Name: What It’s Like to Be the Most Visible Woman in Business
Uploaded: 2016-09-07
Duration: 4 min 48 s
Description: GM CEO Mary Barra is #1 on this year’s Most Powerful Women list.

Mary you are on our most powerful women's list. You were number one last year. And you are arguably the most visible woman in business in the world. What does that feel like to you? One of the things that I've learned that was a learning for me when I was named in this roll is that how many people came up to me and said, because you're there doing this, I now believe I can do this. Or Or my daughters are interested because they're now thinking about engineering. And I'm a big proponent of STEM. And so if we can encourage more young women to pursue STEM careers, or pursue whatever career they have passion for I consider that a big win so it's truly an honor. What kind of advice would you give to women who anticipate working in the executive space in some way who are perhaps just getting going now. I mean are there mistakes that you've made that you just wish that you could teach someone. Not to do? Yeah. I think one of the most powerful things is you do as you going through schooling you say okay, this is what I'm going to do. So when leadership comes to you and says, hey what about this role? And it's something you'd never thought of to do it. I was seated to young women, when you get that little bit of a nerd in your stomach and you feel a little bit of discomfort because of the new assignment. You should take because getting breath of experience and understanding how whatever industry you're in, really understanding how it works is so critical for advancement. So take those assignments that cause you a step a little outside of your comfort zone. Did you have mentors or sponsors along the way? I have had so many people that I think been instrumental in my career. Sometimes I think the term mentor, sponsor, people think, you have a mentor and that's it. Uh- huh. That's gonna take care of everything. It doesn't. It's about what you do and demonstrating what you can do. But to me the really valuable people who have impacted my career Have been the people who, a, gave me chances, asked me to take something that was not an obvious assignment, and then the folks that pulled me aside and said, you know, here's some areas you need to improve. Because feedback is a gift, and had people not pulled me aside when I maybe wasn't doing everything I could or doing it well I wouldn't be where I am today. One thing that we noticed looking at the progress of women executives is that it's very slow. And, in fact, this year women who are running S & P 500 companies and Fortune 500 companies the number has dropped, the percentage is a little over 4 %. Why do you think that it's so slow? And is there anything to do about that? I can't you know, speak from across the globe and the country perspective, but I would say at General Motors it's all about pipeline and continuing to develop. and that's a partnership because not only do you need to have women in the core areas of your business and a very rich pipeline so if one or two people decide to make a career change or step out for whatever reason it doesn't have this dramatic impact on the numbers. That you've got a very diverse group of people that you can select To continue to put in roles to provide that diversity of thought on that leadership team. So I think it's having a very well developed pipeline from entry level all the way to you know C suite ready. And cultivating that and making that something that you really work on. It's not gonna happen if you don't work on it. Mary, you have worked really, really hard to change the culture of General Motors. And you have, looks like had some success, at least if we look at it from a financial perspective. What are the key things that you have done to make this culture change? Well, I think it's about engaging everyone and one of the things that I focus on is we look at what culture we wanna have cuz it's really a collection of how do we behave everyday. And how do you really get things done and how does work happen. And so we've really worked on behaviors and it's behaviors of having a relentless commitment to win Of feeling accountable. Of owning each others problems. We're a very integrated business so we've got to work together. And to be candid and transparent and then look over the horizon not just what's happening today but as leaders we have to you know plan for what's going to happen in the future and be ready and be leading it. And so those are the behaviors that we work to drive everyday. And we're seeing progress. We have work to do, but I'm pleased that we, I think we've made some very strong moves in that area, and we'll continue to do so. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

GM CEO Mary Barra is #1 on this year’s Most Powerful Women list.