Jim Voss on Building a Culture That Wins (The Tenneco Way, Part 2)

[Transcript]

[00:00:00] Jan Griffiths: This is the Automotive Leaders Podcast. Straight talk from the CEOs and innovators who cut through the noise, create clarity, and drive transformation across this industry. The old command and control playbook is dead. Culture is the operating system. Authentic leadership is the edge. We're rewiring it, starting now. I'm your host, Jan Griffiths, that passionate, rebellious farmer's daughter from Wales and the champion for culture change. Let's dive in.

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Welcome back to part two of the Tenneco story. We're gonna dive deep into the Tenneco Way. It's one thing to talk about culture as an operating system, but how do you make that happen in a legacy automotive company with a tremendous amount of complexity? We're gonna find out. We have with us today Jim Voss, the CEO of Tenneco. Jim, let's get into it.

[00:01:35] Jim Voss: You got it.

[00:01:35] Jan Griffiths: The Tenneco Way, come on. Tell us all about it.

[00:01:38] Jim Voss: Thanks, Jan. Listen, great to be back, and great to talk about this. The Tenneco Way, yes, it is our operating system. More importantly, it's our sustainable competitive advantage. And for me, it's very simple, what drives results?

Any results, financial results, KPIs, whatever you're looking for. It's people. People are going to drive those results, so what should you focus on if you want superior results? You have to focus on the people, what's driving them, and the culture around that gives them the opportunity to do great things, right? To dare to be great. Nothing great ever happened by playing it safe.

On the other hand, you have to have guardrails, and you have to be prudent, but you can have your cake and eat it too. And everything that we do is around the culture that allows our organization, our people, to do great things for our customers.

And so, I would argue with anyone, what else is there? What else should you be working on? What else would be your operating system? We have great technology. We have great engineers. We have great customers. So does our competition, if we're real honest. We've got some good competitors out there that make quality products as well.

Yes, we continue to differentiate ourselves with our products. We think we have better products, we think we have better technology, but we're confident that our culture is second to none, and we live it every day.

[00:02:59] Jan Griffiths: Now, Jim, there's CEOs, leaders in the auto industry listening to this, and you say the word culture and their eyes roll to the back of their heads, and they say, "Oh, that's some soft HR thing." When you have the words culture and operating system in the same sentence, maybe you get a little bit of their attention, but help us understand that. What does culture mean to you?

[00:03:22] Jim Voss: I hope you're wrong about the CEOs. I know what you're saying. I think a lot of leaders in organizations, auto or otherwise, do very much understand the importance of culture. I think oftentimes it's misunderstood or people just don't know how do you actually go about changing it? I mean, what do you have to do? It's not a poster on a wall. It's not a PowerPoint and a presentation once a month. It's actually understanding what does it really take to change a culture? What does it take to perpetuate that? And that's very, very hard work. That's why I say, I welcome anyone, come in, and I'm not saying that we're perfect, and we have a ways to go, but take a look at what you're doing, we're doing, excuse me, and it's just replicating that is tough because you have to be focused and committed to it 100% of the time.

[00:04:10] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. Now let's, I wanna dive deep. I wanna go into it. So, the Tenneco Way framework, tell us about it. You've got six gears.

[00:04:18] Jim Voss: We do have six gears.

[00:04:19] Jan Griffiths: And let's walk through each one of them.

[00:04:21] Jim Voss: Deal.

[00:04:21] Jan Griffiths: So the first one is core values, and I'm gonna read through each one of them. Let's talk through each one.

[00:04:27] Jim Voss: Okay. There's no order to 'em, by the way. They're all important, but core values is first. It's the first one we rolled out.

[00:04:32] Jan Griffiths: And I love this, radical candor.

[00:04:35] Jim Voss: Radical candor.

[00:04:36] Jan Griffiths: What does that really mean? Great words, Jim, but what does that mean that you practice?

[00:04:39] Jim Voss: And it's very difficult, as you know. Radical candor means exactly what it says. You have to start with facts, and this is stolen from the book by Bossidy and Ram, Truth Is Harmony. We're all entitled to our own opinions, not our own facts, and so we have to start, if you wanna make something better, if you wanna optimize something, if you want to improve something, if you want to tackle something, you have to start with the truth. And you have to have an organization that has the courage of their convictions, that have constructive debate and tough conversations to make sure that we're starting from the truth.

How many meetings have we all sat in, talking about a subject, knowing full well we're not getting to the point of what's wrong. So there's no possible way you could leave that and thinking that we're gonna have confidence we can quote, fix it or address it. And that plagues organizations in I don't care what industry you're in. And so, you have to first and foremost, before you can simplify or execute or move with velocity, you better be starting from the facts and the truth. And as simple as it sounds to say in a podcast, very difficult, because think about what that requires. It requires people to have very, very difficult conversations, not just with their peers, but their boss.

[00:05:53] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:05:54] Jim Voss: Or their boss's boss. And so, number one, that's frowned upon in a lot of companies, in a lot of cultures around the globe. But the most important thing I think, is when you set these core values, radical candor is a great one, you have to make sure that you're also addressing the needs, that competency needs of the people. The training and the development that it takes to give the people the skill set and the confidence to have those conversations.

So, instead of you and I having a difficult conversation and one of us making a mess, and making it worse, we have the skill and the competencies to wade through a difficult conversation and get on the other side of that, get to the truth, maybe have a little bit of a tough conversation, but we know we can move forward and fix it. And so, it's very difficult, but it's complex. You can't just say it, you have to really focus on making sure people understand how to do it.

[00:06:46] Jan Griffiths: And it starts with you. You have to model it.

[00:06:47] Jim Voss: Definitely starts with me.

[00:06:48] Jan Griffiths: You have to model that behavior.

