The Cleary Mind[s] Podcast with James Glasson, Rockwell Automation

What does it take to lead at a $1.2B global level?

In our first episode of The Cleary Mind[s] Podcast, Rockwell Automation executive James Glasson shares how relationships—not products—drive success, why owning your career is non-negotiable, and what it really means to lead by removing barriers for others.

From career pivots to high-stakes leadership decisions, this is a masterclass in thinking bigger, adapting faster, and leading with purpose.

Transcript

Tom Egan 0:01

Welcome to the Cleary Minds podcast. I'm your host, Tom Egan. Here, the Classroom meets the real world, and we talk with leaders and change makers. Let's get into it.

James Glasson 0:13

And you are? It's great. So I'm James Glassman. I work for Rockwell Automation as industry vice president for automotive, tire, and advanced mobility. So it's a fancy way of saying I have global responsibility for our automotive tire and our EV battery business globally.

Tom Egan 0:30

I love how you summed that up, and I heard you telling students that you are selling solutions, not products.

James Glasson 0:38

It's really important when we talk about sales, it's a relationship business. You assume that the technology is already ganging you in the door. So if you assume everybody has equal quality technology as the floor, so you're all equal. Yeah. So what makes the difference? It's relationships. Of course, commercially price always has a difference in there. But it's what problem can you solve for the customer?

Tom Egan 1:02

Yeah.

James Glasson 1:02

So really digging in and asking what's the problem or the challenge that you're having, and then creating that solution around that, the products just naturally get attached to it. So you don't actually talk about I'm going to sell you this widget or that software solution. It comes together naturally.

Tom Egan 1:18

Well, I love that lens. Yeah, how the sales happens almost as a byproduct. And then your position, you obviously have huge leadership responsibilities. You know, and our little Cleary Mind eight attributes, we've defined leadership as empowering, I mean, uh inspiring and motivating others to do greatness, usually to achieve the goals of the organization. I liked your flavor of empowering others. And maybe you could talk about what you mean by that.

James Glasson 1:45

Yeah, for sure. So enablement is critical to success. So enablement means different things to different people, but for me, it's creating the vision of what the end goal state should look like. So, where is it on that journey you want to go? Well, how time frame do you want to get there if there's interim steps along the way? But then clearly defining how people fit into that vision. Yeah. What's their role to play? How do they contribute? So that way they not only are participating in the journey, they can see how they're personally contributing, what the end state is. And then for my portion, the leadership is really making sure that they understand that, but then being the enabler for them.

Tom Egan 2:26

Yeah.

James Glasson 2:26

Their success is my success. Right. You know, it's not the other way around. Yeah. I I can be successful in something and it not flow down. But when they're not successful, it impacts everybody. So my job becomes making sure that those barriers to success are removed. Yeah. And that's the enablement factor. Yeah. And that's that's so visions, success, how they fit into the play, and then breaking down barriers.

Speaker 1 2:51

A lot of why, you know, why we're doing what we're doing is part of the vision. So uh I also thought it was kind of interesting in the realm of engineering because you started with an engineering degree and now largely fulfill all these business functions. Um and you you talked about a little process of moving from electrical engineering to quality engineering to process engineering, and then you found you really loved sort of the process.

Speaker 3:19

Um I enjoy the engineering part of the world. I I always enjoy getting my hands dirty and getting into the how things work and why they work. I still enjoy that today. Uh, but what I found is a natural progression of interest came out of engineering. I pivoted because at the end of the day, engineering just wasn't my core desire. It wasn't something I was passionate about.

Speaker 1 3:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3:44

But getting involved in the manufacturing side of the world got me involved in how things are built and how to improve that. And the quality aspect was how do you continually make it better? So those six sigma factors and yeah, you know, enjoying all those other quality tools. Yeah. But that turned into applying the engineering and then how do you do it better? What new technologies can you adapt to continually progress down that technology path? We see that today advancing very rapidly, and it's how do you adapt and continually adapt in that environment. Yeah. So I'm still using the skills that I learned 25 years ago. Uh, they're just being applied to different, different end states.

Speaker 1 4:24

Yeah. Well, I loved all the business roles you shared with our students because as they're thinking about what they want to do and the environment they want to do it. And you know, one student even talked about, you know, travel just being a big part of that. And so I loved your recommendations for that. Um yeah, and so kind of like the business aspects started around this idea of account manager taking care of accounts and moving into um more of the business role. But you got put in charge of turning a plan around, to your surprise. Um I'd love that story because I thought it was, you know, it seems like a turning point in your life. And, you know, you you like to do this uh stuff, but now all of a sudden you're responsible to turn it into something and make it happen.

