Decision-Making Mastery: Mary Barra’s CEO Strategies EXPLAINED!

I didn't have this plan, oh, I will be at General Motors for 37 years. I kept having great experiences put in front of me. Because if you're trying to decide if I'm going to do something or not, and you keep putting off the decision, you've kind of made the not decision. I find saying I screwed up to be hugely empowering.

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe in your potential, and I want to see that thing that you've got inside you explode out into the world to have a big impact for you, your family, and the world. So to help you on your journey today, we're gonna learn from the chairman and CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, and my take on her top 10 rules of success. Rule number 1 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. And as always, guys, as you're watching, if you hear something that really, really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired. And when you write it down, it's much more likely to stick for yourself as well.

Enjoy.

I didn't have this plan. I will be at General Motors for 37 years. I kept having great experiences put in front of me. They sent me here. You know, we were just talking in the back that when I first came back from the business school, there had been a lot of change and turmoil, and I didn't have the best job. And, you know, wasn't one of those that I was passionate about. And, you know, fortunately Fortunately, in about a year's period of time, and especially by 2, the situation changed and I chose to stay. So I always believe in your career, life's too short to work for a company or be in a position that you don't love. Now, work is work. I had this funny text from my nephew, who's now graduating from a BBA in business school at Michigan, and it was his first job and he texted me, you know, I'm sitting at a computer and I've got to do all this work in spreadsheets, and he said this, it kind of was like, this isn't much fun. That's why they call it work. And it's just, you know, you're going to have to work, and not every day's, you know, you can't measure your career on every day, but if you find yourself after 6 months, after a year that, you know, work is not challenging or you don't enjoy it or you're not energized by it, you should probably find something else to do. Again, because life's too short. And brands are so important, and that's one thing at the company we're making a big investment in of building our brands, but building it based on substance, starting with having great cars, trucks, and crossovers, starting with having a good relationship relationship when you interact with the company, when you interact with our dealers, because they're our face of the company. And it's every— one of the things in our value of customer is every interaction matters. And if you really put the customer at the center and you look at— because what I find with most customers, I mean, we, you know, a car, truck, or crossover has about 30,000 parts that are integrated with millions and millions of lines of software, and we have rigorous validation processes, and they're improving as we really, you know, work to be industry leaders in having a systems approach to how we put cars on the road. But if something happens, a customer, A, wants you to care, wants you to listen, wants you to care, and would like you to fix it. And it's really that easy. If you listen, you care, and you fix it, they will be your, you know, your best advocate. One of the stories I tell is in the early days of the ignition switch, one of the things we said, we had done extensive testing, we knew the vehicles were safe to drive if you just use the key or a key with just a ring. But we said to customers, if you are uncomfortable, we will give you a loaner. And so in the early days, you know, getting that situated where communicating to all of our dealers, making sure they knew, and getting the loaners. I had a customer who was very upset, said, you know, you said I could get a loaner. I went to my dealer. They said they don't have one. And so he sent me a note saying, you know, it was kind of personal, it was like, and I hate you and I'm never going to buy a General Motors product again. It wasn't exactly that, but that was the tone. And so I said, of course it was on a Friday afternoon, and I went, okay. And so I called my head of customer service, you know, and I sent the note, I sent a note back to him, because other than email I didn't know how to get a hold of him. I said, could I call you? Would you be willing to share your phone number and could I give you a call? So a minute or two later, I get the phone number, I pick up the phone, I call him, I listen, and I said, you know what, you know, this is— it's early days in getting loaners. I'm sure there was a misunderstanding. Would you give me a chance to work on this? And I immediately called Alicia Bowler Davis, our head of customer care at that time, and by the next morning, we had a car for him. And the next week, I got this note. I can't believe you cared. I can't believe you talked to me, and I can't believe the next day I had a loaner. And so, and, you know, said, this is, you know, this is a company I wanted to be, want to be associated with. And so, again, it's every interaction does matter, and I think doing the right things, you know, putting technologically leading vehicles and services and providing that value to customers, but then if something happens, dealing with it and standing up, I think that's the only way to rebuild trust No matter what you choose to do in life, pursue it with passion and hard work.

In my experience in school and career, at work and at play, there are lots of talented people out there, but talent alone isn't enough. You need something more. One thing that distinguishes those who really make a difference in life, those who really contribute, is passion and hard work. Remember, hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard. So don't be content to work around the edges of your profession. Don't wait to be invited to important meetings or asked to work on crucial assignments. Instead, do what it takes to ensure that you're in the middle of your business. Speak up, volunteer, show your enthusiasm, knock on doors. As an employee, your enthusiasm will make your job more interesting. And get you noticed. As a manager, your passion will inspire others to join your team and work as hard as you to accomplish great things.