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[00:07:09] Jim Voss: If someone gives me some feedback that is tough to hear and I react inappropriately, what am I saying? Yeah, that's not the culture I really want. That's just the thing I want on the wall.

[00:07:19] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, yeah. And then it's fear, you're driving fear into the culture.

[00:07:22] Jim Voss: Absolutely.

[00:07:23] Jan Griffiths: And the other side to that, I'm thinking about leaders, in my career, where you're sitting in a conference room, you're talking about something, and everybody, the leader, the CEO, will say, "I think we should do X." And then everybody around that table nods and said, "Yeah, that's a great idea." Even though the majority of the people do not agree with it.

[00:07:42] Jim Voss: Yeah.

[00:07:42] Jan Griffiths: They go along with it, and you see.

[00:07:44] Jim Voss: They're texting each other, "This is BS."

[00:07:45] Jan Griffiths: Exactly, exactly! Been there, right? And but think about the time, the waste of time and energy, and we're talking about transforming an industry and we need speed. When we play all these silly games and people cannot put their voice forward in a safe environment where you can have a constructive debate, we're not gonna get there.

[00:08:07] Jim Voss: Correct.

[00:08:07] Jan Griffiths: So this is, it may sound simple, oh, well radical candor. But it's the core.

[00:08:11] Jim Voss: It is the core. You have to create a company where bad news travels fast.

[00:08:15] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:08:15] Jim Voss: How many companies do you know that bad news travel fast? Our McKinsey partner, I mentioned Srikanth before, but Srikanth told me one day, he's like, "I've never seen a company where the culture actually allowed bad news to travel very fast." Which is exactly what you want to hear as a leader. Good news travels at warp speed. My kids get an A on the test, I hear it, like, immediately. They don't get a good grade, I find out a month later. And companies are no different. And so, when you can see that people in your organization will speak up when there's a problem, when there's an issue, then you know you're getting it right and people have the skill. So, I pay attention for how fast bad news travels.

[00:08:51] Jan Griffiths: Yes. And then, the silo protection mechanism kicks in because if you have a problem, the first thing you do is you try to hide it.

[00:08:59] Jim Voss: Absolutely.

[00:08:59] Jan Griffiths: Right? And then what do you do? You blame somebody else.

[00:09:02] Jim Voss: Correct.

[00:09:03] Jan Griffiths: If you can't hide it, "Well, it wasn't my fault, it was operations, it was supply chain, it was purchasing."

[00:09:07] Jim Voss: And why do people do that? Because the culture doesn't allow you to fall short. Because we didn't get to the mindset yet, but I can't help it. If you want people to dare to be great, if you want people to take risks, then by definition, if you take risks, you are gonna fall short sometimes. You are gonna, quote, "fail," and I'll get to failure in a minute. And as an organization, you have to be okay with that. You have to learn from that. That actually comes from the behavior of the boss, not the individual, because if you're my boss, okay, I'll take a chance. I'll swing for the fence, but if I don't hit it over the fence, and you come back and dress me down for it, mama didn't raise a fool. I'm not doing it again.

And so, it's really about the boss and that mentality, and it's also then redefining success and failure. That's part of our mindset is we never fail. We win or we learn. That was from Mandela, by the way, not us, but it's powerful because you have to redefine winning and you have to redefine losing, if you will. And if you have a mindset where we're not ever going to fail, we may not reach the objective, but we are definitely gonna win or we're gonna learn from it, and we're gonna move forward. And then you have to have the courage of your convictions to do that again.

[00:10:18] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:10:18] Jim Voss: Because the thing about high performers, what do they not like to do? Fall short.

[00:10:23] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:10:23] Jim Voss: We don't like to not win. And so, you have to really redefine it and be able to say, "I am a high performer even when I don't hit my mark every time." That's when great things happen. We don't want people to, I always say, I don't want people to think outside the box. I don't wanna see a box. There's no box. There's just the art of the possible, and that's tough to do in this industry a little bit.

[00:10:45] Jan Griffiths: But imagine when people listen to this, when you work in a culture like that, it's so exhilarating and it's so rewarding because you do something, you take a risk. Maybe you thought, "Well, you know, I'm not sure if I get the skill set to do this or if I got all the information," but you do it anyway, and then you win. You feel that much stronger. You have that much confidence.

[00:11:06] Jim Voss: Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:11:07] Jan Griffiths: It just grows.

[00:11:08] Jim Voss: Bouncing back from something you fall short of and doing something great afterwards feels even better than knocking it out of the park one time. But I will tell you this, Jan, it's not for everyone, and I don't want it to be. If you think about it, if you want to be the best in the world, you simply want the best people to work for you. And so, I have said publicly many times, maybe our culture's for 5 or 10% of the workforce out there. Maybe. Because I think it is exhilarating. I see a tremendous amount of excitement. Again, I'm not suggesting that we're perfect, but there's a lot of people that don't want that level of, I say pressure, but.

[00:11:45] Jan Griffiths: No, they just wanna, they wanna come in.

[00:11:46] Jim Voss: They wanna play it safe. Hey, listen, I know I can hit 100. Jan, I'm gonna tell you 80. I'm gonna hit 90, you're gonna think I'm a genius, I'm gonna go home. That's not how we play the game. I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna hit 120. I think I can do it. I hit 110, and you're high-fiving me all the way home.

Did I fail? Did I fall short? I don't know. I'm higher than the 90 that I would've given you if I was sandbagging with you. And so, it takes more than words. It takes leadership behavior, like, those moments where someone falls short. So, culture is the behavior of leaders, but if you were to peel that onion back just a little more, culture's really seared in the behavior of leaders when something goes wrong.

[00:12:25] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:12:26] Jim Voss: When something happens that's not good, that's when it sears in the real culture. When someone took a risk, a very calculated risk, and fell really short. How does Voss react? How does so-and-so react? And it's those moments everybody's watching you. Does he really mean we never fail? We win or learn, or is that just, like, a saying on the wall? So, I think that is the hard part. Not just the articulation, and the behavior and the consistency of that behavior, 'cause all you have to do is get that wrong one time and that permeates.

