Catherine McDonald  00:00

Because oftentimes we talk about culture like it’s just that is the way it is in this organization, but I guess I’ve seen it differently in different departments and in different teams. Culture can be different for

Leire Martinez  00:16

me. Culture is how the company does things. We have the vision and the values and all that, but how we implement it, and the way we live, the way we look at problems, the way we face things, that’s a culture. What are the solutions in a positive way, using emotional intelligence, that is the most effective way to execute

Andy Olrich  00:36

and be successful. For me, it’s really about, you know, how we interact, how we behave, some people refer to as their special source, like every organization has a culture, but also just how we learn to recognize each other’s strengths and putting that in to good you. Good day, everyone. And welcome to this episode of the lean solutions podcast, joined by your host, Catherine McDonald and myself. Andy Ulrich,

Catherine McDonald  01:10

how you going? Catherine, I’m very well. Andy, how are you? I’m

Andy Olrich  01:14

going sensational, really, really excited to not only see you, but also for our great guests that will join us today, and such an important topic that we’re going to walk through today, and it’s about sustaining culture and connection, super important when it comes to building cultures of continuous improvement that thrive and and get us to where we need to be or want to be. What do you think Catherine, when it comes to sustaining that culture? We’ve all got a culture in our workplaces, but that culture that we seek out around culture and connection, what are some of the key things that stand out for you?

Catherine McDonald  01:46

So important and so underrated, people just don’t think about the culture of their organization when it comes to trying to implement the changes they want to implement. It affects everything, and every organization is different. So it’s something that really, really, really needs to be understood, is the culture. And I suppose, when we talk about culture, I think even people’s definitions or understanding of what culture is is different. So as we’re going to be using the word a lot today, Andy, what do you think when, when we say the culture of an organization? What does that mean to you?

Andy Olrich  02:20

For me, it’s really about, you know, how we interact, how we behave. Some people refer to as their special source. Like, every organization has a culture, sometimes a really, really good one, and sometimes it can be pretty toxic. So for me, the culture of an organization is is not only what I see, but what I feel and hear when I walk through an organization, how we interact with people, how we address challenges and in particular, problem solving, but also just how we learn to recognize each other’s strengths and putting that in to good use. Okay? So that for me, is really Yeah, and I love that saying one of the first things I heard when I started getting right into this stuff was culture. It’s strategy for breakfast. So, so important. Like you said, so underrated. And yeah, culture is really about and about how, about how we present and behave ourselves, and our leadership, and it can be the difference for me, in particular, about whether I choose to join or work with an organization or not. So, yeah, really important for me. It’s

Catherine McDonald  03:19

the how you kept using that word, but that’s it, isn’t it? Isn’t it? It’s the how behind the what, not just their process, their values, but how do we do all of this? Yeah, yeah. Good call. So we have an exciting guest today, and yeah, we

Andy Olrich  03:33

do. We’re very, very lucky today to have the wonderful lady, Martinez, and she’s going to join us here. I’m going to let you do the bio Catherine, and then we’ll bring it to the stage. So yeah, take it away, please.

Catherine McDonald  03:45

Great. I’d be delighted. So today, we are joined by Lady Martinez gallazzara, with a strong, lean, Six Sigma background. She is experienced as an operations director, a plant manager, a production manager and the continuous improvement manager in the automotive sector. She has worked within that VUCA environment. And for anybody who’s not sure what that means, we say VUCA when we refer to a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment, and she says herself, she’s gone through challenging periods such as COVID, the chip crisis and material shortages, her aim now is to inspire the team she works with to achieve results as one and always acting with integrity, a willingness to win and a commitment to making tomorrow better. So welcome to the show, lady.

Leire Martinez  04:38

Hello. Good afternoon.

Catherine McDonald  04:40

Hello. How are you fine.