Speaker 5:10

Yeah, and what was really interesting about that was it wasn't something I had asked for. Um, it wasn't something I had anticipated. When I was asked to start working in that environment, it was with the understanding that, okay, I'm here to help. I didn't understand the scope of what help might grow into.

Speaker 2 5:28

Yeah.

Speaker 5:29

And at the end of the day, when you're trying to scale, you know, from 50 million to 100 million, or maybe it's 250 million to 500 million, but doubling the size of a business is not easy. Yeah. And what we learned was that it was the lack of experience and knowledge of the team that was there was the barrier. But behind that was 450 people that were working there that depended on those people to make those decisions to enable them to be successful. And success for them was, you know, like I mentioned in class, being able to pay your mortgage, your rent, to buy a gift for your child at Christmas or to pay for your car payment. So I really felt like that was my personal charter was to protect them. Yeah. And so it turned into what's the best decision for the business, and then just really breaking down and analyzing every aspect of the business from an enterprise perspective, and then how the business should function.

Speaker 2 6:23

Yeah.

Speaker 6:23

And so I found myself going from a customer center head to becoming managing director and CEO, uh, which was not something I asked for. Uh, but at the same time, it was a responsibility that I I truly enjoyed. I I do today, I always say that's the it was the most stressful, you know, anxiety-driven portion of my life, but it turned out to be the most rewarding, the most grateful. It was just an tremendous opportunity.

Speaker 1 6:50

I mean, and you found you loved to be this sort of fixer role, right? You could come into a troubled situation and turn it around. And um, yeah, I think the words you used in class were it was the best time, but also the toughest time, uh, because it sounded like you had some extreme challenges. But in the end, the most proud of you know what you've accomplished. So that was really cool. And uh so another theme that came through all of this in terms of leadership was one, you know, specific clearing mind attribute we use, but also communication. And um, I thought it was great. The emphasis on communication, we kind of defined it as you know, anything that's communication that to get your point across clearly so that people understand, right? That's the important part. As clear as you may be, if they don't understand, it's not you know still good to do that. It doesn't translate.

Speaker 7:43

Yeah. One of my uh mentors used to say that if anything was important, if you're giving direction or making a decision, it had to be put in writing and it had to be crystal clear. There could be no wiggle room for misunderstanding. Yeah. Because if you didn't document it and it wasn't clear, then everyone will walk away with a different understanding. Yeah. And so you find in projects or large decisions, complex organizations, that you might find pockets of really good communication, but it doesn't extend to the folks that are actually implementing the decisions that are coming out of those meetings or those groups. So over-communicating and and where you feel you're over-communicating often is just communicating just enough.

Speaker 1 8:28

Yeah.

Speaker 8:28

And so it's not a natural motion for most people to communicate at a high level. Transparency in a lot of people internalize information is power, especially when you get higher up in an organization. I think truly great communicators and leaders are as transparent as they possibly can be to the limits of what they're able to share. But but amongst teams and large teams and collaboration, just really communicating the details at a fine level without taking over somebody else's responsibility is super important. Yeah.

Speaker 1 9:04

And I and I love the lessons that you learned by all of a sudden being responsible for team members in multiple countries and the communication finalities you had to learn in working with those people. I, you know, mentioned seeing this in, you know, in the culture of General Motors and other companies, but this idea like, you know, are we on track? Everybody wants to say yes, and we're gonna do it and we're gonna win and we're gonna succeed. And then in the end, you know, you find out that's not the case.

Speaker 9:32

Yeah, I mean, just imagine being the receiver of it of something that you've been expecting to be done for weeks or months or or even six months or a year, and all of a sudden finding out right before it's supposed to be handed off to you as a completed product that it's not ready.

Speaker 2 9:48

Yeah.

Speaker 9:48

And and how you have to then react to that can be volatile to the organization. So again, transparency and communication is critical. But oftentimes it comes from just not understanding the communication.

Speaker 1 10:02

Yeah.

