Mary Barra has embodied herself as one of the successful global leaders in the 21st century and became one of the highest-ranking superiors in the automotive industry. There are lots of lessons to learn for other leaders from her activities while she was acting as CEO of GM. 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, Automotive News, she was enlisted 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 – Styles, Traits, and Skills of Mary Barra
Here are some of Mary Barra’s leadership qualities that made her an eminent leader.
I. Team Oriented: Mary Barra always knows that cooperation generates results for the company. She always refers to her team whenever she participates in interviews. In one interview, taken by Bloomberg, she mentioned that team sport is necessary for producing efficient vehicles. Mary also calls hall meetings to gather various concepts and ideas from different individuals in order to run a project. According to her, a team effort is very important to fulfill the success.
II. Responsible Person: Mary Barra has the courage to take responsibility for the mistakes that have been made. She never wastes her time by not taking the blame rather she admits the blunders and owns them to make them right. Barra proves her worth and courage by taking the responsibilities and teaching the employees to emphasize their personal accountabilities.
III. Quick Learner: Barra always puts her priority in learning new things and developing her skills. Once she was invited for the Harvard Business School program and she managed some time from her busy job for attending the program which reflected her enthusiasm towards learning. In her career, she learned new things quickly and implied them in every stride. Moreover, in the top positions she is in now, she adds further new skill set in her portfolio. Never stops for learning made her a great leader and she possesses this quality from the beginning.
IV. Inspire Others: Mary Barra has that quality to persuade her employees and give them space to express their thoughts. Barra wants to spend time with the employees who are newly recruited to check out whether their values match with her. Barra suggests asking, “What values are important to you? Why did you choose these values?” and after that, she listens to their point of view.
V. Ask for Feedback: One of the most important things that Barra maintains is asking for feedback from her staff. According to Chen, there are few questions that she recommends to ask, “Did you get what you needed from this meeting?” and another one is “What’s your opinion?”. She explained there are opportunities for the employees to improve in this method and it helps the leaders to make the right decisions based on the staffs’ understanding of current issues.
Mary Barra always makes a decision based on each team member’s input. Her leadership style connects to a democratic leadership style where she makes sure everyone has an equal right to give their views. Her leadership style saved General Motors from bankruptcy, increased company value, reduced unprofitable markets, and so on. Her leadership style encouraged all level employees to share information, helped them to perform better, and motivated them to achieve task objectives which later resulted in beneficial outcomes. Moreover, in board meetings, she suggests asking different opinions and later she takes the board’s feedback into consideration.
Some of her Leadership Traits are also Pointed Out Here Besides her Qualitie
I. Respectful: Leaders like Mary Barry draw out the best outcomes for the company and saved her company from potential pitfalls by showing respect to her 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 will be emphasizing on personal accountability and responsibility. The way she treated her staff with dignity and respect was truly amazing.
II. Motivational Leadership: This leadership trait is a workable model for Mary Barra for being a favorite leader to 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 gives the importance of understanding her team’s intellectual and emotional sides and giving priorities to what employees care about. This is how she won both their hearts and minds and became a successful leader.
III. Being Honest and Simple: Barra possessed a personality of being an honest and simple person in front of GM staff even before she became the CEO. Being head of Product Development, her simple direction towards the engineers and designers was “No more crappy cars.” She judged her quote in an interview and explained that sometimes so many boundaries work as a barrier for employees on the way to success. Employees should give the freedom to make them successful and work in a simpler way. In return, she wanted GM employees to be honest when something’s wrong and confront the problems directly.
Besides these, there are few leadership traits which she possesses. Such as –
- Being Accountable
- Optimistic
- Learning Agility
- Enthusiastic etc.
Leadership Skills of Mary Barra
Mary Barra can elicit the best for the betterment of the organization with the help of her leadership skills. A few of her leadership skills are represented here which help everyone to understand her leadership potentials.
I. Communication Skill: While steering an organization with loads of employees towards success, Mary Barra made it possible by her communication skill and she simplified her message to everyone which helped all the employees to understand the focus of the organization. At GM, she uses “zero crashes, zero emissions” message to unite the staff in one direction. Moreover, Mary Barra wants interaction and discussions between everyone in meetings rather than information sharing.
II. Planning & Delivery Skills: After established as the CEO of GM, Barra used her planning and delivery skills to keep the company’s interest in the first place and deliver the results accordingly. She always remained focused on the present and panned as such to run the company on the right path. She knew if the solid foundation is being built based on the present time, then the future will 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.
III. 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 boss for GM, she decided to make all the GM cars safer than before whatever it takes. She has the skill of pulling the final decision and making things right for the company.
IV. 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 huge leadership skill of going through her setbacks and clinching her success. For example, in 2008 when GM fell into bankruptcy, she never doubted this company would survive and she believed they would go through this turmoil.
In Conclusion
As a leader, Mary Barra ensured General Motor’s future in the face of unprecedented industry turmoil with the help of her leadership qualities. She made such daring decisions which other GM leader would never dream of. Surely, Barra has shaken up the GM ranks with her leadership style.
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References
- http://www.centerforworklife.com/mary-barras-leadership/
- https://www.wharton.upenn.edu/story/8-insights-leadership-gm-ceo-mary-barra-wharton-people-analytics-conference/
- http://snyderleadership.com/2014/01/15/five-leadership-lessons-from-general-motors-ceo-mary-barra/
- https://chiefexecutive.net/ceo1000-mary-barra/
- https://www.coursehero.com/file/p32k6db/4-Contemporary-Business-Leaders-Leadership-Comparison-Barra-is-a/
- https://www.iedp.com/articles/leadership-journeys-mary-barra/
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329416366_General_Motors_CEO_Mary_Barra_-_Leadership_style_analysis_Individual_assignment_-_Critical_essay
Sadnan is one of the top contributors of The Strategy Watch, he has been actively contributing since 2017 as a Content Analyst; He has finished his graduation from North South University with a dual major in Accounting & Finance. As a contributor, he has written for different topics including Leadership Styles and Qualities, Finance, and Economics. He also has a strong interest in SWOT & PESTLE Analysis and Marketing Strategy.