Leire Martinez  04:42

Very excited to be here with you today. Good, good,

Catherine McDonald  04:46

good. We are delighted you are here. So I know I just gave a small little background information there, but maybe, I suppose, later, tell us what’s happening for you right now. How is work going? What’s going well? What are the challenges? Facing, just let us know how you’re getting on, and then we’ll maybe hop into some more focused chat on on culture. Okay,

Leire Martinez  05:07

so the main challenge I’m focusing right now is in the automative market of the Europe, which is in a declining month. So we really need to flex ourselves to the new situation and be able to perform effectively,

Catherine McDonald  05:24

okay? And tell us a little bit more then about So, so you are now operations director. Is that right? Correct? Yes. Okay, and tell us a little bit about how many people you have reporting to you. What does that look like?

Leire Martinez  05:38

Okay, so currently, I have about 3700 people reporting to the region. We have five production plants and two distribution centers.

Andy Olrich  05:52

Whereabouts are you located exactly at the moment in your role?

Leire Martinez  05:56

I’m located in my home village, so I have one of the plants. It’s near where I live, in the north of Spain, in the Basque Country, in the lab. The plant is in Irma. So I’m located here, but I’m traveling every week to the other European sites. So we have sites in Czechia, in Poland, in Belgium, in Spain, and then in South Africa. Wow,

Catherine McDonald  06:21

that’s a lot that is that is tough going. How are you finding that? It, I mean, it, it’s amazing. It’s amazing that you’re doing that. It’s amazing to be able to do that. But, um, yeah, how are you finding it?

Leire Martinez  06:35

Well, not easy, but do, as we were talking about, the culture, the mindset is very important to drive performance, and you really need a strong team to be able to to execute every day and to live in this complicated environment. So I really support the plant managers. They they are the ones leading the company, and my main role is to support them and help them with whatever they need to be able to execute.

Andy Olrich  07:02

That’s, yeah, that absolutely. And you know, the automotive industry, you know, at this point in time, you know, a couple of weeks behind when this will be released, but there is a lot of talk about the automotive industries, and in particular from Europe and places around the world, challenges in markets and things like that. So I guess it’s probably a good point to lead into our I guess our first question is like, that’s you spread across a large area, that connection? How you say that you’re the leaders needed the support? How do you maintain a good connection with your leaders, and especially in that hybrid work environment, which is, you know, you probably can’t go everywhere for every meeting. What’s, what would be the biggest challenge you have in that space?

Leire Martinez  07:50

So the biggest challenges is to get the team accountable with the situation, and to have the the culture that the company is expecting that as you shared, the culture is important, because a company wants everyone to drive in the same way. So in order to share the culture, what I normally do is I try to have conferences where I get people together in one site, so that we get to share our concerns, we get to share our targets, and we get to share also the best way of implementing improvements. And there, I try to take the opportunity of those moments to build a team, to connect personally with the team, and also to create trust, to be able to after when we’re not together, be able to connect and be informed whenever there’s any thing that it needs to be escalated, that they’re not able to manage by themselves, and that they need my support, I always share with them, that the sooner they share it, the better I can support and I can help. So building a relation and with a team is crucial.

Catherine McDonald  09:01

And I suppose, obviously, as Operations Manager, it’s, it’s something that it’s probably the biggest part of your role is to set the expectations, bring clarity to the team, bring people together, try and obviously step back and develop people to be able to do the work. It’s not like you want to be on a plane every day of the week trying to put out all the fires. So it’s really important that’s such a big part of your job is to be able to do that. And what, what do you think lay there when it comes to culture? What? What do you think the word? What does the word culture mean to you working in these, I suppose, bigger organizations in manufacturing, what does culture mean? And is the is culture understood as the same thing throughout the organization. Do you think for

Leire Martinez  09:43

me, culture is how the company does things, so we have the vision and the values and all that, but how we implement it, and the way we lead, the way we look at problems, the way we face things, that’s a culture for for for me. So it’s not the same an environment where. We all sharing excuses about what happened. That’s a different culture than a culture of, okay, this happened, but I’m not blaming anyone, and I’m just looking for a solution, and I’m driving execution and going forward. So that’s culture, is how we implement and the only way we can share that with the team is not only training, but also leading with the example, being present, creating that trust, and have conversations with people. And whenever there’s a problem, try to build on solutions, instead of blaming or looking for, you know, for what happened. We really need to look forward. What are the solutions in a positive way, using emotional intelligence, that is the most effective way to to execute and be