Speaker 10:02

So when you're communicating across cultures and different languages, you have to take incremental steps to make sure that it's clear. And that can be breaking tasks down on a you know in an agile framework where you're working on things every two weeks on what's the most important task where you're able to manage task at the task level, or just putting somebody else as a as an interim management responsible to make sure that they're taking an invested interest in what's responsible in their area. Yeah. So again, it's it's just taking those extra cautious steps to make sure things are understood and being worked on.

Speaker 1 10:34

I love that. That's great. Um, you mentioned to students that uh in communicating themselves, you know, your job is your job, your role is your role, but you encourage them to really, you know, stretch, take stretch projects, learn something different, take responsibility for things, seek out mentors, you know, get involved in the pursuit of your own career, take responsibility for your own career. Because I I mean, I never heard somebody say it that way. Like the person that you report to is, you know, cares about you and your career as long as you know, as it relates to how you're supporting what they need you to do, but for the long trajectory of your own career, that you really need to take charge of that. That was great advice.

Speaker 11:17

I think most corporate functions, um, corporations will agree that they want to and are encouraged to develop their employees. Rockwell has a great philosophy of not holding back their employees, understanding that when an employee wants to advance, that our job is to help them find that new position. Like literally, how can I help you advance? Because we want to grow and continually develop the talent that's already inside of the company. Yeah. You could be in a position in a company where they don't have as a progressive, say, re-employment internally policy. Yeah. And so you find managers that are really focused on their function and the impacts to them if you leave. And that's so when I say own your career, it's creating that extra visibility for yourself. Because the if you take on a stretch project, especially if it's outside of your specific department, then you're getting more visibility with another manager and another team. Yeah. You might get different uh executive level exposure. It helps you learn new skills, but it also people now associate your face and your name with another project. Yeah. So when you apply for something, this, oh, I remember that person. Oh, they worked on this. Yeah. So it really helps expand your knowledge. So I also talk about expanding your tech stack. Yeah. And that contributes to that because now you're stretching yourself and you're learning a new skill or you're contributing to a team. And you may not be leading it, but you're but you're a valuable contributor to the process. So at the end of the day, it's it's about how do you stretch your knowledge and continue to learn, giving yourself exposure while you're contributing to your your function that you're assigned to. Right on. Um, but it all helps build that credibility and that story that you can say, hey, I'm not just a team player, but I'm contributing to the the larger picture picture or vision of the company.

Speaker 1 13:11

Well, I love how you followed that up with the story of the sort of two colleagues, male and female, that were at the same sort of same level, but they each try, you know, one person didn't do all of that and the other one did, and the other one who did got promoted, and you know, better opportunities and faster career trajectories. So it's nice when the students get that lands squarely with them. That was great. Um, yeah, and then of course, in the process, mentor uh mentorship was a big one for you. Um, really getting specific feedback from people so that you can grow and evolve. And um, you know, yeah.

Speaker 13:46

What what a better way to learn than to have someone who's been doing it successfully before you, assuming for a number of years or decades, yeah, to give you that insight that you you just can't learn in a short period of time to tell you, hey, this is what will help you become successful. Yeah here's the pitfalls you want to avoid. But when you ask for feedback and they give it to you, mentorship's a two-way street. So they're investing time in you. But when they give you feedback, it's important that you put it into action because that shows that you value their time, but also that you're working on yourself and it's it's working, right? Yeah, because the goal of mentorship is to make you a more rounded, more well-rounded employee, make you more valuable to the company, to expand your skill base. Um, at the end of the day, you're growing your your career. Yeah. And uh subject matter experts, you know, mentors, you know, they've they've done it. So you don't need to recreate the wheel. It's the wheel's already been invented. Nice. Learn how to make a better wheel and how to do it with you know less squeaks. And that's the that's the goal.

Speaker 1 14:52

Less squeaks. Okay. I love that. Um yeah, because that's sort of cascaded down some recommendations. You know, the first one, own your career, like we talked about, mentorship was another. You really encourage the student to take risks, make sure you have some life balance in there, you know, don't burn yourself out or you're not good for anybody. And then um keep learning. So, how do you like to keep learning?

Speaker 15:18

It's important. Um, you know, education comes in many different forms and factors. You know, I said in class today that I literally learn something new every day.

Speaker 1 15:27

Yeah.

Speaker 15:28

I'm not the subject matter expert in every product that we have.

Speaker 1 15:32

Yeah.

Speaker 15:32

I should know who the people are to connect people when there's a question or a comment or a concern. But I take the the opportunities to learn internally. So we have train classes, we have opportunities to learn about products and processes and solutions. Uh, so it's important to continually take those to level up your skill sets.