[00:12:58] Jan Griffiths: And it's blown.

[00:12:59] Jim Voss: Exactly. So, it's powerful, but it's tough

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You really have to believe in yourself, don't you, Jim? I mean, who you are as a person, your value system, and who you are as a leader, because you can't be one way at work and then a different person outside of work. I mean, it has to be in your DNA.

[00:14:02] Jim Voss: Right. I think, yes, I do believe there are certain pieces of who we are that allows us to take risks more than others. But I will tell you the pieces of it, like emotional intelligence, which is one of the colleges as well, this can be learned. We know our intellect, our IQ is relatively set, but our emotional intelligence can be developed, and extensively. So, we spend a tremendous amount of time on emotional intelligence, being able to really understand yourself and understand the perception of what you need to do with the teams.

Because, again, if you're going to ask an organization to behave differently, and in our case, I think drastically differently, you have to spend the time to coach and work with the teams to give them the skills and the confidence to be able to do those things. Because, I mean, myself included, sometimes, something does happen and I'm like, "Hmm, okay, this doesn't feel like winning right this second." Doesn't even feel like learning right this very second. No, I mean, but that's the emotional intelligence of yourself says, "Wait a second."

[00:15:03] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, don't react.

[00:15:03] Jim Voss: Calm down, your team's looking at you. And that's what's powerful about it. It's not easy for any of us.

[00:15:09] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. No, that's good. Okay. No, that's Radical Candor.

[00:15:14] Jim Voss: Hear, hear.

[00:15:14] Jan Griffiths: This might be my favorite one. The next one is simplify; rejecting bureaucracy, minimizing layers, and eliminating silos. My favorite, eliminating silos.

[00:15:25] Jim Voss: Hear, hear.

[00:15:26] Jan Griffiths: Talk to us about that. Simplify.

[00:15:28] Jim Voss: Well, it might be the simplest one to kinda wrap your head around, but again, super important. If you don't start with the facts, the truth, you're not gonna get to the point of what are the problems out there? We call it identifying friction. Where's the friction in the organization? Can we have radical candor around talking about that friction? And then can we make some of that friction go away? A lot of that friction is around lack of simplification.

You certainly cannot have organizational velocity, which is next, without simplifying. And you said in your opening, we're like a lot of our competitors, and certainly our customers, very large, very complex. And so, any time we have the ability to simplify something, we should take it. And it sounds like such an obvious one, but when I came into, when I come into most companies, I'm kind of a turnaround, fix it CEO. It sounds very simple, if you will, but it's actually something that is very difficult for organizations to do because they trap themselves in those silos, and the command and control is not about simplifying. It's about creating more bureaucracy, more command, that creates all the processes that slow things down.

If there's one thing that employees love, like out in the field, if you can just make their jobs easier. So often, we're asking them to run a marathon every day, and as a corporate culture, we're throwing rocks in their shoes as they run. And how about we do the opposite of that? How about we try to make it easier? But it's an active process. People say, "Well, wait a second, when somebody brings me a problem, we try to address it." I'm like, "No, no, no. Someone's bringing you a problem, you haven't done your job." Go find them. Get out there. Get into the trenches, identify those points, and how can you make it easier?

It's not just even simplifying because it's better. It's more productive. Your people will have a lot more time to do the evaluated things if they can be focused on what they really know they need to be doing.

[00:17:21] Jan Griffiths: I absolutely agree. And I think that this command and control culture that we've had in this industry for so long, it's been built up over time, and we love adding another approval level.

[00:17:31] Jim Voss: Absolutely.

[00:17:32] Jan Griffiths: The bureaucracy, and then it's gotta go across silos one way and come back another way before we can make a decision. But I like what you said earlier, it doesn't mean it's a free-for-all. You need guidelines.

[00:17:42] Jim Voss: No, no, no.

[00:17:43] Jan Griffiths: But you have to question, why am I doing this today? Why does this report, why am I producing this report?

[00:17:49] Jim Voss: Right.

[00:17:49] Jan Griffiths: What is the value? Why does it have to go through?

[00:17:51] Jim Voss: Yeah, listen. No, you're right. You have to have processes in place, governance if you will. But you don't have to have those layers of bureaucracy, that's the point. And I think where people get it wrong is they don't think it's part of their job to go out and find those things. It's an active process to go fix.

[00:18:06] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. No, I love that. Okay. Organizational velocity.

[00:18:10] Jim Voss: Oh my gosh. I mean, I spend the great majority of my time when I'm talking about this subject on velocity, because I think it's gonna be the number one differentiator in companies going forward. I think it's gonna be the thing that we talk about the most. And I'm not talking about AI and all the things that are gonna change with that. I think a lot of people don't understand is what it actually takes, and we touched on this, I think, in our first session, of getting it all right.

It's not about an executive or somebody pounding the table saying, "Go faster." Okay? It doesn't work that way. You have to look at every single element and get it right, from the strategy down to the competency of the leaders especially, middle management, frontline management, and their ability to move at a very fast pace. I think when I look at the differentiating companies around the globe, the ones that are winning big are the ones that are able to adjust and move very quickly.

So, we specifically designed the tenets of our culture when we started this journey in '22 of being able to say, "Listen, I don't exactly know where the industry's going. I'm not a pro here. I'm new to the industry. What I know is it's in flux. What I know is no one knows exactly how this is gonna end, or the middle part of it. So we're gonna build a culture and a competency set that wins no matter what. No matter what happens, we're gonna win. We're gonna be able to pivot faster, make better decisions, have a workforce that's more motivated, getting discretionary effort. Our goal post is not just gonna be financials, but it's gonna be that emotional allegiance, that 'it' factor, why people wanna be here. And I'm not gonna try to pretend I know where this is going, but we're gonna have a winning game plan, operating system, no matter what." And so, that's how we kinda built the pieces.

