While CEOs typically make a considerable amount of money, those top executives also have their fair share of stressful situations to deal with – ranging from balancing employee and customer satisfaction while also trying to appease shareholders and Wall Street so they can retain their job and keep a company’s financials straight. This is also why CEOs have to have, well, thick skin, to say the least, as they’re always in the crosshairs of the media and the public in general. Thus, it’s not really surprising to learn that Ford CEO Jim Farley isn’t exactly a natural when it comes to being kind to others.
“The biggest thing I try to remind myself is to be kind,” Farley told Automotive News at a recent event. “You’re trying to get through a UAW strike. Try to be kind when [UAW President Shawn Fain] is saying the kind of things he said about our company. No joke, it’s not funny. It’s really important to be kind. And most of the people you deal with have some kind of burden they aren’t explicit about, and you have to account for that.”
As Ford Authority previously reported, Jim Farley and Shawn Fain had a rather contentious relationship during the automaker’s negotiations with the union last year, one that created serious tensions between the two sides. Regardless, those negotiations also admitted helped him identify some top talent in the organization. “We had 10 people around the table from 7:00 [a.m.] to 11:00 at night for three months,” Farley said. “We worked together. We compared our sleep cycles. We knew each other really, really well. It was very easy to tell who was up for it and who wasn’t.”
“Has this person displayed the kind of emotional resilience, not just working hard, but emotional resilience to get through a very difficult transformation,” Farley added. “And then we need to reward people who are willing to put the hard work in, because it is old-fashioned hard work sometimes.”
Comments
Intelligence neither. A man that according to his own words, lost billions selling sedans (when the Fusion was 3rd place in sales in the US and leader in its segment in Europe and the Focus was main competitor of the VW Golf), lost another similar quantity with EV´s and is making Ford lose its position in Europe making it an irrelevant brand compared to what it always has been, I don´t believe should be CEO the company anymore.
Farley should stop with the emotional kissy-face BS and get to work. He is not allowed to be in his “safe space” with a coloring book and crayons. Either get the job done or get fired. So far, he fails the test.
Fain is a POS. Should have walked away when he bad-mouthed Ford. Come back when you’re serious. Not sure if maintaining sedans was necessary, as everything I see on the road is compact SUVs and trucks. Why are all Broncos $99k Raptors sitting on lots, instead of $65k Heritage editions with retro colors that are sold within days of delivery to dealers?
Brains aren’t natural for Farley .
How long is Ford keeping him around?? I think dealer inventories are larger than ever with unsold vehicles that a lot of people don’t want or don’t even consider when looking for a new car. Ford can do much better. They have to.
Witness the CEO who killed the company.
Corporations reward psychopaths.
Every interview I read with Jim Farley I’m further convinced that he has no business being a CEO. Surelyn Bill Ford Jr sees the same thing!
I seem to remember him arranging for a terminally I’ll young Mustang lover to take some laps at Ford’s test track. I give him an A plus in kindness for that act.
I’ve been a Ford lover my entire life. I’m 78 years old. I caught the fever from my Uncle, Richard Williams. He was a Ford Mechanic his entire life, & bought a brand new 1934 Ford Roadster, from his employer. The Olney Illinois Ford dealer. He took it out on Illinois rt. 1 & it went 100 miles an hour right off the showroom floor. I was a senior in Elgin Highschool in 1964, when Ford came out with the car that made automotive history. The 1964 1/2 Mustang. I currently own 8 Mustangs, all Convertibles. 2 are Cobras, the rest are GT’s. I applaud Ford’s CEO. Mustang is the original, & the last one standing. He says Ford will keep making V/8’s as long as customers keep buying them. Right on!!
Jim Farley can suck my balls. Killing off boring cars???. Killing fiesta and focus. The st and rs versions are up there with the best hot hatches about. My mk7.5 fiesta st in my opinion is a perfect drivers car. All you making now is crap, Capri should have been a coupe with different choices electric and petrol. Fords falling hard
On top of that he thinks slapping “Mustang” onto everything is enough to promote excitement for different cars, killing off a legendary nameplate in the process.
Apparently competence doesn’t either