Leadership Characteristics, Benefits, and Drawbacks of Mary Barra

This presentation paper provides an in-depth analysis of Mary Barra's leadership style, focusing on her role as the CEO of General Motors. It begins with an introduction to Mary Barra, highlighting her position as the first female CEO of a major automobile company. The paper identifies her primary leadership style as transformational leadership and explores its characteristics, including her focus on addressing issues, fostering innovation, promoting self-management, and adaptability within the organization. The presentation then delves into the benefits of her leadership style, such as creating a positive working environment, providing a competitive advantage, and encouraging new ideas. However, it also acknowledges potential drawbacks, such as a process-oriented approach and possible employee support issues. The conclusion summarizes the benefits and challenges of Mary Barra's transformational leadership, supported by references to relevant academic literature.

PRESENTATION
PAPER

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction of the Leader......................................................................................................................3
Type of the leadership style which is used by Mary Barra.......................................................................3
Characteristic of Leadership style of Mary Barra.....................................................................................3
Benefit seen by organization due to leadership style..............................................................................4
Drawback seen by organization due to leadership style..........................................................................5
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill encompassing the ability of an
individual or organization to "lead" or guide other individuals. This report highlights the
leadership style of Mary Barra. Report highlights the characteristic, benefit and drawback of
using Mary leadership style.
MAIN BODY
Introduction of the Leader
Mary Barra is an American businesswoman who has been worked as a chairmen and the
CEO of the company General Motor Company Since 15 January 2014. Mary Barra is the first
female CEO who has worked for automobile company. Mary Barra has earned good sort of name
in the market due to Quality of the leadership skill which has been shown by Mary Barra at the
workplace to lead the operation of the business.
Type of the leadership style which is used by Mary Barra
Transformational leadership is the type of the leadership which is generally used by Mary
Barra to carry out different operation of the business in the market. At the time of Mary Barra
joining General motors, company was going with the issue of lack of consumer relationship and
employee turnover in the organization. For the same reason Mary Barra has started their work by
improving the internal condition of the company in the market. Marry Barra generally used to
take the variety of the different sort of the decision in the organization by seating with the team
in the organization and on the basis of the same there are variety of the different sort of the
decision are being taken in the organization as well.
Characteristic of Leadership style of Mary Barra
 More head on single issue: More head on single issue: Looking and analyzing the role
Mary Barra it has been identified that these sort of the leadership style of Mary generally
used to invest more number of the head in the organization to find out the solution of the

issue which is being faced by the organization in the long run. As under these leadership
style all the team member generally used to seat together to find out the solution of the
issue which is being faced by the organization in long run.
 Innovation: It is another characteristic of Mary Barra leadership style, as it has been
identified that Mary generally used to gather the idea from all the individual in the
organization and on the basis of the same used to make the variety of different decision in
the organization, these eventually used to help the Mary in having the better number of
the solution to the problem which is being faced by them in the market. These help the
company in promoting and bringing good sort of the innovation in the market in the long
run.
 Self Management: It is another important characteristic of leadership style which is
being used by the Mary Barra as this leadership used to give accountability to all the
individual in the organization, these generally used to promote the situation in the
organization in which all the individual generally used to manage themselves which help
the employee in the organization managing themselves in the organization.
 Adaptability: It is another characteristic of Mary Barra as it has been analyzed that with
the help of this sort of the leadership style in the market, organization generally used to
find it very easy to adopt the variety of the different changes which are being brought into
the internal and external environment of the company in the long run.
Benefit seen by organization due to leadership style
 Positive working environment: It is the first benefit which is seen by the organization
due to usage of transformational leadership in the organization. As it has been identified
that usage of this kind of leadership style help company in managing the relationship with
the employee as all the employee in the organization used to seat together in the
organization and on the basis of the same different decision are being made in the
organization.
 Competitive advantage: It is another sort of the benefit which is seen by the organization
due to these sort of leadership style in the market. As it has been explained above also
this leadership style help in adopting variety of the changes very easily, these

characteristic of the leadership style used to help the company in preparing for variety of
different activity in the market. These used to help the company in getting the
competitive advantage in the long run of the business.
 New Idea floating: These is another benefit which is seen by the organization due to these
sort of leadership style in the market. As it has been identified that using this leadership
help the company in getting variety of new idea in the organization.
Drawback seen by organization due to leadership style
 Process Focuses: One of the biggest drawback which is seen by the organization due to
usage of these sort of leadership style is that these leadership style is more focused on to
the process in the organization as compare to the task focuses type of the leadership. This
used to impact the efficiency of variety of the task carried out in the organization.
 Employee Support: It is another sort of drawback which has been seen by organization.
As it has been identified that employee used to become more lethargic in the organization
this eventually used to create the situation in the market in which organization used to not
get that sort of the support from the employee.
CONCLUSION
After going through the above report it has been concluded that Mary uses the
transformational leadership style in the organization which generally used to bring the variety of
the benefit for the organization but at the same time used to create some what of the issue as well
for the organization to manage the same in the organization.

REFERENCES
Anderson, M.H. and Sun, P.Y., 2017. Reviewing leadership styles: Overlaps and the need for a
new ‘full‐range’theory. International Journal of Management Reviews. 19(1). pp.76-96.
Gandolfi, F. and Stone, S., 2018. Leadership, leadership styles, and servant leadership. Journal
of Management Research. 18(4). pp.261-269.
Yahaya, R. and Ebrahim, F., 2016. Leadership styles and organizational commitment: literature
review.Journal of Management Development.
Silva, A., 2016. What is leadership?. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly. 8(1). p.1.
Alvesson, M. and Einola, K., 2019. Warning for excessive positivity: Authentic leadership and
other traps in leadership studies. The Leadership Quarterly. 30(4). pp.383-395.
Oc, B., 2018. Contextual leadership: A systematic review of how contextual factors shape
leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly. 29(1). pp.218-235.
Boyce, J. and Bowers, A.J., 2018. Toward an evolving conceptualization of instructional
leadership as leadership for learning. Journal of Educational Administration.
Cote, R., 2017. Vision of effective leadership. Journal of Leadership, Accountability
and Ethics. 14(4).