Andy Olrich  10:48

a couple of gems in there we talk. We have talked a fair bit over the years in this podcast around blame cultures and how it can, yeah, in the absence of accountability, we assign blame, and how you can, especially, I think, in your position, remotely, try and see that, and try and hang on, steer back to the way that you would like, the how you would like people to interact with each other. So important. And the other thing that you touched on, I’ll let Catherine do the next question. But that emotional intelligence, that’s something the softer skills, is definitely something that we had. A lot of great leaders like yourself are talking about a lot more these days. So yeah, thanks for sharing that Catherine, which

Catherine McDonald  11:26

is really good to see. Yeah, and just, I suppose, when it comes to culture, I always wonder how leaders in in different organizations see this. Do you think let it? Do you think that there can be different cultures within the one organization? Because oftentimes we talk about culture like it’s just that is the way it is in this organization. But I guess I’ve seen it differently in different departments and in different teams. Culture can be different. I mean is that your experience?

Leire Martinez  11:52

Yes, for sure, culture is not the same at every level. Culture is not the same in every plant. The ideal will be that everything is the same. If we want to make sure that the culture is implemented. But the reality is that every region, every country, has a different culture, and it’s mainly driven by different reasons. It’s driven by a cultural thing. Many times it’s not the same in Asia than in Europe on the or in America. It’s also driven by the leadership style there. Okay? So for me, driving culture, it’s the leadership is key to be able to implement culture in an environment depending how the leadership is acting, or how they speak, how they front problems. That’s the culture that the plant is going to have, okay? And you can even extrapolate it to department, depending on the leader of the department, how he’s acting with the team, it’s also impacting in the culture. So the challenge for the companies is being able to have the leaders have the culture they want, and sometimes they’re successful doing it, and you’re able to change how people are leading and be able to implement the culture. And sometimes you’re not, and when you’re not, sometimes you need to change leadership to be sure that you they’re driving the culture that the company is looking for, especially if the company has a culture driving execution process. Okay, not all companies are so worried about culture, so

Catherine McDonald  13:19

yeah, yeah, but it just affects everything. I’ve often heard it said that the culture is a mixture of what you actively promote and drive, like you said, and what you subconsciously accept or tolerate. So it’s, it’s both of those things. So in terms of leader behavior, that’s the really both of those things we have to look at. Well, what are we saying, what are we driving? What are we communicating and then what are we just maybe ignoring or accepting? So yes, the leader’s behavior in all of those ways, I think, is crucial. Maybe talk to us a little bit then about the culture that you have faced, because I’m sure there have been many, and not all of them have been easy to understand, to shape. Tell us a little bit about that, if you can. Yeah.

Leire Martinez  14:03

So I had experience at the plant having to dry had to do with the team a turnaround of a plant with a different in the crisis situation. So the culture you need to do the turn around the plant is different than the culture you might need in an environment where there’s more controlled. So when I was trying to turn around with the team in a plant, the culture needed was we really wanted people to make problems visible, because the only way to improve is trying to know where the problems are to be able to drive solutions. So we avoided all moments the blaming culture, trying to make people comfortable with rising, stop calling weight, raising their hands for problems, and also motivating the team with doing improvements in small pilot areas so that the other areas would like to have the same in theirs, so they would pull you to try to. Improve and to drive the turnaround of the plant. So a very positive mindset. I remember when I started in the plant, nobody smiled. So I was in the same team, and I asked my team to try to smile whenever they were going through the corridors. They thought that was crazy. But for me, that is very important, just smiling and feeling people comfortable with coming to you and sharing with you their concerns. So we really tried to do a positive mindset, trying to make people understand that we were there to support and that doesn’t matter the complicated situation that we’re facing. We would as a team, work together to solve it. So so that worked really pretty well. In like 15 months, we were able to do the turn around a little by little, it started to stabilize. And that worked very good during during a lot of years. And we had had different leadership styles along the years. So at that stage, really the the culture was at the plant level. We didn’t have really a strategy from a culture point of view from the company, okay? So it was more independent from from the plant. Now we have a new leadership coming on, and we are really having trainers, trainings, and sharing information about the culture they want, and we’re really driving that through the different sites. So now there is a clear path that the company wants to have a culture, and it’s very similar to what I’m used to, and which to what I’m comfortable with looking as a positive way, if a big mindset, really thinking that everything is possible, and if you share that mindset and that you feel comfortable with it, if people see that you are sure about it, people will follow you, and they also do the same as you.

