Mary t barra disney board of directors

Respond to two or more colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

· Ask a probing question of the lessons of this case study that your colleague discussed in their initial post. Be sure to base your question on prior research or experience.

· Provide an alternate viewpoint of the leader than the one posted by your colleague. Use the Learning Resources to support the alternate view that you present.

· Ask a probing question about how your colleague would apply the lesson to his or her current organization, based on prior research or experience.

· No plagiarism

· APA style citing

Lauren Siburt

RE: Discussion 2 - Week 8

The leader that I chose to highlight is Mary T. Barra, the Chairman and CEO of General Motors. I chose her because I was interested in learning more about a female in a such a high leadership role in such a male dominated field. Barra took over as General Motors CEO in January 2017, making her the first woman to run a US automaker (Tetzeli, 2018). Although I do not watch the news as much as I probably should, I feel that this is such a momentous achievement and I do not think it was talked about as much as it should have been.

Barra started at General Motors in 1980 as a co-op student at the General Motors Institute and worked her way up throughout the years (The Walt Disney Company, 2017). During her time at General Motors, she also worked in the Human Resources department. Mary Barra has said about her experience while working in HR at General Motors “I think what it does for a CEO is, it makes you realize that every person is not homogeneous; everyone has different needs, everyone reacts differently to different motivations. So the organizational development, the ability to negotiate—I cannot tell you how important that is.” (Putre, 2020). Having worked in HR gave her a different perspective, which only helps her lead and manage people having seen situations from all different angles while working in HR.

When Barra took over the company as CEO it was at a time when many thought the situation looked grim. They were dealing with a crisis involving recalling over 2.6 million cars and she had to testify in front of Congress. She won over many people with her testimony and the fact that she accepted the blame and apologized right away and worked on what could be done to help make the situation right. (Putre, 2020). This shows that she is an ethical leader that is going to do the right thing and stand up for what is right. She had no time to warm up to her new role, she was thrown right in the deep end and I think that the way she led the organization through this trying time shows that she is an effective and capable leader. After reading about this instance with Ms. Barra I think it is a good assessment to say that she exhibits traits from the affiliative style of leadership. “The hallmark of the affiliative leader is “People come first” attitude” (Goleman, 2000).

I think that she also uses a situational leadership style. “The theory of situational leadership defined by Dr. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard suggests that there is no single best style of leadership. That it depends on the situation and the most successful leaders are those who adapt their leadership style to the ability and willingness of the individual or group they are attempting to lead or influence” (Chapman, 2018). With Ms. Barra’s vast experience at General Motors, it gives her such an advantage on how to lead the organization because she has been a part of it for so long (Putre, 2020). Some have said that she has not gained enough perspective from having the experience of working at another organization but her vast experience at General Motors gives her an inside look and understanding of such a large organization (Putre, 2020). I think all of those things add up to her being able to handle each situation that arises differently and know the best course of action to remedy it.

A lesson that I learned from reading about this leader is that honesty really does go a long way. Thinking about the situation with the car recalls and how she was upfront and honest about how to fix the situation I think gained her a lot of respect being the only woman in leadership at an automotive company (Tetzeli, 2018). She has also said, “To change a culture, you have to change behaviors. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.” (Tetzeli, 2018). A lesson to take from this is that you lead by example and I think that is an important for everyone to remember. Taking these lessons as I continue in my career will only make me a better leader and manager whenever that time comes.

Chapman, B. (2018). Situational Leadership: A key leadership skill. Leadership Excellence, 35(9), 16–17.

Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review; 78(2), 78-90.

Putre, L. (2020). The Barra Era: Mary Barra is six years into her run as General Motors’ CEO, and is now chairman as well. What has she achieved? Industry Week/IW, 269(5), 20–23.

Tetzeli, R. (2018). Gm Changes Lanes. Fortune, 177(6), 118–128.

The Walt Disney Company. (8 C.E. 2017). Mary T. Barra, General Motors Co. Chairman & CEO, Elected to The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors. Business Wire (English).

Regina Campbell

RE: Discussion 2 - Week 8

COLLAPSE

Top of Form

For this discussion, I chose Mary T Barra, chairman, and CEO of General Motors. Throughout the course, we have learned different variations of leadership styles. Lorsch (2010) Defined leadership as "a person who can effectively encourage others to follow them." Barra was quoted as "the strength of relationships inside and outside the company is what the company success is based on" (Rosen 2014). This statement shows she understands that her employees need to encourage to follow and do her in the customer, which relates to her being an effective leader.

