Improving Standards and Quality in your Organisation

TARGETED STANDARDS LEVELS	HOW TO ACHIEVE THEM
Leadership: Lead your team towards total quality management by constantly improving every process and project.	Ensure that all staff strive towards continuous improvement in all aspects of performance and recognise and appreciate individuals for the success of their efforts.
Strategy: Seek to develop business strategy and vision, uphold organisation vision mission statement and direction.	Determine business objectives; aim to reach the highest quality standards; communicate aims clearly to everyone; review and update your business strategy aims regularly.
People: Ensure effective staff management motivation and empower staff to continuously improve performance	Train all staff in the skills and capabilities they need to meet quality standards targets and practise two-way communication, top-down and bottom-up through available media.
Resources: Use financial and other resources efficiently to achieve the organisations’ objectives.	Ensure efficient financial control, ensure everyone understands what is happening, and consistently use the best up dated technology.
Processes: Ensure that all vital business processes including management systems are consistently highly effective.	Develop performance measures and feedback channels, maintain improvement momentum, and stimulate staff to formulate, innovate and create ideas to company operations.

Tips for managers

1 Always strive to preach top quality and to practise improvement to your staff.

2 Ensure that you involve all staff in quality promotion and maintenance schemmes.

3 Maintain a culture of exceeding standards as a going work philosophy of your company

Learning from Others

Do you know that every successful singer has a singing coach; it is the same for leaders, they must have leaders who coach them and then they develop those skills to coach others?

Tips for managers

1 Take advantage of colleagues’ expertise in specific areas to broaden your own skills.

2 Always be on the look-out for chances to learn valuable lessons from others.

3 Take a refresher course if you feel you need to brush up on rusty or out-dated skills.

4 Use coaching sessions to learn as well as to teach.

5 Set an example to your staff by attending training courses yourself.

6 Learn new skills and develop existing ones, use your knowledge for the benefit of others.

Gaining Experience

In the past promotion to leadership positions used to depend on rising up the company hierarchy. Now project work is the shortest and the surest way of gaining valuable experience and avoid the catch 22 situation of NO job no Experience, and No experience No job in which many young university leavers and aspiring young managers find themselves.

Tips for gaining Valuable Experience. 84

1 Use project-work as a way to learn more about other business management skills.

2 Make friends with people in different departments and get to know how they operate.

Skills that can be learned through project work are:

a) How to approach a project;

b) How to communicate objectives;

c) Where to acquire and get resources;

d) How to put resources to best use;

e) How to liaise with other departments;

f) How to negotiate deals successfully;

g) How to monitor performance;

h) How to trouble-shoot problems;

d) How to achieve project goals.

If you replace the word Business for the word Project on the above list you will see that you have learnt how to manage different business activities.

Mastering Different Business Roles

Leadership is a multi-dimensional task requiring wide knowledge and understanding of many organisational goals, roles and possession of efficient skills of handling people in different circumstances.

You should realise that a Leaders’ role differs significantly from that of Manager.

A manager focuses on implementing specific tasks and motivating staff to achieve short term goals.

A leader focuses on long-term strategies identifying and directing wider organisational goals which are then reduced to short term goals to be dealt with by manager.

Types of Leaders

First of all you must decide what type of leader you are. Are you the “Man on Horseback” which is a military model of leader, or are you the “First among Equals” “Primus inter Pares” type of a leader which is a collegiate model of leadership? The collegiate model is increasingly winning in modern business leadership styles because it promotes a sense of togetherness and unity and promotes motivation within an organisation. Working with genuine colleagues demands the same behaviour from everyone whether you are the leader or not, it encourages respect from expertise rather than seniority, rank or authority.

The First among Equals type of leadership is formalised in German business circles, where the chief executive is called the [(man) Spokesperson] of the management board.

This approach is spreading in the world because many minds are more powerful than a single mind. In this model of leadership a pool of shared talent is created and an environment of open total communication exists where all staff are consulted before important decisions are taken

As a collegiate leader you do not engage in internal politics, but you focus on what will achieve the organisations’ goals and objectives, because everyone benefits from a job well done. If colleagues seriously disagree about something, you as the leader, should intervene to discover and resolve the disagreement.

Tips for collegiate leadership

1 Always be ready to allow others to take lead when that is appropriate.

2 Remember, everyone in an organisation or team can think differently about the same idea.

3 Always seek to defuse emotions before tackling conflicts between staff.

4 Be fair, don’t treat everyone the same, but treat them the way they deserve to be treated.

5 Make decisions quickly if that is possible, and act on advice and follow the stages below:

a) Identify the objectives of any decision you make; c) analyse all relevant factors; d) consider alternatives; e) select and plan the best option; f) implement the decision and; g) evaluate the results.

LEADER’S TASKS MANAGER’S TASKS. 86

To administer the organisation.	To implement tasks.
To originate ideas for the organisation.	To copy ideas and implement them.
To develop strategies for the organisation.	To maintain momentum of production.
To inspire trust in the employees.	To control and manage the organisation.
To think long term about the organisation.	To think short term on company goals.
To ask what and why organisational questions.	To ask how and when company questions.
To watch the organisation business horizon.	To watch the bottom-line for the company.
To challenge the organisation status quo.	To accept the status quo of the organisation.
To be original in thinking.	To become a good soldier and follow orders.
To do the right thing for the organisation	To do things right and correctly.

However, in real life both roles sometimes can merge and are common to both managers and leaders. The difference between them is on the emphasis of scope tasks which distinguish the roles.

As a leader you must:

1 Think carefully about the best way to behave in every situation.

2 Concentrate on getting things done and not showing that you the one in charge.

3 Be creative, devising processes, streamlining activities, increasing company efficiency.

4 Use more face to face communication than memos and circulars.

5 Keep open channels of communication with inter-dependent departments.

6 Keep a checklist of key leadership duties and ensure they are fulfilled.

7 Always look beyond the detail and consider the bigger picture. (Think outside the Box).

8 Always embrace the phenomenon of change as a leader.

9 The greater your expertise the more authority you will have. (Always widen your expertise).

Ask your self the following questions about your leadership qualities:

1. Do I communicate directly with my team and other departments?

2. Am I sure that every member of my team understands their roles?

3. Am I setting sufficiently ambitious goals for myself and my staff?

4. Do I have in-place procedures that allow me to monitor my teams’ progress?

5. Am I constantly looking for new ways to improve efficiency and productivity?