Catherine McDonald  16:54

Yeah, typical, just role modeling. It’s Yeah, three. Great example, actually, of the leader’s role in all of this, isn’t it? And we often talk about leadership and the impact on culture, but it’s great to hear you talking about what you’ve actually done, you know? And it’s so funny when you say asking people to smile like we always talk about how mindset shapes behavior, you know, how you have to have the right mindset first, but sometimes it’s the other way around. Can shape Yeah, behaviors, yeah, yeah. It’s great. And, Andy, any thoughts then on, I suppose anything we’re hearing there and and any questions yourself on all that.

Andy Olrich  17:33

So right on. I love the Try, try to smile. I love that, that approach, one of the things so that all that all sounds great, but a lot myself and a lot of our listeners, we’re really interested in, okay, well, how do you sort of bring that together with the tools or the artifacts? And, yeah, what’s, what’s some of the things that that you’ve deployed, or you’ve you’ve put that framework and structure across all those sites you talked about, cultural differences, obviously, across different countries, they can bring a different dynamic. I mean, even here in Australia, where quite a large country, and there is differences in the way that we think and act in some areas just across this landscape. So what’s some of the structure or the systems that you’ve put in to try and get everybody not only thinking or feeling the same way, but looking at the same things at the same time.

Leire Martinez  18:25

So from a culture point of view, training is important, putting the team together, sharing the mindset, sharing the targets and where we want to be. It’s important so people understand how we want to drive that and then, for sure, coaching sessions, training sessions, sessions where you put people together and start, start talking about difficult conversations, about difficult meetings, about how we react in the meetings, and how we manage change, how we manage difficult situations so that it’s it’s important, and Always making a special focus in the leading with example, being positive, maintaining calm, also in this complicated environment, having the leadership appear as a calm person and appear as their everything is in control really helps the team to feel safer whenever they drive into difficult situations.

Andy Olrich  19:20

Okay, cool. So I’m going to dig down another layer. And I don’t want it to be about the tools. We know it’s not about the tools, but when you’re having your, for example, hybrid meeting, or you there on the floor, on site, I’m really keen to understand, like, what do you look at? Like, what are some of the ways that you capture and show performance data, or, you know, ideas or customer feedback. How do you put that in front of the workforce around that and get them on that, you know, that three to 10 second rule, so we really know what’s going on if there aren’t people around to have that conversation as well.

Leire Martinez  19:51

Okay, so it depends on the situation that you’re facing. For example, I can share how we manage the situation when we started in the. Land in such a crisis situation. So the first is identifying which is your major problem. At that stage, we were in back orders because we didn’t have capacity to manage all the demand from the customer. So the first thing you need to do is set the the processes in to make sure you you you fool the customer demand. Because if not, you’re going to start having claims and your problems getting worse. So first, control the planning and make sure that the parts are being shipped from your plant and that it’s only possible if you improve your processes, because many times your lines are not performing correctly. There’s breakdowns, there’s issues, there is lack of components in the lines. So what we did is we identified the area that required more improvement and that had the higher impact in the PnL that in Spain is normally areas would have the higher people, number of people in the line. So whatever you improve in that area, you’re going to improve the capacity, because you’re improving the output of the line. So we went into that area, we put a SWAT team with a person of every department, and we put a board with the main KPIs, safety, quality, cost, delivery people. And I started to measure the main KPIs to assure performance. We implemented also 5s we put the area very pretty so people enjoyed better working there in a safer way. They didn’t struggle as much because everything was more control. So we use that area as a pilot area and make people aware of the of the change. And then everyone that passed through there started to see the change, and little by little, we started to implement that in other areas always focused in, in the biggest impact in in the performance of the plant. So those areas that will really improve the performance of of the plant and and the mess, way of getting the accountability of the people is having them participate in the workshops. The ideas of the workers where the ideas were implemented, they were identifying where to improve. And at the end, you always have a strategy of how to implement, but you have the ability to to make the team members accountable, because they think they are implementing their own, their own ideas. So that’s the best way to maintain in the future and get them perform always the way you expect it.