Our core values were not meant to hang on a wall. They do hang on walls in our plants, but every one of our employees, I think, knows our core values 'cause we talk about them every single day, and we use them in real life every day. I've asked people we hired from other companies, "What were your core values?" And they looked at me like I was like, "Who cares?"

[00:20:15] Jan Griffiths: Yeah.

[00:20:15] Jim Voss: You know? And I'm like, "Cool. Okay. We got a little work to do here. Welcome to Tenneco," because it's all about that culture and the Tenneco way.

[00:20:23] Jan Griffiths: Now, when you talk about speed, you can talk to three different people, and your idea of speed and my idea of speed might be two entirely different things.

[00:20:31] Jim Voss: Oh, yes.

[00:20:32] Jan Griffiths: How do you calibrate that?

[00:20:34] Jim Voss: Listen, I think you have to make sure people understand, the biggest thing you have to do is remove the status quo thinking.

[00:20:40] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:20:40] Jim Voss: The biggest thing that keeps people from moving at higher velocity is between their own ears. We're conditioned. How long does it take to get a new product launch from A to B? Oh, that takes 12 months. It's always take 12 months. This is gonna be 12 months. And it's like, well, why does it take 12 months? China's not doing it in 12 months, so and so's not doing it in 12 months. So then success breeds success.

So if you can just break down these things we tell ourselves and then you go out, and the Nike principle, "Just do it." And get out there, then that success breeds success. People feel great about it. We're doing things now in our organization, not just in China or Asia, but in all parts of the world, that were taking three or four months now take three or four weeks.

And now, the team is challenging, how do we get it to three or four days? So, it really is about changing that mindset. Listen, some things take time, okay? That's just the way it is. But most of the things are in our own head. One of my favorite phrases is, "Difficult tasks take time. Impossible tasks take just a little longer." And if you can get people to think that way, once they do something, our P3 standards were impossible to hit two years ago when we set them. They were very difficult. Every plant manager's like, "Jim, you know, you don't understand. This is never gonna happen."

[00:21:56] Jan Griffiths: I bet you've heard that.

[00:21:57] Jim Voss: Oh, my gosh Yeah, it's impossible. You're not from auto. I'm like, "I'm not. Just pity me and let's go for it together." And now, we're up to 70 plants and counting. Four gold, I think, right now. So, that success breeds success, and now they're challenging me, what's next? We can do more.

So, it's not just fun to watch because it drives our financials. It's why we have differentiated performance, but it's really cool to go to, say, one of these celebrations we talked about when we were off camera, and little grown men and women crying at the end of the night because they accomplished something that was so very difficult, and there's a little bit like I feel I'm so happy for them. We all have to come to work every day. We all have to pay the bills and support ourselves. We might as well do something great together and kind of that atmosphere and that attitude.

[00:22:41] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, it's powerful. Now, you talk about tenacious execution. That's another one of your core values. Tell us about that.

[00:22:48] Jim Voss: That's the bedrock of everything has to be execution. The bedrock of culture, the bedrock of your operating system, everything has to be about execution. The industrial logic of putting Tenneco and Federal-Mogul together was always brilliant. It was always brilliant when they did it back in, I think it was '17. There was just no execution. And so strategy will get eaten every day by execution or lack thereof. So, when you're designing a culture or anything else, the bedrock has to be execution because culture doesn't come to life unless something happens.

[00:23:22] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:23:22] Jim Voss: It's execution. So, the principles of execution, one of the best books I've ever read was, the Bossidy-Charan book that I said came out maybe 25 years ago, the Art of Execution. And in the first 62 pages, like they lay it out and as well as you can see anyone else, and it's still relevant today. Execution isn't just this tactical thing that middle management does. 95% of my time is about execution, and I would challenge any executive who's not doing it that way, maybe rethink the priority because that's what's going to empower organizations to do great thing.

[00:23:54] Jan Griffiths: Now, underneath the umbrella of execution, we've got accountability and ownership.

[00:23:58] Jim Voss: Of course.

[00:24:00] Jan Griffiths: Can you have accountability and ownership without micromanagement?

[00:24:04] Jim Voss: Oh, definitely, 100%. In fact, there's no room for micromanaging. Think of what is micromanagement? Micromanagement isn't, well, it isn't attention to details 'cause I'm as detailed, we're both detail freaks. That's not it. It's when you have to dig into someone else's work and almost do it for them and watch them. If you have to do any of that, you have the wrong person, or the wrong setup, the wrong something.

So, micromanagement is never, ever the right answer, and I don't know that you ever have accountability if you micromanage. If you're always telling me what to do, then I always have you to blame for my work.

[00:24:39] Jan Griffiths: So true.

[00:24:39] Jim Voss: So, I don't think you have true accountability unless you're not micromanaging and you're handing those decision-making points to people, allowing them to learn. As a byproduct, probably falling short every now and again, and learning from that, and you build that into the process, and you have to cultivate that as leaders. Then great people will develop, great things will be done, and the accountability is theirs. And then, that will breed the accountability down the line. I think, unfortunately, in a lot of situations, leaders think great management is about control.

[00:25:11] Jan Griffiths: I would absolutely agree.

[00:25:12] Jim Voss: And it couldn't be further from the truth.

[00:25:15] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Authentic leadership is the exact opposite.

[00:25:20] Jim Voss: Completely.

[00:25:21] Jan Griffiths: From command and control.

[00:25:22] Jim Voss: It's the easy way out.

[00:25:24] Jan Griffiths: But it goes back to fear, because I see young leaders afraid to empower and delegate tasks to people within their organization because they're afraid if they fail, then that's a failure.

