The Anticipated Change of Top Leadership at the General Motors Headquarters - Speech or Presentation Example

Ways in which the Board of Directors should deal with the anticipated change of top leadership at the General Motors Headquarters

• Background

Since the age of eighteen, I have worked at the General Motors, rising steadily through various ranks. In 2011, I took the mandate of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). During my tenure, I have overseen the reimbursement of the organization during a period of eroding share capital, a commoditized market, and growing competition. Within three years, I had saved the company about $45, 000 billion through a five-year plan. Hence, I firmly believe that my calling at the General Motors has been well served. Regrettably, I plan to retire from my CEO position in a years’ time.

My hope, therefore, is for a smooth transition from my leadership to that of the next CEO. It is my opinion that the firm requires another transformative leader, who will supersede my ingenious ways of dealing with business-related challenges. For instance, it is essential for the next manager to have exceptional management skills, a visionary, and should have strong mentorship abilities. Furthermore, a sense of purpose is important for a leader. This will ensure that they have a goal for the organization, and are keen toe courage others to follow this goal. An example, the leader could be keen in encouraging employees to focus on the organization long term goals (Mitroff, 2016). A leader with such skills is critical to the continued success of this firm the person has the emotional intelligence and corporate knowledge to identify the strengths and weakness of the employees. Consequently, such a transformational leader will have empathy while developing the skills of every employee.mance transformational leader, which I believe will be of assistance to you in the selection of my replacement. (Rubin, 2013)For example, it can involve encouraging them to support corporate social responsibility efforts by the organization. Relatively, a leader who has the skills above will drive the firm to new heights of success. Thus, I urge you the Board of Directors to hire a transformational leader who will ensure the continuity of the profitability of General Motors. Below, I have outlined the characteristics of a high-performance transformational leader, which I believe will be of assistance to you in the selection of my

• Characteristics of a Transformative Leader
• Exceptional Management Skills

The incoming CEO should have the excellent management skills, such as time management. Additionally, the incoming manager should be vigorous, decisive, charismatic, and heroic in his firm’s administration. Essentially, the CEO should have integrity and the ability to motivate others. During my tenure as the leader in this firm, I have witnessed the advantages of possessing a forceful and charismatic persona (Avolio & Yammarino, 2013). For example, at the start of my period at the helm of the leadership pyramid, I decided to lay off 45, 000 employees to save the company money. Though the decision faced a lot of resistance, I stuck to it. In the end, I was right because I overturned the company losses into profits in less than three years; which prove the importance of time management. Transformational leaders also have to create a sense of excitement, and they also consider employees as individuals. The leader also has to support learning by creating a high performance team and work environment (Quinn, 1996).

Emotional Intelligence

As the term goes, emotional intelligence entails the ability of understanding one’s emotion and those of others. From a managerial point of view, emotional intelligence fervently contributes to the general requirements of a transformational leader. To correlate my opinion of the importance of excellent administration skills in a leader, I will urge you look into the research by the Claremont Graduate University on the effects of people skills on leadership quality. In the study, the researchers used “emotional intelligence” as the interpersonal skill and reviewed different leadership development programs for their efficiency (Den Harltog & Belchak, 2012). The researchers found adequate evidence to conclude that leaders who possess excellent people skills are more efficient than introvert managers are. Furthermore, managers with excellent interpersonal skills have a positive effect on their employees and lead to positive change in work behavior.

Mindfulness

The leader should also be mindful (Dhawan & Prior, 2017). This means that they are aware about the needs of those working under them, and are keen to support them. The leadership practice of a mindful leader involves someone who encourages team effort, and is willing to help weak members of the team. The leader has to be awareness about the negative forces around them, and their effects. This means that they will have the ability to regulate their emotional, mental and physical states as a way to attain more productivity. Behaviour is often based on thought and emotions, and this determine the effectiveness of a leader (Dhawan & Prior, 2017). If they are not influenced by their emotions or thoughts, the leader will not be effective.

Empathy

Through empathy, the respective leader will be able to understand and share not only his/her feelings but also the feelings of individuals that he/she interacts with (Rubin, 2013).