Andy Olrich  22:22

Yeah, it’s steering away from that micromanagement so and yeah, that which can sometimes come across if every if it’s too rigid and too

Leire Martinez  22:30

normally, when people are in crisis situation, the micromanagement is normally needed. Once you are in a stable situation, you can start deploying and giving ownership to the team. So that is one of the things I always defend. Whenever I have a team, I give accountability to all of them. I really empower them to get responsibilities. So I try not to jump into the meetings only when it’s really escalated, and make the team take their own decisions. Always they have a conversation with me previously to align on what we’re gonna what they’re gonna say, but they are the ones taking the decisions, and they are the ones in the front line making things a cure. And that’s the only way, when you’re a plant manager, that you can execute efficiently, because, if not, you don’t have time enough to look at everything.

Catherine McDonald  23:18

Yeah, everything you’re talking about, it, just it, it. It reminds me of the importance of respect for people. Because everything you do there you’ve said included, you know, including people giving autonomy to people, making it clear to people you know, transparency and all of these things are actually respectful to people, you know, and we’ve said it before, but respect for people goes way beyond saying please and thank you to people, and it really is about being clear, setting the expectations, giving autonomy, and then, you know, figuring out the supports that people need to be able to do the best job they possibly can. So so much of that really rings true for me in terms of respect for people as well. It’s like within the structure, because there’s a very clear structure to what you’re doing here. And you know, it’s not laissez faire leadership, it’s structured, but there’s flexibility and autonomy within that structure, which is key, really, isn’t it? Yeah,

Leire Martinez  24:19

that’s, that’s exactly what you what you said. We need to know the capability of each of them, coach them if needed, change them if they’re not the correct person. But once we select the team and we are sure about it, we really have to empower them to get accountability and have them take their the decisions for their areas. Yeah, great.

Catherine McDonald  24:41

And, and, how do you do that? Lady, I suppose I’m wondering, because what I’ve normally seen is, let’s say, one to ones being set up between managers and their team members. You know, in terms of the the communication structures is, are there weekly team meetings? What kind of communication systems and. Structures are there to get to put this all into action and communicate properly.

Leire Martinez  25:04

So communication is key, is key to align all the plans, especially at the plan level. Then we can talk also at the regional level. But at the plan level, there has to be communication every day, at every level. So there’s normally a structure of communication. You have the different levels of communication. You have the team leader with the team members, communication group leader with team leaders, communication manager with group leaders, communication and plan management with management. Communication. And they do it through the KPI boards, so in a top five at the beginning of the shift, they talk about what happened yesterday, what is the plan for today? Any issues this raised an improvement card, a T card, that we call it, to try to improve the situation. And that’s the way we’re getting the ideas from the team members. So the team leader is asking the team members, what happened yesterday? What do you think should have been done to solve the situation? So that’s also increasing the accountability and their ownership, then we have the next level, where the group leader and the team leader are also sharing that information on a daily basis, and also from the management team and the group leaders. And each level, you have different KPIs, and at each level we’re also creating improvement cards and ideas and projects. Okay, so that’s a really gates, a communication of from down to up. Well, from up to down the KPIs, we want to measure and the strategy, and from down to up the status of the of this, of the KPIs, if we’re following the strategy and the improvements needed to execute the strategy. So that’s for the daily performance. Also, communication is important towards the team members, so that they are aware about business updates. So what we used to do, we used to call it online. So we had a weekly meeting with all the management team. Had weekly meetings with all the direct line was the name, sorry, I didn’t remember. So it was called direct line. So once a week, the management team would take all group leaders and all team leaders together and share the business updates related safety, quality, cost, delivery, people, customers, any updates needed every single week. And we normally did a communication that we read, and then we ask for questions so that they can clarify, and that same paper, with the communication, we will give them to the team leaders, so in the next top five of the day, they will share with all the team members. So there, we’re also sharing the business updates, and we’re creating a trust with other plants so that they because that’s a thing that normally creates problems when people don’t trust on the management of the plant and they think that they’re hiding things that also create a bad culture in a in a plant. So creating communication and transparency is really helping to create confidence and trust within and improve improving the culture of the of the plant. So that was also key. And then we had the monthly meetings more open, but that weekly meeting with with what was happening in the business about demands, shortages, material, crisis, especially during all these last years that we had a lot of problems, really helped the team feel comfortable and safe in the environment that we were working. Yeah,