[00:25:36] Jim Voss: Exactly

[00:25:37] Jan Griffiths: So, it's this whole.

[00:25:38] Jim Voss: It perpetuates itself. Even if a younger, manager or whatever wants to do it, the machine won't let it, won't let him or her. And so, you just have to break that mold. It's very difficult. And I also think a lot of, I've seen a lot of really, really smart executives, and unfortunately that many of which I've had to make tough calls on, they don't know how to do it any other way.

When you've been doing something for 20 years, 30 years, it's not about old dogs and new tricks. It's just I don't know how to do it. And sometimes you can teach people to do it a different way and that works great. Oftentimes, not.

[00:26:13] Jan Griffiths: Now, the last value, core value you have is win. Why is win a value? Isn't it just an outcome?

[00:26:20] Jim Voss: No, I think win is super important in terms of our core values. Think about it, I always like to use kinda sports analogies. Winners win. It's a mindset. If you study winners, business, sports, they do things differently. They have different habits. They have a different mindset. They have a different preparation. They have a different level of expectation of themselves and other people. And so, a winning culture is learned, and I think it's a big difference to be able to say, "Well, we wanna have the will to win." Okay, I know what you mean by that, but we have to have a culture of that we're going to win. Kind of failure is not an option, and we're going to find a way. Oh, we can't win because we have tariffs. Oh, we can't win because we have this. Oh, we can't. Yes, there are obstacles, absolutely, and they're real, and they're affecting things. But a winning mindset, part of your core values is no excuses. I am not going to be a victim to anything. We are gonna immediately attack in all directions, and we're going to win. But to win, you have to win with your employees first.

[00:27:24] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:27:25] Jim Voss: This is not about me winning. This is not about our owners winning. I mean, they need to win too, by the way, but it's about winning with our customers and our employees. If you can win there, then you will win big.

[00:27:37] Jan Griffiths: Now, Jim, these core values that we've just walked through, you've got over 60,000 people, 28 different countries. A lot of these values, often they don't land the same in different cultures.

[00:27:52] Jim Voss: They certainly don't. Especially the first one.

[00:27:54] Jan Griffiths: Right, but how do you get these core values through to 60,000 people?

[00:28:00] Jim Voss: Well, I'll start at the bookends of our core values. First of all, you just, you have to work really, really hard, and you have to take a lot of time and work with your team to understand what it takes to make that work in India or China or Mexico or wherever.

Here's what every culture wants to do. I don't care where it is around the globe. They wanna win. They wanna win. This I promise you. So I'll just use radical candor, 'cause that's probably one of the most difficult ones, depending on what culture you're in. It's not a go-to way of thinking in China, for instance. It's a different place. So you have to really spend a lot of time in saying, "Listen, why are we doing this? What are we really doing? Truth. Do people want the truth? Do we really want to have a conversation about the real facts?" And you've gotta get people in a room, and you've gotta make it okay. And you have to have leaders with the competency in whatever country, whatever culture, that then it's okay, Jan, if you're my boss, I can come up to you. And please package it the right way. Give them the skills to have that difficult conversation, but to say, "Listen, I'm wondering if the direction we're going in is right," or, "I'm wondering if the decision is okay," and then having those people be okay with hearing that.

But it takes a tremendous amount of work, and just being conscious that you can't just peanut butter spread this. You can't just throw it on the wall. Because when we rolled it out, I had people in China, because we rolled it out about eight months after I was here because I wanted them to see and feel things. And because six or eight months into 2023, we were doing things a little differently, and when we did roll out the core values, a lot of people were like, "Ah, this is what we've been feeling."

[00:29:41] Jan Griffiths: Ah. Oh, okay, great. I like that approach.

[00:29:43] Jim Voss: You can't do it day one, 'cause they would just look at me like, "Oh, who is this guy that doesn't know auto? He has no clue what he's doing here."

[00:29:49] Jan Griffiths: So, you started more with the behavior.

[00:29:51] Jim Voss: You do.

[00:29:51] Jan Griffiths: So, that they could see it and feel it. And so, everybody could have that aha moment.

[00:29:55] Jim Voss: And radical candor isn't just about blabbering off something disrespectfully. We say we have to do it with loving intentions. We have to do it with purpose, we have to care about each other, but we do have to get to the truth.

[00:30:06] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:30:06] Jim Voss: And so, you take a lot of time, and you have to make sure that you really understand the differences there. Again, it's hard work, but it's powerful. Now, when you see an organization, again, I'm not suggesting we're perfect, but by and large, that is probably the single most commonly referred to core value. Someone will sit down in a meeting, and we'll be talking about something, and someone will go, "Okay, radical candor? Like, is it okay here?" And boom, then the truth comes out.

[00:30:33] Jan Griffiths: But what you've done is you've given people a language, a framework to be able to have the discussion.

[00:30:39] Jim Voss: And help them develop the skills to be able to handle those things and manage it the correct way, whether it's with truth, whether it's with when someone falls short, that's a key part of perpetuating the culture.

[00:30:51] Jan Griffiths: Yes, yes. I had somebody work for me once, and they said, we were going through different energy leadership levels. And I had come out of a meeting, and I was all stressed, and she wanted to talk to me about something. So, I walk into the office, and she starts talking to me, and I just immediately started. And that's not me typically, but I did, 'cause I'd come out of a bad situation. And she looked at me and she said, "You're at a level two right now. Until you come back up to your normal four or five, we'll have this conversation another time." And at first I was mad for a second, but then I thought, "Wow, you know what? What we've done is we've created a language. "

[00:31:29] Jim Voss: Absolutely.

[00:31:30] Jan Griffiths: For her to say, 'You know what? We cannot have an adult conversation right now 'cause it's not gonna go anywhere for either one of us.' And you have to be able to do that.

