Mary Barra has established herself as one of the most successful global leaders of the 21st century and has become one of the highest-ranking executives in the automotive industry. There are many lessons for other leaders to learn from her time as GM's CEO. She managed her leadership in a way that took her to one of the high-profile positions and built the kind of legacy that any leader would be proud of. According to Business Week and Automotive News, she was listed on the list of 100 leading women in the auto industry. Based on her notable actions and words, she highlighted her leadership qualities, styles, and skills in front of us, which are being discussed here.
Leadership Qualities and Styles of Mary Barra
Here are some of Mary Barra’s leadership qualities that made her an eminent leader.
- Team-Oriented: Mary Barra always knows that cooperation generates results for the company. She always refers to her team during interviews. In one interview with Bloomberg, she mentioned that team sports are necessary for producing efficient vehicles. Mary also calls hall meetings to gather ideas and concepts from different individuals to run a project. According to her, a team effort is very important to achieve success.
- Responsible Person: Mary Barra has the courage to take responsibility for the mistakes made. She never wastes time by avoiding blame; rather, she admits her mistakes and owns them to make things right. Barra proves her worth and courage by taking on responsibilities and teaching employees to emphasize personal accountability.
- Quick Learner: Barra always prioritizes learning new things and developing her skills. Once she was invited to the Harvard Business School program, she managed to make time from her busy job to attend, which reflected her enthusiasm for learning. In her career, she learned new things quickly and applied them in every stride. Moreover, in the top positions she is now in, she adds a new skill set to her portfolio. Never stops for learning made her a great leader, and she has possessed this quality from the beginning.
- Inspire Others: Mary Barra has the quality to persuade her employees and give them space to express their thoughts. Barra wants to spend time with newly recruited employees to see whether their values match hers. Barra suggests asking, “What values are important to you? Why did you choose these values?” and then listens to their point of view.
- Ask for Feedback: One of the most important things that Barra maintains is asking for feedback from her staff. According to Chen, there are a few questions she recommends asking: “Did you get what you needed from this meeting?” and “What’s your opinion?” She explained that there are opportunities for employees to improve using this method, and that it helps leaders make the right decisions based on the staff’s understanding of current issues.
Mary Barra always makes a decision based on each team member’s input. Her leadership style aligns with a democratic style, where she ensures everyone has an equal right to share their views. Her leadership style saved General Motors from bankruptcy, increased company value, reduced unprofitable markets, and so on. Her leadership style encouraged all levels of employees to share information, helped them perform better, and motivated them to achieve task objectives, which later resulted in beneficial outcomes. Moreover, in board meetings, she suggests seeking diverse opinions, and later she considers the board's feedback.
Some of her leadership traits are also highlighted here, along with her qualities.
- Respectful: Leaders like Mary Barry deliver the best outcomes for the company and protect it from potential pitfalls by showing respect to their fellow staff. She came across as a caring and genuine human being. In 2009, when she steered the Human Resources Department at GM, just after the GM meltdown, she replaced the bureaucratic image of HR with more friendly human faces who would emphasize personal accountability and responsibility. The way she treated her staff with dignity and respect was truly amazing.
- Motivational Leadership: This leadership trait is a workable model for Mary Barra to be a favourite leader among her employees. She is quite humble and collaborative, keen to give all the credit to her team members rather than taking the limelight on herself. She emphasizes the importance of understanding her team’s intellectual and emotional sides and of prioritizing what employees care about. This is how she won both their hearts and minds and became a successful leader.
- Being Honest and Simple: Barra had a reputation as an honest, straightforward person in front of the GM staff, even before she became the CEO. As head of Product Development, her simple direction to engineers and designers was, “No more crappy cars.” She quoted in an interview and explained that sometimes so many boundaries can act as a barrier to employees on the way to success. Employees should be given the freedom to succeed and work more simply. In return, she wanted GM employees to be honest when something was wrong and to confront problems directly.
Besides these, she possesses a few leadership traits. Such as –
- Being Accountable
- Optimistic
- Learning Agility
- Enthusiastic etc.
Leadership Skills of Mary Barra
Mary Barra can elicit the best from the organization through her leadership skills. A few of her leadership skills are represented here, helping everyone understand her leadership potential.
- Communication Skill: While steering an organization with loads of employees towards success, Mary Barra made it possible through her communication skills, simplifying her message for everyone, which helped all employees understand the organization's focus. At GM, she uses the “zero crashes, zero emissions” message to unite the staff behind a common goal. Moreover, Mary Barra wants interaction and discussion among everyone in meetings rather than just information sharing.
- Planning & Delivery Skills: After being appointed as the CEO of GM, Barra used her planning and delivery skills to keep the company’s interests in mind and deliver results accordingly. She always remained focused on the present and planned as such to run the company on the right path. She knew that if a solid foundation was being built in the present, the future would automatically be taken care of. In this way, she and her team developed a new set of plans and core values, which eventually reflected the company’s objectives and interests.
- Decision-Making Skill: When the time comes to a point for the final say, Mary Barra puts all her emotions aside and makes a clear-headed decision by using her skill. In an article by Stanford Alumni, John Calabrese, a coworker of Barra, said that “I guess she kind of has a consensus approach, but when it’s not coming together, she gets concise and she’s pretty decisive.” Moreover, after being appointed as the new GM boss, she decided to make all GM cars safer than before, no matter what it took. She has the skill to make the final decision and set things right for the company.
- Perseverance Skill: In Mary Barra’s case, it was not easy for her to lead a charmed life without having any setbacks. She has a strong ability to overcome her setbacks and achieve success. For example, in 2008, when GM fell into bankruptcy, she never doubted that the company would survive, and she believed it would come through this turmoil.
In Conclusion
As a leader, Mary Barra ensured General Motors’ future amid unprecedented industry turmoil through her leadership qualities. She made such daring decisions which other GM leaders would never dream of. Surely, Barra has shaken up the GM ranks with her leadership style.
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