Catherine McDonald  28:16

I love the structure on that. I love the fact that it’s not just our daily huddle, our weekly meeting, but it’s so linked. It’s so linked. They’re all linked, and you’re all linked to each other through your structure. Great, yeah, really, really smart. Um, great. So in terms of what you have faced then, is there any any particular challenges or struggles on the people side that you have had to face that maybe, I suppose, weakened the culture. And how did you deal with that?

Leire Martinez  28:49

Yes, tons of them, the people side. We also, we always know that it’s complicated. When I was in the plant, I used to use the one to ones a lot to try to manage things and to change things, because I used to two things, one the ones to once, to get to understand what was happening, and people will share with me what was happening, and then I could also help them, without them saying, knowing, because I could speak with the other person and trying to solve things. I also used immediate feedback. That means that whenever there was a meeting and something went wrong or something should have been improved, I would just just after the meeting, try to spend two minutes or three with a person, try to explain what happened and trying to improve it on how I would normally do it in a asking question, trying to Coach, how did you feel today in the meeting? What do you think went wood? What did you think went red? I would do that when something I saw that was not going as it should, and then the proper person would answer the questions and be identify that what happened and try to improve for for the next time. So I. I think it’s important to do it in the moment, because then people forget and don’t have it very present what happened. It’s like the kids know when they do something wrong. It’s always better to let them know in the moment or when they do something right. Also, I would do it for both when it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Let it share that with the person in a one to one just after the meeting, a few minutes to share ideas and create that healthy feedback. That’s

Catherine McDonald  30:26

brilliant. Yeah, just as you were talking there, you mentioned emotional intelligence earlier, and I think, and we also talked about the important role of leadership here. Obviously, you’re in a very senior leadership role, and you have your leaders reporting into you, and what you do, they follow. You know your role modeling, how to coach, how to communicate. They’re following you, and everybody else is following them. And I suppose the role of emotional intelligence is so important here, because you just talked about how important it is to be able to catch things happening, to be able to have the uncomfortable conversations, to be able to maybe know when to have impulse control, or when to you know do something, when to stop yourself. All of that is emotional intelligence. Do you feel lay the that there’s more room for developing emotional intelligence in our workplaces? For

Leire Martinez  31:15

sure, plenty of room. I think there will be room because we are different people together in difficult situations, and everyone has their own way of being, and it’s not always easy to control our emotions. So for sure, there’s a lot of room, and I think we should have that present every year and maybe just refreshing the needs of that every year. But yes, I think there’s always room for that. Yeah,

Catherine McDonald  31:41

did you ever go down the road of assessment for the staff members, anything like that? Emotion, intelligence?