[00:31:38] Jim Voss: It's funny you say that. We, internally, have a series of things that we teach people, we call it 'dropping our markers.' I won't bore the audience with the details, but recognizing when you're in that moment.

[00:31:47] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:31:47] Jim Voss: And saying, "Listen, I'm not my best self right now. I'm not my best self. I've dropped a couple of my markers, and so I need a moment. I need a second, or I just need to be quiet."

[00:31:56] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:31:56] Jim Voss: And not make decisions or make a mess. It's important that you give people that identification and skillsets. So, because by definition, radical candor will lead to some interestingly tough conversations. So, it's gonna happen. It's just you have to make sure to try to eliminate those moments for people as much as you possibly can. And kudos to your boss by saying, "Hey, listen, like, you're just, like need to take a chill pill right this second."

[00:32:22] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. Now, all of this is wrapped up in the Tenneco mindset. I've heard you talk about mindset, I mean, many, many times in the short time I've known you. It's important to you. Tell us what it means to you and why is it so important?

[00:32:38] Jim Voss: If you study social science, if you study greatness, what differentiates great athletes, great people, great executives, it is their mindset, right? So, you can study mindset and say, well, there's growth mindset and fixed mindset and that's pretty standard. We say, we take it one level further and say the Tenneco mindset, because I think if we say we do hard things, do hard things. That's how you're gonna be good. Don't take the easy route out. But you have to have that mindset that perpetuates yourself to be able to go through and do those hard things.

Every word of the Tenneco mindset is purposeful. Every piece of it, whether it's humility. I remember, we worked with Gilbert Enoka. He was the mindset coach for the All Blacks' for 23 years, I think. And one of the things that he taught us and challenged us, was the importance of humility. And why were they so good? Why are they the winning-est sports team out there, or at least at that time? And was it their talent? Was it their strategy? Maybe some of that, but it was their mindset. And they just had a mindset that was rooted in humility, 100%. And that's just one piece of the mindset.

So, people ask me all the time, "What's the most important of those cogs, Jim? Come on, tell me." And I'm like, "Well, you kinda need them all. That's why they're there." And they say, "Come on, Jim, come tell me." And I say, "Well, okay, fine. I'll bite. If you could just have one then mindset's the one."

Because in my life now, I've known people that have grown up and didn't have the best standards. They didn't have the best home life or the best parent situation. So they didn't have the standards that, that I was very fortunate to have. I know people that weren't able to go to college, developing self and others and other ones. They didn't have that opportunity. They didn't grow up with those core values in the family life that I was so fortunate to have from my family, but they had a mindset. They weren't gonna be trapped in this little town that I came from. They weren't gonna let be a victim of anything. And you show me somebody that has that right determination and that right mindset, and I'll show you a winner. I'll show you somebody that's gonna have it.

And I think that's a huge piece of it because it basically says, "I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna be a victim to anything. I'm in control of me. And by and large, that mindset is gonna determine my attitude, my behavior, and ultimately my outcomes." And along the way, we're gonna give people the skillsets to stay in that mindset. That's why we have emotional intelligence in there. It's impossible to stay in the Tenneco mindset if you're not emotionally intelligent.

[00:35:01] Jan Griffiths: I think, personally, listening to you talk, I grew up on a farm in Wales, and I was supposed to marry the farmer next door, and I was not gonna do that. Oh, no, I wanted to take on the world. I didn't know what that meant, but I knew that there was something burning inside of me, a drive to do something more. And then, events took place, and the next thing you know, I'm in the automotive industry in Wales, and then I'm in the auto industry in Indiana, and 30-something odd years later, here we are.

[00:35:32] Jim Voss: You had the mindset.

[00:35:33] Jan Griffiths: There was a moment. I remember distinctly thinking that I am not gonna do and conform to a mold that somebody else has put out there for me.

[00:35:43] Jim Voss: You told me your story of you sitting here in this job, and that was mindset. You said, "I'm going to do this." You took tremendous risk, and here you are. So If you're gonna differentiate your culture, if you say you wanna be the world's best, you have to be able to say out loud, "We're gonna do things drastically different."

[00:35:58] Jan Griffiths: Yes.

[00:35:58] Jim Voss: And that's one of the reasons why develop yourself and others. We know it's very difficult, not impossible, but difficult for people to come from the outside into Tenneco. And we have some great success stories of people coming in, but if we wanna perpetuate the differentiated culture, we know we have to invest a lot of time and energy in developing our own people, from not just leaders, but I'm talking plant managers, the most important job in our company. And so, we spend a lot of time on that.

[00:36:23] Jan Griffiths: Let's talk about plant managers, 'cause that's always a problem. Finding a good plant manager for tier ones in this country is always a problem. Finding the right ones. Are they the right fit with the culture they come in.

Sometimes, you're lucky if they're successful, or they have their own ideas built up from where they came from, and then it's a disaster area. But you, at Tenneco, you believe in growing your own and developing your own talent. Why do you believe that, and how do you do it, Jim?

[00:36:53] Jim Voss: So, why we believe it is, I mean, it's exactly what you said. It's very difficult to find people that fit that cultural mold. So, we spend a lot of time doing it. I also think, listen, you work for a company, and you work your tail off. I think we should invest in our people and give them the opportunity to move up, help 'em get there. That creates tremendous energy. I wanna work for a company where I can have that job. They don't care how old I am. They don't care anything. If I'm performing, I'm doing the right way culturally, I can get here, and they're gonna invest in me. And so, to me, when you think about allegiance to the company, discretionary effort, pride, these are all very powerful things, and think about these things. Emotional allegiance, pride, you can't pay someone to feel that.

[00:37:31] Jan Griffiths: Right.

