Mary Barra grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, aka: the heart of the auto industry. Her father worked at General Motors for 40 years, and Mary became a second generation GM’er. She worked her way up the company, studying at the General Motors Institute (yes, it was a thing) to eventually becoming the CEO in 2014. Mary claimed GOAT status in the auto industry for steering the company through several crises – and for being a mentor to other women in the biz.
In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Mary shares:
Who makes the cut on her cross-country road trip roster
The reason she never blinked twice at the rarity of being a woman in the auto industry
The most difficult crisis she had to navigate as CEO
Advice to her daughter and other women on when it’s time to leave a job
Why she views herself as a caretaker to General Motors and what that responsibility means
On When to Leave a Job
Mary: If you're in a place where you don't think you're valued, you're in a place where you don't think you have any upward mobility, then you need to make a change. There's not a prescriptive time frame. It's more what you're doing, how much you like it, and what the opportunities are going forward.
On What She Considers Her Greatest Responsibility
Mary: To me what's important is that someday when I retire, the company's well positioned to thrive for the next hundred years or the next 10, the next 20, that leads to the next hundred. Cause there'll be probably even more change. The pace of change is happening much more quickly. And I just want to make sure that in my time as a caretaker of this great company, we've set it up for success, for employees to do even better in the future. That's what I look to do every day.
On Why She Protects Her Time Outside of Work
Mary: I do put some guardrails around, you know, if I've got plans with the family – especially now that I have adult children that don't live at home – if we have family events. I mean, occasionally, yes, something happens and we have to alter it. But I try to really protect those moments because I realize that being a working mom or working parent, that's a limited amount of time. And you don't get do-overs. There were times where I was trying to get to a child's soccer game or hockey game or cross country, and I would do crazy things. I’d say, “Hey, I've gotta leave now, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna work afterward”. There were times I got somewhere in the middle of the night because I stayed until a game was over. Those are some of the best decisions I ever made.
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