Leire Martinez  31:47

Yeah, we do that kind of work. Yeah, we do different assessments. So we do 360 degrees assessments, we do then also individual assessments, and then we analyze the results and we share it with the team. And in some cases, we put coaches to follow up someone, and in others, we just maybe just do the follow up from the manager point of view,

Catherine McDonald  32:08

okay? And I guess that helps with culture. Then, yeah,

Leire Martinez  32:12

if you’re if it’s not that complicated, then the proper leader takes the role of the coach, okay,

Catherine McDonald  32:17

yeah, yeah, okay, very good. And is there any any other examples that you wanted to share with us there? And Andy, sorry, hop in. I’m just here, like, because I’m this is my thing, emotional intelligence and all this. I’m just taking over here. Hop in here. Stop me. All right, no

Andy Olrich  32:33

worries. Now. You’re fine. But I do have some questions, you know, talk about hitting it in the moment. So that’s two questions in this. One of them was around you talked about what happened in, I think you said August last year. So for our listeners, would be cool if you just sort of touched on what that was. And then there’s a, there’s an another piece to this is around, okay, when that happened, and there’s currently, there’s, there’s so many external influences that can impact, you know, where your customers are, or what you provide, or how they make choices to whether to buy your product or not that you just can’t control, right? So what happened in August last year, and and is that aligned with the second part of the question that I had? And yeah, how do you how do you keep your teams connected if everybody, including yourself, is sitting there waiting to see what’s on, what’s going to happen next? Now, what’s some of the really cool, creative or unexpected ways that you’ve managed to make that stick with your culture that you have there or you want to keep so maybe there’s three questions in that. So I’ll just stop talking. If you want to fire off. That’d be great. So

Leire Martinez  33:39

I try to share with the team that you need to feel comfortable with change. Okay, with continuous change. When we talk about Bucha environment, you need to feel comfortable with that environment. And the society was not used to that till before COVID, we were more at least in the automotive sector was a more stable sector that people really used to do things one way, there was a lot of policies and standards that everyone followed, especially in Europe, and after COVID arrived, a lot of changes started to happen. I remember that I started having escalation calls every day, and at the beginning, you were stepping back like, Well, how am I gonna manage this? But when you start managing every single day, every single week, difficult situations, you you start getting more experience. And also you need to think to yourself that you need to feel comfortable with it. You cannot be afraid of every single thing that happens. And I always say it’s just work. Okay, just try to compare with more critical things, to put a little bit of balance. So what am I going to worry about this next day, next month, in six months, if it’s not, then don’t, it’s okay. Just manage the situation. Is not the end of the life, and we’ll go through it. It’s just work. And that’s also a sentence that I use a lot with people to try to. Them call and make sure that everyone works as they should and not get fear, gather their attention. Okay,

Andy Olrich  35:08

cool. Okay, and have you, I’ll just follow up with that. Have you gone on and done that and said, Hey, relax. It’s not the end of the world to share specifically. But have you gone on and gone. Well, hang on, you’ve gone a bit too far there. I’ve got to pull, pull this back in, because we went a little bit to change happy, I guess.

Leire Martinez  35:29

Well, I went through it myself. Also, I went through the different phases also, first resistance, then suffer, and then acceptance, and then try to improve. Okay, so you have to do the exercise first by your side, and then when you see the situation within the team, there’s for sure moments that the things might go under, out of control. But as a leader, you just have to, as a TEAM, to Okay, let’s step back. Maybe we need to stop the meeting, and let’s keep on going tomorrow, when things are more calm, or just let them know. Okay, don’t worry. I’ll manage. I’ll speak with this person. I’ll manage with this other person, and try to share a little bit of control in the in the in the team. Because the most important thing is that the people feel safe. So you need to try to use your tools to make the people feel safe. Because if they feel self, they’ll work correctly, and they’ll perform. If they are in a fear environment, things don’t work

Catherine McDonald  36:28

and later, how? How can leaders develop themselves, continue to develop themselves, to be able to do all of this, to be so resilient, to be to know how to handle these situations. To, you know, mind themselves. To all of this is so, so important. What do you think leaders need to do to continuously develop themselves in this way?