[00:37:32] Jim Voss: Only you own that. You can give it or not. You can feel it or not. And so, when you can do some of those things that give people that opportunity to grow, oh, yeah, and make a little more money and go up that corporate ladder, that's powerful. And so, we spend a lot of time. How do you do it? You invest in people. We have programs. We have classes. We celebrate it. I go out and celebrate it with them. You know about Tenneco University. Now, granted, that's for management side, but we have a similar program for plant managers.

And so, we invest a tremendous amount, something that did not exist at all in Tenneco three and a half years ago, that I think is leading edge in terms of what we're doing because, like I said before, if you're gonna have a differentiated culture, you have to perpetuate that by developing people with those skillsets.

[00:38:16] Jan Griffiths: When a company in legacy auto world is in trouble, things are tight, one of the first things to go is training and people development than maybe marketing and travel. Training is gone. Training budget is gone, and it's usually a small budget to begin with. But you have a Tenneco university. What is that?

[00:38:39] Jim Voss: The Tenneco university is fantastic. First of all, it's a fantastic partnership with michigan State. So, kudos to Michigan State. They worked with us from day one last year. They were open-minded about what we wanted to accomplish. They had never done anything like it before because we do a lot of the teaching ourselves. We don't just use their professors, and that was different for them.

So, they were very partnering and creative with us, but it's really creating a week-long program, very, very tough, for different levels of management to really indoctrinate them, not just in the technical way, but what are the skillsets that's necessary? How can we develop that? How can you focus on developing yourself and developing other people? And it's been hugely successful.

That's just one small piece of a lot of things that we're doing, but it's been a ton of fun. And quite frankly, very successful. We have another one coming up in a couple weeks, and I look forward. I usually kick it off on Monday morning. Well, Sunday night actually, for dinners and everybody meets, but these are long days for the participants and all of us, but it's been very exciting. We actually even did one in India, for a cohort in India with India School Business. And we all stayed there at the dorms for a week and it was a lot of fun, and we all learned a lot.

[00:39:50] Jan Griffiths: And I just wanna make sure that the audience grasps that point. When you say, "We were all there for a week," that means you.

[00:39:58] Jim Voss: Yes, ma'am. I lived in a dorm room for one week. It's been a while. I complained a little, but just, no, I'm teasing. Yeah, it was fun. It was a lot of fun.

[00:40:06] Jan Griffiths: But that is a classic example of walking the talk as a leader. You don't just say, "We've got all these core values, and this is what we want people to do." You invest in people. You put money behind it. You put a program behind it, and then you yourself put yourself through it.

[00:40:23] Jim Voss: Absolutely. You learn so much at the end. You can do surveys afterwards, and we do, and we get rich feedback from it, radical candor from our folks. But nothing beats sitting around at 9:30 at night when people are tired kinda telling you what's on their mind, not just about what's going on that day, but what's going on in the company. That's one of the reasons I spend so much time in the field. I don't know how I can do a good job as a leader if I'm not out there and really listening and engaging. Quite frankly, I think our employees deserve that, to have executives that are, we're kinda blue collar working executives. That's just who we are, and I think, because I think that's what they need.

[00:40:56] Jan Griffiths: Now, we talked about the core values, we've talked about technical university, and I'm sure our audience is thinking, "Okay, well, that's a lot." Oh, we're not done. Talk to us about P3.

[00:41:08] Jim Voss: P3, oh gosh. Again, another topic we could talk about all day. So if you want to be the best in the world at anything, but specifically in what we do, you certainly should have the highest standards and processes in the organization. There were no standards, there were no manufacturing standards in the company when we came in. And so, we partnered with some folks, again, with McKinsey, but really internally. And spending a lot of time outlining exactly those key performance areas within the manufacturing process that we have to win and win big in. Starting with safety, by the way. And we developed these very, very difficult standards.

I say we rolled them out, but we developed them with our plant managers. And they were a part of it, and not just a part of it, but they drove it. And so, these standards, they're tough, and I think I shared, I don't remember if it was this session or last session, when we first rolled it out, it was like, "No one's ever gonna hit this." These are standards that are higher. We're winning awards from our OEMs and plant, and you know what all the awards that the folks give out are, when our plant's aren't even certified bronze, much less gold.

So, you can just see how rigorous it is, and very comprehensive. And so, but like anything else, impossible tasks take just a tad longer, and that first one hits, and the second one hits, and then, well, wait, wait a second, how come China can do it and India can't do it? Then India's doing it. How come they can do it and Europe can't? Well, then they're doing it. And then, how come the US isn't? Well, now they're doing it. So, it's somewhere between healthy competition. And great people want to do great things, great teams wanna do, no one wants to do anything easy. And when you do hard things, you develop a bond with people that is powerful, that elicits that emotional allegiance, but it also then it gives that confidence to saying, "What else can we do? What else can we do?" And I think that's what our customers and our employees deserve, just an organization that just, like, we're gonna come to work every day, let's be the best.

I tell my team, "Jim, do you really think You wanna be the best in the world?" I'm like, "Listen, I'm a simple guy from the Midwest. Someone's gotta be the best. If someone's gotta be the best, well, how come not us?" And they're like, "Well, okay. I guess that makes sense." So, why don't we just go about being the best in the world or trying to be the best in the world?

[00:43:19] Jan Griffiths: I wanna go back to the way in which you develop these standards, because you mentioned McKinsey, okay? Having a consultant, having that expertise is good, but you also, you talked about plant managers being involved in developing these standards, 'cause I think that's something that we miss. I think we tend to develop our operating standards somewhat in a vacuum.

[00:43:43] Jim Voss: Sure.

[00:43:43] Jan Griffiths: And then, they come from the corporate office and they come down to the plants, and the plants are like, "Well, this is crazy, but I know."

