For the fourth year in a row, the Automotive News staff has selected Mary Barra as CEO of the year, this time on a global basis.

You might think she won by default. After all, one of her competitors died midyear. The others included Jim Hackett, Carlos Ghosn and Elon Musk.

But it's more accurate to say Barra won by acclamation.

CEOs face an unforgiving grading rubric in this industry. Everyone is an expert, a veteran, a critic. Everyone has seen it all before and knows exactly how to fix it.

Amid all this chatter, Barra has stayed resolutely on course, diversified management while keeping the egos on her executive team in check, taken calculated risks, rallied the work force and delivered on key business objectives. Look around the industry, and you'll see how hard all of that is.

A couple of decades ago, a GM CEO's mandate was to find a way to compete. A decade ago, it was to find a way to survive. Today, Barra has defined GM's mission as nothing less than leading and winning, no matter what the future brings.

Big talk, for sure. But it doesn't sound so crazy anymore.

Barra's task will get harder as economic cycles turn and the demands of leadership escalate. She has been frank about the need to control costs, even when rich profits seemed to undermine her case. The next few years could prove as challenging as her crisis-plagued first.

But if she can again steer the company through a storm and over its cursed past, she will cement her legacy as one of the most consequential CEOs in GM history — and not by default.