If we're going to compete in a segment in any market, we're going to go to win. I think that was a change for General Motors. And frankly, the team has rallied around that because everyone— whatever industry or business you go to, people want to go and do their best. So I feel so much of what I need to do is just set up the systems, enable processes and have the right leadership that our designers and our engineers and our buyers can go do the best work they can do every day. And like I said, a simple thing I said to him is no more crappy cars. And that resonates. I said, OK. Deal. You're on. I think there was sometimes so many boundaries put on them that we didn't give them a recipe for success. So now we're saying, hey, no excuses. You know, I don't— if it's budget, if it's resources, we have to do great cars, trucks, and crossovers, and it's our job to enable you to do that, and it's really been a transformation. You can sometimes get bogged down in making decisions, and I think realizing that every decision not made is a decision made, because if you're trying to decide if I'm going to do something or not and you keep putting off the decision, you've kind of made the not decision. Decision. And, and so you want— you don't want to be reckless with your decision-making, but you also— you want to be data-driven, but also realizing that there's many decisions you have to make where you don't have perfect data, and you never will. And so one of the things we're really, you know, driving in the company is speed. You know, how can we move quickly? How can we reduce bureaucracy? And again, working with Cruise Automation And one of the things I've said as I've talked to them is, you know, don't accept if the company— because we show up and we want to help. And, you know, we don't want to get in the way of that company working. But they've driven, I'd say, so many positive things into the company about moving with speed and what needs to be done in a meeting or what can just be done. And so we're constantly looking at that because, you know, being first is an advantage. And so that's what we're really driving, getting rid of the waste, making sure we move quickly. You know, our leadership team, we make sure that we don't want to gate decisions. I mean, there's many times where early— a global company, early in the morning or late at night, we're on the phone making a call so we don't stop anything. And I think the— just the mindset of knowing the longer you take to make a decision, again, you have to balance it of what data can you get and make— be data-driven. But if you just keep postponing something, you really have made a decision and generally isn't going to move your company forward.

Address challenges head-on. I'm reminded of the plant manager who asked his lead engineer to explain her hiring process. She said, well, I fill a bathtub with water and offer the applicant a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket. Then we ask him or her to empty the tub. I get it, the manager said. A go-getter will use the bucket. No, the engineer said, a go-getter will pull the drain plug. If you have an issue in your life at work or at home, pull the drain plug, address it head-on, and with everything you have, address it right away. In my experience, it's much better to get the right people in a room, make a plan, and address that challenge. And remember, hope is not a strategy. Problems don't go away when you ignore them. They tend to get bigger.

I find saying I screwed up to be hugely empowering because I'm a Type A personality and I generally have a point of view, but you know, I always tell my team I will have a point of view and I might jump out too fast, but you know, I always encourage them, but if you know, you come with facts or data or a different opinion, you know, I'm going to listen, and I think it really reinforces it when you can say to your team, you know, I was thinking about that wrong, or you know what, I got that wrong, because we don't, no one does everything right, and so I think when you create that environment, I think it's the foundation of a learning environment as well. I think it's so important, and every now and then you have to remind yourself about that. It's like, you know, and at least I should say I do, every now and then I have to, I have some great people around me who every now and then will say, Mary. And I value them because sometimes you get so wrapped up in what you're doing or what you're trying to get the company to do that you lose sight. So I also say have people around you who are willing to pull you aside every now and then. It's so important.

So you have not been at GM as long as your father, but you basically, you've spent your entire career there. That's incredibly unusual. And so I'm curious, was there ever a moment in time when you came close to leaving?

You know, I have had a wonderful career at General Motors because— and I've worked in so many different functions. So I think when I look back at my career, I worked for a lot of great leaders who really challenged me and gave me great opportunities. So of course it was difficult as we went through the bankruptcy and the restructuring, and there were moments where you question yourself of, is this, you know, is this the right decision for me? But at that point, I'd been at General Motors for almost 25 years, and I knew what the company was capable of. I knew it had great people. And so I wanted to be a part and had no idea I'd be in this role. But I just wanted to be a part of the team that helped, you know, GM recover and be the company that I know it can be. And I'm proud of the progress we're making, but we still have work to do. So So, you know, again, when you, you know, sometimes you do that soul searching of what is really important to me, and General Motors is very important to me. You know, we employ 220,000 people around the world. We bring products to market that give people freedom. And so, you know, of course there were minutes during that time, but I knew where my heart was.

Conduct yourself with integrity at all times. In every aspect of your life, be honest. Be fair. Keep your promises. Do what's right for your family, for your friends, for your customers, for your clients, for your coworkers, for yourself. Remember, how you get things done is just as important as getting them done. And remember that your integrity is priceless when unquestioned, but worthless or worse when it isn't. Your integrity is one of the most valuable possessions you have. Protect it, cultivate it, wear it with pride.

One of the other things is, is you're widely considered as one of the faces of successful women in business. There sometimes appears to be an expectation that that will therefore make you a champion of women in the workplace. Is that, is that ever something that's frustrating, or how do you How do you handle that?