Self-Regulation

To a larger extent, ability to meet established targets largely depends on the level of self-regulation that a person has. As such, effective and result-oriented leaders are usually determined by the ability of concentrating on what is important. For instance, the process of searching for the CEO should involve evaluation on different subjects such as performance and response to feedback based on self-regulation skills (Rubin, 2013).

Motivation

A result-oriented CEO should not only be self-motivated but also have the ability to motivate the employees that he is in charge of. Regardless of the management challenges that the CEO might be facing, he/she should try to be a source of motivation that would lead to achievement of the stipulated results. A perfect example of a self-motivated employer and founder is Steve Jobs. According to Isaacson (2012), Steve Jobs led an organization that was not only built on exceptional leadership skills but had a higher degree of motivation that lead to the realization of positive and influential results. Leaders should have strong ideals and internalized values, and willing to sacrifice for the organization. They also focus on long term goals of an organization (Quinn, 1996).

Social Skills

Social skills make up essential components used in both communicating and interacting with one another. The interaction or communication might be either verbally or non-verbally through body movements and gestures. In respect to this, a good CEO needs to understand that human beings are always sociable creatures (Den Harltog & Belchak, 2012). In this regard, the CEO should embrace structures that would promote effective utilization of social skills to achieve organizational goals in the most appropriate way possible.

Self-awareness

To some extent, being a CEO is demanding especially on the fact that one has to dedicate most of his or her time in trying to find new ways by which he or she can help improving organizational standards and general relation with its clients (Rubin, 2013). As far as the aforementioned prospects are concerned, having a conscious knowledge of one’s character and feelings is critical especially in situations that elicit mixed reactions or those that might be emotional (Rubin, 2013). Just like any other leader CEO’s tend to experience turbulent times but when one is aware of him/ herself he or she can be at a better position of responding appropriately to a certain condition.

Integrated Lifestyle

The next CEO should have an integrated lifestyle. This means that his or her lifestyle should be moderate that is should comfortable accommodate the confines of the company (Den Harltog & Belchak, 2012). Ideally, he needs to present him or herself in a way that would create a conducive environment for interactions and development of business relationships that would be beneficial to the company.

In your search for the next CEO, therefore, you should settle for a manager with people skills just like Satya Nadella, the leader of Microsoft. Nadella possesses interpersonal skills such as time management, listening, team player and treating his employees with respect (Rubin, 2013). Consequently, in less than three years, Nadella had driven the corporation into profitability. For instance, Nadella organized layoffs to minimize the firm’s budget. He used his impeccable management skills to convince the employees of his vision through the layoffs. Surprisingly, the remaining workers are happy in their workplace. Furthermore, Shares of Microsoft have nearly doubled he took office as the CEO.

• A Strong Mentor System

Additionally, I believe that your choice in the next manager should have the ability to mentor the company employees to adapt to changes in the corporate world, which will ensure the continuity of success of General Motors (Den Harltog & Belchak, 2012). Hence, according to the Transformational Leadership Website, transformational leaders excel in formulating and executing mentoring programs that will model positive behavior. Consequently, the employees will develop strong values, which will result in high performances for their employees and provide intellectual stimulation (Riggio & Tan, 2013). For the next CEO to be effective in his duties, he should be aware of the changes in the business world. Consequently, such a leader will strive to teach new and existing employees of corporate behavior, resulting in their increased effectiveness. They should also be morally virtuous. This means that they should reason well, allowing them to make decicons on how to apply profesioal and moral virtues (George, 2015, pg 535)

The reason why I believe the next CEO should excel in mentorship was my experience when I took the leadership position. I led the firm into a culture transformation to lead the organization to success. For example, in the past, the company had more of a cost culture, but I changed it into a more of a customer culture that focuses on safety and quality. Furthermore, in my position as a CEO, I had a mentor who helped me sharpen my leadership skills. Additionally, I rolled out new values, which views the firm’s customers as our focus. Moreover, I underscored the importance of individual excellence to all the employees of General Motors. Hence, in my tenure, all employees underwent training programs to develop practical working skills. Furthermore, I refined reward and recognition programs that aimed to motivate employees into doing their best. As I write this briefing document, I can attest that the change of culture in the firm has yielded positive results.

