First, rely on a competent, multidisciplinary team, and listen to it. The time of one-man-shows is over. The complexity of the world and technologies is such that we must be humble in our business. But you know, active listening is very uncomfortable. Especially when you’re a chef, you usually have a certain age, and you feel like you know things.
I choose the members of my management team on their spine. They must not be afraid to oppose me. For example, when we have a meeting on a topic, I try to keep quiet during the presentation and then give the floor. It’s hard but I learned to heal myself. At the end, I reformulate and I decide with my own weighting, necessarily questionable. I often change my mind by listening to the arguments put on the table. And then I tell myself that I did well to shut up. We learn at any age …
I can not always put myself at this level of discomfort, but it happens to me two or three times a year to tell my team “I disagree deeply with you, but we will do what you do to me. offer. ” After that, it creates a sacred responsibility … because it is better that it works, otherwise I will remind them. Many times, the answer is not in the right or the wrong idea, but in the good or the bad execution. If people do not adhere, you have a very high probability that the plan does not work! Always make sense of decisions to board teams. We are not in a crisis of capitalism, but in a crisis of leadership. People no longer want soft and demagogic but inspiring leaders.
Despite our results in 2018, we are very dissatisfied. We have done a lot of nonsense, although the company is on the global podium of manufacturers’ profitability. In this context, having employees who agree to be criticized without taking offense is not easy. But there has to be one person named in the group to jostle others on the topics where we have been bad, regardless of the overall result. It turns out it’s me. I am their leader, not their boyfriend.
I arrived at PSA at the end of 2013 in a situation where, obviously, people worked a lot without having the expected results. In these cases, we can tell you lots of carabistouilles, but we must all agree on the idea that only the performance protects. This will not make us popular today, but we will be heroes tomorrow. Focus on this simple idea, correct together what does not work, it is very unifying. Today, everything is played in talent management. Choosing the right people in the right positions, it seems a truism but it’s fundamental.
We often talk to each other about the concept of “the extra-mile”. At the end of the year, everyone must exceed the objectives set by the CFO. A human being, starting with me, can fail, but the extra-miles of others make up for it. That’s why our results are always better than expected. True satisfaction is to succeed together in something difficult.
The spirit of competition must prevail. At the last historic Monte Carlo rally, I caught up with a struggling competitor. As he did not see me, I went to his door-to-door level on the snow and ice. The level of intensity was very high … My co-driver told me “hello” and I calmed down. An athlete trains to push back his limits. My job is to make sure that the 18 members of the management team want it too. I can not always do it, but our industry requires top athletes. The groups that make profit warnings are the ones that make the place. When I meet with my reformist unions, I always ask them the question: “Should I release the pressure? “Despite the fact that people are squeaking here and there, they are not answering” especially “. If we release the accelerator, we are instantly doubled. And when the sickle passes, it will start from the back of the pack and go up the line. Everyone understands that it is better to be up front. This is the safest place to deal with hazards.
In case of great difficulty in achieving the right level of performance, you first have the ethical responsibility vis-à-vis all others to replace the defaulter. Everyone is penalized every time someone placed in a key position does not produce the expected results. There is therefore a need to act, which can be painful in a tight team. The first rule is to manage the exit with a lot of respect. “If it was me, how would I have wanted to be treated? “.
The cultural dimension exists, but human beings remain human beings, be they Chinese, Japanese, American or European. They all need respect and listening. The most difficult is the different valuation rules or differences in the hierarchy of values. For example, if we do not agree that the important thing is the future of the business, it’s tricky. That’s what happened at the beginning in Germany. We came from a system where Opel lived on GM’s money. With PSA, it could not happen like that. Now this problem is overcome.
Here, we do not disconnect, we manage the personal balance. What changed my life is the laptop. I manage PSA with my touch pad. Look in the cabinets, there is not a paper in my office. Even my e-mails disappear every three months. I am given 1,000 PowerPoint slides to read per week, but only about 10% are worth reading. My teams know that I am available 24/24, but do not abuse it. And vice versa. You know, time is running out: my rule, which I try to apply every day, is from 8 am to 6 pm at full intensity in the office. Because at 7:00 pm I dine with my wife at home. And it’s a pleasure that’s part of my life balance.
The thirties ask me my vision on many topics. I often tell them “it’s up to you to tell me”. Our first strategic plan was three years ago – we had to put things back squarely. The second is at six, it is to start giving more breathing, especially internationally. The next will be at 9 years old and it will be advisable to say how PSA will be in 2030. We will ask widely the younger leaders to design it because they will have to run when I will be retired.
We actually see the criteria of social and societal responsibilities of the company, the issues of security, diversity, the different labels … I am quite in tune with that, but be careful not to be mistaken about the essential. At the end of the month, I pay the wages in euros. We must be wary of the risk of smoking and combine the “soft” and “hard”. If you give too much importance to the “soft”, the company may falter. How will employees react if we fulfill 100% of our CSR objectives and become bankrupt?