Well, I guess I'd like to be a champion of people in the workplace, because I believe fundamentally that when you, you know, you'll have— create the best experience, have the best results when you engage the hearts and minds of your people. So, I mean, that's the way I look at it. Is there, you know, clearly if I can be a role model for young women to want to pursue a career in STEM, which I think is so vitally important or for them to say, "I'm going to aspire to do this because I've seen her and she did it, so why can't I?" And if I can provide that role model, that makes me extremely happy. In my first year in the job, I had somebody come up to me and said, "Because of you, my daughter has chosen to study engineering," and it was like one of the best comments you could get. And so, for sure, that is very meaningful. At General Motors, Because, you know, you can't say— diversity is so vitally important for the success of our company, and it's not something that you can say, well, I did it and it's done. It's something you continually work on. I champion a group of the most senior women, so the top 35 women in the company, but it's really, for me, it's getting them to say, okay, you know, don't come to me and tell me everything that's wrong. You're a senior person in this company. Go tell me how you're going to solve those problems and what you're going to do to make it better. We now meet 3 to 4 times a year and work on what are some of the issues with women and diversity, because what I found earlier in my career as I worked on diversity is generally a lot of times when you solve issues for women, you solve issues for everyone, because a lot of time men have the same issues, or if it's a minority issue or whatever it is, a lot of it can get solved with solving the issue that's termed the woman's issue. A women's issue. And so I'm dedicated to that, but I also believe, you know, it's, you want to win the hearts and minds of your entire team.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Anoushka asked me to. If there's someone you'd like me to cover in a future top 10, check out the link in the description and go and cast your vote. I'd also love to know what did you learn from this video? What lesson really hit home the hardest? What are you going to immediately apply somehow to your life or to your business? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm really curious to find out. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Jelena Ostrovska. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, doing the review, putting it on your YouTube channel. I really, really appreciate the support and I'm really happy that you enjoyed the book.

I'm super excited to bring a book review for you about a book that I finished reading quite recently, which is called Your One Word by Evan Carmichael.

Thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love.

I'll see you soon.

Were there ever moments where you felt like because of your gender you were not being given the same opportunities or that people were not treating you with the same level of respect that they might give to a man?

I would say, of course. There was times it was a benefit, there was times where maybe it was a detriment, but I think overall it balances out, and I think that's not an issue for women or any diversity group, that's just life. I mean, there's times where what you bring forward is going to be viewed more positively, and there's times where it's not, so that's the way I look at it.

Which is a great way to look at it. I guess to help the audience, because they're going to be moving through these careers, what do you do when someone treats you that way, that you feel like they're limiting you, they're keeping you on the sidelines in some way relative to what you could provide in terms of talent?

Well, I think first of all, assume goodness. Assume if somebody says something or does something that you say, wow, if I choose to, I can interpret that and I can I can get really angry about that and I can be, wow, they don't value a woman, or they don't value this, or they don't value that. And so my first is to kind of to assess intent, because sometimes we all come from a different background and we have different learning and different perceptions, so it may just be that they have a perception and it's not personal, it's not about me. So I think then often there's an opportunity to have a conversation. There are times where you have stand up for yourself and go have that conversation that you may think is a little difficult. But, and so you have to do that. And I think having a great relationship with mentors or with your supervisor that you can say, hey, you know, I understand this opportunity is available, am I in consideration? If not, why not? And sometimes you may think you are, but you get an answer where, you know, you really do need to do some other things. Sometimes it's like, hey, you know what, I didn't think you were interested. So I think you have to be your own advocate, but I think it's It starts with, you know, a lot of times there's something that you can perceive as negative and really it's a conversation, a way of really getting to understanding. I think in our school from, you know, 5th grade on, I loved math and science and so it was very natural for me to want to go into those. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it. At one point when I was headed to college, I was just simply going to major in math because I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed that. And then, you know, found that a career in engineering really applied math, and so it seemed to make a lot of sense. And then automotive is— it's kind of in my blood. I grew up in southeastern Michigan. My dad was a die maker at General Motors for about 39 years, so, you know, from the days where you stood outside the dealerships looking to see the new vehicles, that was kind of how I was raised, so it seemed very natural to go into the auto industry. You didn't think— No. —I could be the CEO of this company someday? I stayed focused on the job I was doing. You know, are you serious? I'm serious. And I think sometimes, you know, in industry, people are too focused on the next job as opposed to their job, the job they're really doing. And that's been my focus. I've never approached it from that perspective. I've just, you know, go in, work hard, do what needs to be done, build a strong team. What does it say to the American auto industry and the American people to see a woman on top? When I started here 33 years ago, I had no idea this is, this is the role I I would be playing, but I approached every position like I was going to do it for the rest of my life. So I think that's a very strong message about hard work pays off. So let me give you the one word secret to happiness. One word. This is all you need to be happy. The most important word ever. If you had to think of one word that's most important to you, or that sums you up, or that would be kind of like a little beacon—

Hey, Believe Nation, if you want to know what most important one word is for Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Oprah Winfrey, will.i.am, and Howard Schultz, I have a very special secret video for you. Check the description for details.