Perhaps, one firm that best explains the importance of a transformative culture change is Google (Den Harltog & Belchak, 2012). The tech giant is driven by rules that stipulate successful managers, which are performance reviews, feedback surveys, and award systems. Google outlines that its leaders should be good coaches in presenting solutions to problems tailored to specific strengths of employees and be empowering in assigning challenging tasks to workers. Moreover, Google recognizes that a transformative leader should develop the careers of his staff. Hence, When Larry Page became the CEO of the firm in 2011; he had to make a culture change that was pulling the success of the company behind (Caldwell et al., 2012). For instance, unlike before, Paige focused on fewer designs that were well managed. Relatively, Paige has taught the organization to be decisive as there was too much bureaucracy before his era; the firm lost many employees to Facebook. Hence, it is essential for the next CEO to have the will to implement necessary mentorship programs.

• Focus on Scale and Goals: An Integrated Lifestyle

Finally, I urge you to find a manager who can balance between the needs of the firm, prioritize them, and set goals for achieving the objectives and his personal life (Peterson, Galvin, & Lange, 2012). Drawing from my experiences as the CEO at the business, I firmly believe that a manager who has a balance between the strategic plans of the company and his home life, (a leader who is flexible) will ensure the firm’s continued success (George, 2015, pg 533). For example, during the first few months at the helm of the company, I realized that I needed to steer an overhaul of operating culture at the GM. Consequently, with the help of my team, we laid down a strategic plan that focuses on the priorities required to lead the organization to profitability. Our strategic plan involved a pathway to earning lifetime loyalty from our customer. Additionally, it was our goal to increase the shareholder value (Rubin, 2013).

Furthermore, our strategic plan included respecting the employee’s life outside the company. Hence, the strategic plan stipulated that work should end on time as the employees have other priorities in their lives. I believe that an integrated life leads to a fulfilling life, which leads to higher performance of the employees (Avolio, & Yammarino, 2013).

Relatively, the value of a goal-focused manager who leads an integrated lifestyle is best exemplified by the late Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple. Inc. according to Jobs biographer, one of essential leadership qualities that he possessed was the laser-like focus. The autobiographer states that Jobs could identify the source of a company’s needs lay down a strategic plan, and stick to the strategy until the desired outcome was achieved (Isaacson, 2012, pg 56 ). The leader should be purpose driven and people driven, and not selfish. Moreover, Jobs invested his interests outside the workplace. According to his eulogy written by his sister, Jobs cultivated his outside interests, such as travel, gardening, and boats. As a result, he led Apple, Inc. from a failing business into one of the most successful tech giants in the world. Therefore, Board of Directors, the incoming CEO should lead an integrated lifestyle. According to Belasen (2000), the competing values framework can be used to determine the roles managers play in the organization. The leader can be a broker, who negotiates and presents ideas, or a coordinator who tries to minimizing conflict while prioritizing activities.

Recommendations

Through my period as the CEO of General Motors, I have learned the importance of a transformational leader in the position. The company requires a leader who is a revolutionist, a people person, and most importantly, objective because it is a multinational organization. I hope the characteristics I have outlined above have persuaded you enough on the kind of a manager that suitable for the job (Rubin, 2013).

As a result, I would propose to you to hire an individual who has the skills to forge a working team, foresee the needed changes, draft, implement a strategic plan, and drive the company to greater success. Furthermore, although not mandatory, I would propose to you to recruit from the current employees, who have proved themselves as transformational persons. Alternatively, you have the authority to outsource. Finally, choose a leader who is morally right, but also ethical. Moreover, ethical and social responsibility influences the decisions made by the leader . Trust me; a morally right leader will also be competent in his work. The critical issue to remember in the hiring process is the transformative character of a leader. Overall, I believe in your uferencesals. ger choose a manager that will steer the organi themselves as tranformational aft and implement a strategic plan,abilities to choose a manager that will steer the organization to the desired goals.