Female leadership

One of the female leader that has faced challenges based on gender is Mary Barra, who is The CEO of General motors. She was at the helm of the company after it had suffered allegations of bankruptcy in the previous years. She was from time to time questioned by the congress as well as the American people, on the quality of productions. The company was accused of manufacturing cars that had faulty ignition switch. Therefore, this circumstances was linked to various fatalities. Thus, this situation was perceived to deteriorate the reputation of the company, and whether a woman would bring back the reputation of the company to normalcy. Public perception was that Barra would not turn around the company woes to fortunes, and this is mainly because she was a woman. If she was a man, she would have been trusted and the public perception would not have been negative as it was during that moment (Ibrat, 2014).

The leadership skills that Mary Barra possessed were the main reason why she overcome these challenges.  Her problem solving techniques were very vital in solving the problems that GE was facing at that moment. She was able to convince the congress and gain public trust and perception through her problem solving ability. She accepted that it was a challenge but she was able to showcase the techniques and mechanism that she would apply to ensure that the company doesn’t manufacture faulty ignition switch in the near future (Burns, 2012). Additionally, experience in the nature of work is very vital in leadership, and this helped her since she was working in GE since she was 18 years old.