Speaker 2 15:51

Yeah.

Speaker 15:51

You can take specific classes externally, you can get involved in seminars, but getting involved in extra projects brings your own internal learning. Uh, but you can take personal learning. You know, if it's something you want to work on, Toastmasters was something I mentioned to you prior. Being able to adapt your speech and learn how to deliver speeches, clear, engage the audience more.

Speaker 1 16:14

Yeah.

Speaker 16:14

Um, you know, there's things you can do. So those are all in the realm of continuous education.

Speaker 1 16:20

Yeah, I love that. So great recommendations. Um, and then you also had some interesting stories, like uh another attribute we talk about is ethics. You know, they defined ethics as doing the right thing so you could sleep at night, you know, let's keep it simple. Uh, but you talked about um in one of your higher level roles, being asked, we don't have to talk about what it was, but you you were being asked to do something that you felt simply was unethical, you know, by many means, and you know, just kind of raised the flag and said, you know, I'm not willing to do something that goes against, you know, my values and what I think is right.

Speaker 17:00

I think at the end of the day, all you have is your personal, your personal brand. Yeah. Attached to that is your reputation and your integrity. Yeah. So at some point, if you're asked to do something that you just don't think is ethical or or violates your personal brand or your ethics, raise that up to the process or procedure in your organization. Um, I found that situation untenable for me. Um, I did that process. Yeah. At the result of it, ended up being a career pivot. Yeah. And that's okay. Right. And and it's just uh it's important that you take those those moments in life seriously.

Speaker 1 17:33

Yeah. Well, I think what's important about the definition they came up with, it's not whether it turns out to your advantage or disadvantage, it's can you sleep at night, right? So it worked out to be a career pivot for you, but um, you know, you walked away with your head held high and doing the right thing.

Speaker 17:50

That's true. It it's funny, we we use the analogy of putting your head on the pillow and being able to fall asleep at night. We have this conversation with our team members who are are just putting in maximum effort, you know, that 120% every day, and they're frustrated that things aren't moving fast enough.

Speaker 2 18:07

Yeah.

Speaker 18:08

And I always tell them, listen, did you do your best today? They're like, yes. I'm like, did you involve you know, people? Did you collaborate? Did you communicate? You know, was there something else that you that you absolutely that you didn't do that you should have done? No, I did everything I should have done. Well, then when you put your head on the pill tonight, close your eyes, feel good about that because you're doing everything right. Right. You know, so it's like that, don't stress out about things you don't have control over. Yeah, you know, you're managing your responsibilities, you're probably extending beyond your responsibilities. Sure. You're doing everything you can. So you have to be able to, you know, put your head on the pill and feel good about that.

Speaker 1 18:43

Yeah. Well, I love that in your process you found out that you personally love change. Not everybody does. Um, that you really can see sort of the larger picture and break it all down into the little finer details. Um, that you you have the ability to pivot quickly and be very adaptable. And I think it was a great story of how you turned those things, those qualities, you know, into actual career that's actually in a company that's doing something to make the world turn, you know. So I I really liked that you um started with the things that you like to do that you found brought you joy and and turned it into your, you know, the business skills that that runs your career. Um so I was curious, the students asked you what was something you would tell your younger self, and you said to be more confident or to be confident in yourself. And I was curious, you talked a little bit about that, but what does that mean to you looking back at your younger self?

Speaker 19:49

So, when you first start your career, when I first started my career, I had the belief that I was going to be an electrical engineer, and and I feel like I was trying to convince myself the entire time that I'm gonna be an electrical engineer, and to the point where my first job was an electrical engineer. Yeah. Um, but I was constantly trying to convince myself that this is what you want to do. I didn't, I didn't give myself enough grace in that moment to look at that objectively in the moment and say, maybe this isn't the right position for you. And and I had been working for years, going to school and investing money and learning to do this, and now I'm doing it and I realize I don't want to do this. Yeah. Oops. So it's uh, you know, looking back, I I should have given myself more grace in that moment, but I also should have been able to have if I wish I would have had the the foresight to say, you know, it's okay in that you don't need to convince yourself it's the right thing to do, that maybe there's something different. Yeah. And again, that's okay. So, you know, manage it professionally, but also say, you know, from a mental health and a career and a development perspective, yeah, it's okay to say I might have made a mistake. And admitting you made a mistake is is the first step in in correcting that and taking a different path.