Leire Martinez  36:47

Well, first, they have to be self aware of how they are, how they act and if they need to improve something. So they need to be aware that they want something to improve, of how they manage situations. So self awareness is important. There’s different tools to create a self awareness. There’s tests, there 360 degrees assessments, as I shared. So first we need to be aware. So once you’re aware, you need to, as a person, identify which are the your things that you want to improve? I want to improve in this in this area. I think I’m weak in this one. I want to improve in this other. And there’s different you need to create an action plan for yourself, and it’s not something you do once, and you don’t do again. So you do it once, you improve yourself. There might be some things you need so far from your leader, you might have to read some books. Here’s some puff cuts. You might have to do some training to convince yourself of things you might have to have a coach. So there’s tons of things that a person can do to develop themselves and and just keep on growing. So from my me, personally, I’ve been trying to improve all my life, and I really like the personal growth book, so it’s something that I’ve been trying to do always, I had to work my speed on communication, because in Spain, in the north of Spain, we speak very fast. So I had to work on that. I had to work on the emotional intelligence, because we are very emotional. So I get mad, I get I laugh, I cry. And that’s something especially in a work environment you need to control, because not everyone understands that kind of emotions, especially in the culture or the region where you’re working. So it’s not bad to be have emotions, but you need to control them. So that’s something that I also had to work a lot. And I’m now developing a new in develop individual development plan that I’m going to share with my coach the coming week, so I keep on looking for improvements. Okay, so something that never ends.

Catherine McDonald  38:46

That’s amazing. Yeah, that’s just really, I love it. I’m such a big believer it. You have to lead yourself first before you can lead anybody else. Um, really believe in that. So you’re definitely role modeling that, uh, Lady and well done. That’s that’s really, really great. And you’ve given us some brilliant information, I think very practically, you’ve got such a big job, it’s not easy, but you understand it so well. You understand what’s needed. You bring the structure, but you also understand how people need flexibility within all of that structure. And it’s really made me think about how you do that, how you balance that the flexibility within structure. Because I do. I get the sense that that’s key to everything you do and and well done. I just think it’s fantastic, amazing. Andy, any last questions. I

Andy Olrich  39:35

just think observation, maybe I think it’s fantastic. I can, I can tell, and I can hear how self aware you are, or you, you know, when I say a leader that’s constantly working on themselves as well, it’s not just you need to either be me or Yeah, and you’re always looking for that improvement and having that, that coach, and all of those things that show that you’re actually a human being and you’re happy to be vulnerable. We talk about that a lot. The soft skill just keeps coming through. And one of my favorite quotes is people don’t buy what you do. They buy who you are. And I find that for leaders, if I connect well with the leader and I trust them and all those things that you know that culture is there in a positive way, I’ll follow them, and generally, I’ll perform better, they’ll perform better. So you’ve got a wealth of experience. I just really appreciate you sharing that with us today. So that’s really it for me. I think it’s been fantastic. Thank you. And

Catherine McDonald  40:31

if people want to find you, Lena, are you on LinkedIn? I’m

Leire Martinez  40:35

on LinkedIn. I’m an Instagram also, so with my name and my second my complete name, people can find me, and I’m open to share ideas and have conversations with whoever is willing to Well, thanks

Andy Olrich  40:47

for that opportunity. And Catherine, I’ll throw to you what’s been your key takeaway or moment in this conversation. I

Catherine McDonald  40:54

think the two things we just talked about is really this whole idea of developing yourself. I mean, when you’re in a big leadership role, a big senior leadership role like that, it’s just so important. You can never get complacent. You’re so so busy, but you have to take the time to step back to really, not just beyond the hamster wheel, to get off of it, to look at what’s happening, spend time with people. Link in, do your one to ones, I guess, look on what’s important and not just urgent. And that was kind of the way, the sense that I get from Layla, that that’s what she does, and what she’s really good at, and why she’s so good at her job. So I think that that part stands out for me.

Andy Olrich  41:31

Yeah, such a and here we are. We’re talking about challenges and hybrid environments. Our list is, I’m pretty sure you’ll, you’ll see and hear again, because, yeah, there’s, there’s so much more that I want to unpack. We just don’t have time right now. So, yeah, reach out, connect in with with Lady, and I’d love to go and visit in Spain just as an excuse. So there we go. It’s beautiful part of the world. So Thanks, Catherine, it’s, it’s always awesome to jump on here with you, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the lean solutions podcast, take it easy. You.