12 Leading Quality
12 Leading Quality
Leading quality
Leadership in a quality-focussed organization
Practices of quality leadership
Building sustainable performance excellence
Strategic
Planning
Operations
Leadership (processes)
Customer and
Market Focus
Leading Quality - Best Practices
• Create a customer-focused strategic vision and clear quality values
• Create and sustain leadership system and environment for
empowerment, innovation, and organizational learning
• Set high expectations and demonstrate personal commitment and
involvement in quality
• Integrate quality values into daily leadership and management and
communicate extensively
• Integrate public responsibilities and community support into business
practices
Leading Quality - Best Practices
• Toyota team leaders report to front-line supervisors who lead a group of four
teams or 20 workers, who oversee team leaders, production planning and
performance and weekly 5-S audit of their teams’ work areas.
Executive Leaders
Role Support Activities
Strategy Defines and communicates business directions
Performance Ensures goals are met
Reviews business plans and takes action
Receives and provides honest feedback
Seeks feedback from customers
Workplace Creates enjoyable work environment
Provides a system of motivation, empowerment and engagement
Recognizes employee contribution
Ensures employees are effective contributors
Providing Resources Ensures middle management are able
Seeks feedback from suppliers
Leadership System
• The leadership system refers to how leadership is exercised throughout a company,
including how key decisions are made, communicated, and carried out at all levels. It
has mechanisms for leadership development and provides guidance regarding behaviors
and practices.
• An effective leadership system creates
• clear values
• sets high expectations for performance and performance improvements,
• builds loyalties and teamwork,
• encourages initiative and risk taking, and
• subordinates organization to purpose and function.
• The leadership system supports the vision, mission and values of the business, and
provides the basis for a focus on both:
• customer-driven quality, and
• operational performance excellence
SHORT CASE: THE POWER OF LEADERSHIP TEAMS
Feedback
Change Actions or effects Team Actions
New structure Management leadership team Common Structure,
purpose Internal customer focus
Internal customer focus One day sessions
New functional management system Performance New criteria and assessment
Open performance data
New processes Expanded decision criteria Development and training plans with goals
Team roles and responsibilities developed Mutually Team roles and responsibilities developed
accountable Common work plans
One day sessions – strategy and operations Managers also champions for improvement
Common work plans Delegation of plant’s operations
Goal clarity Roles and responsibilities developed
Delegation of plant’s operations Problem solving focus
New culture Managers also champions for improvement Work plan goals
Beneficial Balanced participation
New performance criteria and assessment team Clear communication
Open performance data behavior Established ground rules
Established Use of scientific approach (data driven)
Development and training plans with goals rules Well defined decision procedures
Outside consultants to provide objectivity
Quality Leadership system
Kearn’s approach can be applied to other settings, but would need modifications;
• Behaviors and their alignment with leadership styles important.
• Beginning with directing and coaching and as successful - delegate
• Requires elements of transactional and transformational leadership styles.
Summary
• Culture reflects the leadership of the organization therefore leadership is
important for initiating the change to quality and to sustaining it.
• Leadership theories provide an understanding of leader behaviours and
what works in the circumstances.
• More traditional leadership focuses on a person’s traits or competencies.
• More recent leadership theory relies on leaders understanding situations
and their workers and acting accordingly, using a mix of transactional and
transformational approaches.
• Ultimately managers have the power to decide how they act and which
leadership behaviours to adopt that facilitate quality process and
practices within their organization.