Speaker 1 21:06

I'm so glad you said that because I actually wrote that down. Um that was a point of uh pride for you that when if you make a mistake, own it, you know, be responsible and and I think it it's also very powerful when you're in a group of people, your peers, your employees, and and you admit that um, you know, hey, listen, I I made a decision, I've put a policy in place, I took an action, um, and ultimately it was the wrong decision.

Speaker 21:36

And uh own that, it shows that you can learn from your mistakes, number one, two, that you're human, but also three, that you're able to address it and then make a correction, hopefully for the benefit of the people that are that are involved in it, right? So it's the whole process. I think if you go around acting as if every decision you make is perfect and you walk on water, then I think you lose the respect. Of of your peers and your colleagues.

Speaker 1 22:01

Yeah. Well, I mean, I I want to be sort of a fly on the wall following you around in all of your travels and adventures. Cause, you know, working in a in a global setting and being responsible for $1.2 billion and I think 134 reports that you have across the globe here, it just must be an incredible. Yeah, I'm just fascinated to be see, I would love to see how your mind works in all of that and just travel. And I and I I mean you come across as super confident now. So uh there's a lot of compartmentalization happening all the time. Yeah. So in all of that, after talking to students today, is there anything that you think that um, and for our audience here, uh, we have lots of students that will watch this uh on the recording. Is there anything else you think would be good to um I don't know, bring forward that you feel like we didn't touch on yet or a question that wasn't asked yet?

Speaker 22:55

Or I mean we talked a lot about adaptability, tailoring your resume and your skills to the jobs that you're applying for, um, showing up, you know, just in summary, professionally, ready. Yeah. Um how you present yourself as a young student uh entering the job for us. Yeah. It's important that there's some enthusiasm, that you're showing interest in the company that you're talking to.

Speaker 1 23:20

Yeah.

Speaker 23:21

Give an example of how you think you can contribute to that company.

Speaker 1 23:24

Yeah.

Speaker 23:25

Hopefully it's in line with their objectives for the role. It might not be, but you're making an attempt to show how you can bring value.

Speaker 1 23:32

Yeah.

Speaker 23:33

I think most companies understand that your skill sets are limited, but they want to understand that you're coachable, that you're trainable, that you're enthusiastic, that you're gonna get behind that mission. Gives me goosebumps, yeah. So it's it's those are important, important first impressions and how you're delivering yourself. I love that. It's uh that those are core pieces of the first step of being successful.

Speaker 1 23:54

Yeah. Well, I loved how you said like you knew who you were and you knew what you had to offer. You just needed to find somebody that would, you know, have that reciprocal value, you know, pay you for for that value that you provide. And I like the suggestion to students that, you know, hey, you know, three to five years, you may have to rethink. If you're if you're not increasing, your value's not increasing, or you're not getting compensated increasingly for your value, you may have to find another place that does. And you know, I think that's a good thing to acknowledge.

Speaker 24:24

Yeah. It's not just about your monetary value, but it's about your career arc. Yeah. You know, and and if you think of your career arc as literally as an arc, um, it's not linear. Yeah. You know, it's gonna have some some motion to it. And so you have to manage that. But when you think about it in terms of financial terms, your career is a span over 30 plus years. So if you if you're happy just getting you know average raises, as we talked about this morning, that's fine. But you're gonna end up with a mediocre result after the end of your career, as opposed to if you took some risk and and took some jumps, yeah, you'll realize the value of that over time because your your next raise is always on top of your last raise. Yeah. So if it's always 4%, 4%, 4%, but then you throw in a 15% here or there, or a 10% here or there, then you're getting a you know, a three or four-year jump. If you do that five or six times across your career, yeah, it really adds up by the end.

Speaker 2 25:22

Yeah.

Speaker 1 25:22

Well, I loved you showing the students that model of taking that jump, you know, going for it and it paying off. So well, thanks a million for coming in today and uh loved everything you shared. And like I said, we'll debrief the class and get you some really interesting feedback on what landed, especially after a day or two goes by. It's interesting to see what after image or after glow we call it sticks with them.

Speaker 25:46

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the feedback. But Tom, I appreciate the opportunity to come in and talk to the students. It was it's my pleasure. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I hope they did as well. Yeah, and uh the feedback would be interesting for me, so I'm looking forward to that. Thank you again, sir. All right, I appreciate it.