Decision-making is a critical part of effective leadership. Not only muster leaders inspire, but they must have management skills such as decision making. Rosen stated that Barra had many challenges, from crisis to internal company issues. She supported her team in using her resources to put GM on the right path to reliability and success (2014). this demonstrated her leadership style assisted her with decision-making and allowed for her decision-making skills to be practical. The Los Angeles Times quoted Barra stating, "a decision will always have to be made if the company or group cannot agree on a decision, I have no problem making the decision" (Engelmeir, 2014).

Ethical leadership can be analyzed in different ways with the same concept. Resick et al. (2011) presented one way to look at ethical leadership as "ethical leadership includes how leaders use their social power as an influence while being moral professionally and personally." Renhart (2018) discuss the GM crisis of 2014, a dilemma of working around some automobile's defective functions leading to some customers' death, which would keep GM in a slightly still profitable situation and keep the massive safety issues out of the public eye. Or if GM should address the issue that affected "27 million vehicles," this would cost GM "$4.1 billion" and put the company's lack of safety concerns in the forefront, leaving the company to national scrutiny for decades to come." Barra decided the ethical thing to do was recall the 27 million vehicles and work on getting the company on the right ethical and safety path even though her decision was unpopular from a company standpoint.

Barra displays inclusive leadership in different ways. As stated earlier, not only is she great at decision making, but before the decision is made, she includes the company and group, showing all parties matter. She displays inclusive leadership in the gym by understanding her knowledge of the company throughout her years of service and knowing how to include different perspectives for better decision-making. "During the GM auto crisis bearing involved two departments purchasing and product development in working together for a better outcome, the two departments have not worked together previously, but it was a necessary decision during this crisis.

I can learn many lessons from Barra. The two are being ethical leaders are essential no matter the outcome. Being ethical may inconvenience a company or situation, but it will also challenge my leadership abilities as a flight attendant safety is my most important job. There are times when something maybe a little safety-wise, but it is always imperative to let the captain know of the situation. The ethical dilemma is it would possibly cause a delay or even cancel the flight, which costs the company thousands of dollars each time since I want to move into a corporate position and take my job seriously after remembering Barra ethical decisions during the GM crisis.

The second lesson I can learn is moving along different positions in a company can be beneficial to the company in my leadership skills. Remembering that Barra went through many positions throughout GM for several years has led her to success for her current work. This lesson will positively impact my career goals as sometimes I may want to move to a position, I am not ready for but need to understand the process along the way. This will also lead me to become an effective leader because I will have in-depth knowledge about the company. For my airline corporate goal, I know there are steps to be a flight attendant I can take, such as being a trained international lead flight attendant, which would enhance my leadership and management skills on a higher level. I can also work as a flight attendant on a base that is an office position in the sand base to help manage the base's administrative duties. I can also work or volunteer to be an active member of the flight attendant union, which would give me an in-depth look at how the company is run concerning flight attendants.

References

Engelmeier, S. (2014). Did Mary Barra's Inclusive Leadership Style Propel Her to The Top?. Industry Week. https://www.industryweek.com/leadership/companies-executives/article/21962100/did-mary-barras-inclusive-leadership-style-propel-her-to-the-top

Lorsch, J. (2010). A contingency theory of leadership. In N. Nohria & R. Khurana (Eds.), Handbook of leadership theory and practice: An HBS centennial colloquium on advancing leadership (pp. 411–432). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

Reinhart, H. B., (2010). U05: How ethical leadership shows up during GM Crisis. Penn State Liberal Arts online. https://sites.psu.edu/psy533wheeler/2018/11/25/u05-how-ethical-leadership-shows-up-during-gm-crisis/

Resick, C. J., Martin, G. S., Keating, M. A., Dickson, M. W., Kwan, H. K., & Peng, C. (2011). What ethical leadership means to me: Asian, American, and European perspectives. Journal of Business Ethics, 101(3), 435–457

Rosen, B. (2014). Leadership Journeys-Mary Barra. IEDP Developing Leaders. https://www.iedp.com/articles/leadership-journeys-mary-barra/