Informational Page Action/Mentor

Leadership is among the things that shape the growth of companies and societies in different parts of the world. The success of every leader is influenced by their ability to make difficult decisions and create and maintain a sense of direction for followers, no matter the circumstances. Leaders worldwide have demonstrated their leadership capabilities and expertise by leading societies and organizations toward success. One of the leaders who inspires me is Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors. Hurley (2023) states that Mary Barra is among the greatest female pioneers in the automotive industry. I admire Mary Barra because of her journey to becoming a leader and the positive impact of her leadership on General Motors. I also admire her ability to maintain effective leadership at General Motors since 2014 despite being criticized by leaders in the United States after making the decision to build a new vehicle in Mexico and closing five assembly plants in North America because this decision led to massive job loss in the United States and created employment opportunities in Mexico. Mary Barra’s ability to control the situation after the critics began impressed me because she convinced the United States leaders that the decision was necessary and that nothing else could be done at that moment. She has also inspired me to focus on improving my leadership skills and capabilities so that I can become a great leader and positively impact my workplace as I seek leadership opportunities to help me practice and use my leadership skills and capabilities.

My Leadership Style

Leadership styles vary based on a person’s personality and behavior. My experience as a team leader at my workplace and in school has made me understand my leadership style and how it impacts my relationship with my followers. My main focus when interacting with my followers is to get their ideas on the most appropriate course of action and their opinions about the appropriateness of a decision. This behavior is associated with a democratic leadership style. Ego & Madubueze (2019) argue that democratic leadership includes acknowledging the participation that subordinates embrace in decision-making to contribute ideas that can be used to resolve a problem. I use a democratic leadership style to create an opportunity to learn from my followers because I believe that every person has ideas that can help me improve my understanding of things and learn something new. My leadership style is mainly influenced by my character traits and interpersonal skills that help me create and maintain a good relationship with the people around me.

One of the character traits that has helped me develop my democratic leadership style is being a team player. Sharma & Singh (2013) state that democratic leaders influence employees’ motivation through empowerment and participation. Therefore, being a team player is vital in creating a conducive environment for employee participation. In my case, I feel more relaxed when working with others because they can generate ideas that can help complete a task efficiently and point out mistakes that may be overlooked when working alone. This has helped me improve my teamwork skills and develop the ability to resolve conflicts and accommodate everyone’s needs. The second character trait that has been vital in developing my democratic leadership style is my ability to adapt. Adaptability has been essential in maintaining a good relationship with others and embracing their opinions and ideas, thus encouraging them to participate in decision-making. The third character trait is friendliness. Being friendly makes me approachable, leading to a good relationship between me and my followers because they feel comfortable sharing their ideas with me and expressing their concerns about my leadership.

Ideas for Improving Leadership Effectiveness

Although I have improved my leadership effectiveness over the past year since I became a team leader at my workplace, there are some improvements that I need to make to become a great leader. One of the improvements is in time management. My greatest challenge at the moment is time management. I spend too much time on some tasks and miss important deadlines, which could cause conflict between me and my followers, especially if they rely on me to complete a task so that they can begin working on their tasks. Therefore, one of my goals is to improve my time management by learning to assign appropriate time for each task and delegate so that tasks can be completed on time when the workload is too much for me. The second improvement is in decision-making. I am currently facing challenges in decision-making because I cannot make difficult decisions that could negatively impact some of my followers. Therefore, I need to learn how to make difficult decisions without feeling guilty because the guilt impacts my ability to collaborate with my followers to get things done and help the organization achieve its objectives.

My determination to improve my decision-making and time-management capabilities is based on my comparison with Mary Barra. My main observation when reading articles about Mary Barra and listening to her interviews is that she is not afraid to make difficult decisions as long as they help the organization achieve its objectives and that every decision has to be made at the right time. Therefore, time management and decision-making go hand in hand and influence the business’s ability to respond to the changes in the business environment before they negatively impact operations. My mentor has also played a vital role in helping me realize my weaknesses and what I can do to eliminate them. For instance, my mentor noted that I have difficulty managing my time and making decisions that hurt others. He recommended creating a schedule to improve my time management capability and using task blocking to assign appropriate time for each task. Currently, I am practicing how to use task blocking to help me follow my schedule. I am looking forward to being an effective time manager within the next three months so that I can start seeking higher leadership positions in the workplace and grow my leadership career.

Further, my mentor has helped me improve my decision-making capability by teaching me how to create and use a decision tree. Using a decision tree to analyze different decisions has helped me make one of the most difficult decisions at the workplace, which involved reporting one of the interns under my supervision to the manager for failing to follow instructions on several occasions despite being warned. The decision was difficult for me because I knew the intern would get fired since the company was looking for a way to reduce its workforce and cut operating costs. However, using the decision tree helped me realize that not reporting the intern would have a long-term negative impact on the organization because her mistakes caused delays in completing tasks and conflicts between the intern and other employees who were required to repeat the intern’s tasks to address the mistakes. Making my first difficult decision in the workplace has been a significant milestone in developing leadership effectiveness. I intend to continue working towards completing the other milestone of effective time management by following my mentor’s advice and listening to the guidance provided by great leaders such as Mary Barra on effective leadership.

References

Ego, D., & 2Madubueze, M. (2019). Democratic Leadership Style and Organizational Performance: An Appraisal. International Journal of Development Strategies in Humanities, Management and Social Sciences, 9(3). https://doi.org/https://internationalpolicybrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/ARTICLE8-54.pdf

Hurley, K. (2023, August 8). How GM CEO Mary Barra uses inclusive leadership to drive change. CBT News. https://www.cbtnews.com/how-gm-ceo-mary-barra-uses-inclusive-leadership-to-drive-change/

Sharma, Dr. L., & Singh, Dr. S. (2013). A study on the Democratic style of leadership. International Journal of Management & Information Technology, 3(2), 54–57. https://doi.org/10.24297/ijmit.v3i2.1367