The Fortune 500 company I choose is General Motors. The current CEO of GM is Mary Barra. Mary has been the CEO of GM since 2014. She was the first woman to lead one of the 3 biggest automakers in the United States. Mary first started her career as a co-op student at GM and worked her way to the top. Forbes has listed her as one of the most powerful women in the world and made the cover of Times Magazine for one of the most influential people in the world.

Mary is known for her inclusive leadership style, and she intentionally seeks input from others and empowers others to have a say. She is also known for her transformational leadership (Study Smarter, 2020). Transformational leaders inspire others and have an extraordinary impact on followers (Langton, et al., 2023). This is evident in her mission to have zero crashes and zero emissions so they can save lives and the planet (General Motors, 2023). The principles of her leadership are inclusion, empowerment, results orientated, determination, and understanding business.

Rick Wagoner was GM's previous CEO. Rick graduated from Harvard with an MBA. Post-graduation he began working for GM in the treasurers office, then spent time in the international plants as a CFO (Brazil, Canada, Switzerland). In 2000 he became the CEO at age 47, the youngest CEO GM has ever had (Time Magazine, 2010). Ricks leadership style was described as factual, using sense, patience, and gentleness. He was known for his confidence and optimism. He was not an autocratic leader as he rarely commanded others what to do. He had more of a laissez-faire leadership style (Smith, 2006). Ricks tenure was not very successful as GM was going through a difficult time. The stock dropped from $70 to $4 a share, and they faced many layoffs and plant shutdowns. Under his leadership, GM seemed to miss every trend (Forbes, 2009).

Both Mary and Rick share the leadership qualities of confidence and optimistic. However, Mary is a more engaging and empowering leader that inspires others. Where Rick was more of a laid-back laissez-faire leader, which likely was not empowering or inspiring.

Key Leadership Traits

Hard worker	Inspire others and will work to overcome obstacles and accomplish the goals of the organization
Optimistic	Helps to encourage accomplishing goals and encourage future goals
Empowering	Increases worker satisfaction and increases productivity and loyalty
Knowledge	Know the ins and the outs of the business to make informed decisions
Ethical	Provides a good environment for workers and fosters a safe and trusting culture.

Please provide IN-TEXT Citations as well as credible references with the response. Thanks!