'll talk about it. The second product that we're working on is the AutoCulture 2.0: Leading with Gravitas Online Course. Now, this is based on the 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership. It's a hybrid course. It is part of self-paced online learning. So, there's short videos that a participant would listen to, a workbook that they fill in, but then, it's supplemented with virtual or onsite workshops where I get engaged with the team and talk about the concepts that we have studied of the 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership. And then, what does it really mean to put these into practice in their real-life work situation? And that's where I get really excited because it's much more than just basic learning. It's very experiential. And this is perfect for a team. If you want to take your team through this, it's a great way to open up the dialogue on authentic leadership and talk not only about the skills and the traits but how to apply them in your environment. And that will be releasing in October.
So, that's the professional. On the personal side, I moved my daughter into a high-rise apartment in Detroit, in the city this past week. And it made me think, it was 30 years ago, yes, 30 years ago, that I moved into a high-rise apartment, to the riverfront apartments in Detroit way before it was cool to live in the city. It's funny. I never thought back then that 30 years later, I would even have a daughter and be moving her into the city. And how the city has changed. When I moved into Detroit, there were maybe three or four high-rise apartment buildings. Now, oh, I couldn't even count them. And the city is so vibrant. There's so much going on there. You can feel the energy. I love working in the city. I love being in the city. It's a vibe. It really is. And I'm proud of her. She's studying finance now at Wayne State University. And you know that I am on the Supply Chain Advisory Board at Wayne State. I couldn't actually get her into supply chain. I think she's listened to me on too many conference calls over the years, and the idea of getting into automotive supply chain does not excite her one little bit, but finance apparently does. So, that's it on a personal note. So, you can see why I might be a little bit tired right now. So, don't be afraid to say that you need a rest; I'm not. Hey, I just put it out there on a podcast. I need a rest. I need a break. I'm going to take a long weekend and enjoy that. And I wish you all a wonderful long weekend. It is indeed the Labor Day weekend coming up in the US, and we will be back in two weeks. The episode that we have lined up for you in two weeks, oh, it's a special one. Can you imagine being a young guy walking into a warehouse, imagine that, you walk into a warehouse, you look around you, it's a blue-collar job, and then, years later, you end up being the group Vice President in charge of a luxury OEM brand in the US. Stay tuned; that's coming up in two weeks. Have a good one. And remember, stay true to yourself, be you, be your 100 percent beautiful, authentic 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.