[00:43:49] Jim Voss: It doesn't even look right. Now listen, number one, I hate consultants, just for the record. But when you find a group of people, forget the name of the company, that really engage with you and help you, it's invaluable. And the reason why Srikanth and Yogesh and the team were so important to us were because it's not like we didn't know how to manufacture. We had some pockets of excellence. I mean, this company has been very successful long before I got here. But we knew if we really wanted to not just survive but thrive in the industry and be number one, we had to combine our knowledge and strength with a group of people that have a broader breadth. They see a lot of things. They see a lot of companies. So, they're able to help us with that clean sheet thinking, and they're great with me for that even is saying the art of the possible. And then, being able to bring in some.

I don't benchmark ourselves to competition, no offense to our competition, but I want to be the best that we can be. I don't want to just beat you. I want to be the best, so I don't think about it from that perspective. And they can help us bring that together. So, these were bottoms up, if you will, from the plants. And saying, "Listen, if we can even hit bronze out of bronze, silver, and gold, this is world-class of world-class."

And so, I remember a conversation I had maybe a year ago. One of our plant managers in China, Mack is his name, and he was bronze already, and he was going for silver. And I looked at him, I said, "Why are you going for silver? Why don't you go for gold?" And he kind of looked at me in that way only Mack can look at me. He's like, "Okay, fine. Bring it on. Game on." And six months later, he's gold. Golden Mack. Mindset. And then, when we went to celebrate with him for that, what did he ask me that night? What's next?

[00:45:30] Jan Griffiths: What's next?

[00:45:30] Jim Voss: I mean, so it's that mindset. It went from impossible to now pushing me. "Hey, what's next, boss?" And just to see the pride in that group of people, not to mention the plant is amazing. That's powerful. And that's what standards, not even just standards, but really having a process for people to get their head wrapped around to accomplish. That's what it can do for an organization. And now we have the entire organization just working very hard to get that certification, to be that next plant, 'cause they have pride in what they're doing.

[00:46:00] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. And the 3 Ps stand for people, pride, and performance. Yeah. I love that. I love that pride is there.

[00:46:04] Jim Voss: I do, too, and pride's such a cool word. I like pride because you can't buy it from people. Like, there's only one way to feel proud about something, and I have to decide I'm gonna be proud. I'm proud to be sitting here with you. I'm proud to be part of Tenneco. You can't pay me to do that. And so, that to me, is a great way to determine if you're getting it right, you know?

[00:46:23] Jan Griffiths: I tell you where I see pride, on LinkedIn, on your LinkedIn. Since I've gotten to know you, I've been following you, and you're everywhere talking about recognition, the bronze, silver, gold for the P3 process.

[00:46:39] Jim Voss: Right

[00:46:39] Jan Griffiths: With the different plants around the globe. And the pride, your pride comes through, you can see it in the picture, but the pride is, like you say, the people.

[00:46:48] Jim Voss: Oh, totally.

[00:46:48] Jan Griffiths: Who really accomplish this. But Jim, you're CEO of a large tier one company. I mean, you've developed this, the Tenneco way with the team, with the company across a very complicated, complex environment. How do you make sure that sustains? What is this legacy that you wanna leave? I mean, if Jim Voss walks out the door, does the whole thing fall apart? We've seen that happen.

[00:47:15] Jim Voss: Well, I'm not going anywhere, by the way. I do turn 60 this year, but I've got a lot of gas left in the tank. Legacy's a funny thing. I don't think about it from that perspective a lot, but good leadership never builds something around an individual, whether it's the CEO or anyone in the organization.

So, if you methodically look through the Tenneco way, everything is foundational. It's not about any one person. It's about a set of things that's consider the foundation of the building, and if that foundation is strong enough, and I believe ours is, then you can have as many floors as you want. That's one part of the legacy.

Another part of the legacy, not of me, but us, the team that's here now is people development. I'm very fortunate. Sure I worked hard and did things, but I mean, come on, none of us got here by ourselves, people took chances on us. People gave us jobs that we weren't ready for, and we muddled our way through it and found our way to ... sitting here talking to each other, and that to me is important.

It's important to be able to invest in people, put in, have a culture where you can come and work as an intern, and not 30 or 40 years later, but maybe 10 or 15 years later, be that VP or senior VP running a business. I don't care. I don't care how old someone is. I don't care about any of this. Give their chance to perpetuate it. And then, maybe when I am, maybe five, 10 years from now, if I'm hanging up, I can look back and say, you look at people, maybe they're CEOs, maybe they're running businesses, they're doing certain some things, so you pay it forward.

No, I don't take credit for their success, but you kinda get back and you grin a little bit and say, hmm, you know, it's great to see so-and-so be doing these things or doing those things. And being that company that's kinda known for maybe developing great leaders or great processes or having the world's best operations, to me, it's important. Yeah, I have pride. I wanna look back and say, "Hey, listen, this was kinda fun," but it's more important for the organization and saying, "Listen, I can't guarantee this is gonna be around for 100 years, but I know we're gonna be successful for the next decade." And so, to me, that's what I think about, foundational pieces that will long outlive any of us, if you will, our work life career anyway.

[00:49:16] Jan Griffiths: Well, in this industry, it's hard to find that transformational playbook. We know the legacy playbook. We know when we talk about where we think we need to go, but the Tenneco story is a story where it actually happened. You took it from survival to leading edge performance. And for that, I can't thank you enough for sharing the Tenneco story with me and with our audience today. Thank you so much, Jim.

[00:49:46] Jim Voss: Jan, thanks for having me. It's been a lot of fun. I love talking about Tenneco, and I hope we can do it again.

[00:49:50] Jan Griffiths: Absolutely.

[00:49:51] Jim Voss: Thank you.

[00:49:53] Jan Griffiths: Thank you for listening. You can watch the full conversation on our YouTube channel. Search for Jan Griffiths Automotive Leaders, and download the 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership. It's a free PDF and the link is in the show notes. And remember, stay true to yourself, be you, and lead with Gravitas, the hallmark of authentic leadership