![\"\"](\"http:\/\/visioneering-ak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/qualityManagement.jpg\" "\\"qualityManagement\\"")
<\/a>Quality is one of those things which may be hard to define. Someone once said \u201cI can\u2019t define quality, but I know it when I see it\u201d. That\u2019s the way it is with quality management\/leadership. So, instead of developing a universal definition, we will look at traits and behaviors of folks and let you develop your own definition. I\u2019d be interested in what you come up with.<\/p>\nBoss\/Manager: <\/strong>The term manager, leader and boss are often used interchangeably. However, their roles and behaviors are dramatically different. A boss is one that commands and controls. To \u201cboss someone around\u201d is not complementary, but derogatory and degrading. Bosses direct and order others about, instead of managing and leading. They set the standards, check the work and create a tense atmosphere. They use coercion, stimulus- reward and fear as their motivational technique. The undercurrent thinking is that managers and leaders always get what they want plus a little more. Getting what you want plus some, does not define a boss, manager or leader.<\/p>\n Webster\u2019s definition for manager is, \u201cA person who manages\u201d. This only tells us what a manager does, and not their characteristics. So, let\u2019s look at the definition for manage. Manage, according to Webster is \u201cTo train, to control movement or behavior of, to have charge of, to direct, conduct and administer\u201d. You can see with words like \u2018control, have charge, direct\u2019, that many folks think managers and bosses are the same. A manager however, is not the same as a boss.<\/p>\n The main difference between a manager and a boss is in the areas of administration, conduct and training of subordinates. Some people are in management positions, but do a lot of bossing. Why? Most managers and other folks firmly believe that people can be made, through a reward, punishment and fear system to do what they want them to do. Remember Dr. Glasser\u2019s statement in the unit on \u2018Understanding Yourself and Others\u2019, \u201cYou can\u2019t make someone do what they don\u2019t want to do<\/em>\u201d? My addendum to his statement is, \u201cyou can, but not for very long, and not without a lot of lost production, frustrations and emotional tramua\u201d.<\/p>\n Quality Manager\/Leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n There are many definitions for leader. Even if you don\u2019t have a finite definition for one, you probably have a picture of one in your mind which you try to emulate. Commonly, a leader is thought to be someone that directs and commands a group or activity. Someone that is strong, charismatic, forceful and energetic, in other words not a leader, but a boss or manager similar to an athletic coach or military person. Webster\u2019s definition for leader is \u201cto show the way (teach), to go before or along with as with a guide\u201d. Notice no coercion or \u201ccarrot and stick technique\u201d or fear, but instead teaching and guiding. Another definition for \u2018leader\u2019 is pioneer or shepherd.<\/p>\n Quality managers\/leaders teach, go before and show the way, similar to a pioneer or shepherd. Alaska is enamored with the pioneer spirit. That spirit was one of understanding and helping. Pioneers understood they were \u201cbreaking new ground\u201d, and that conditions were rugged at best, to say nothing about being cold. Since everyone was in the same environment, helping one another was a necessity. Helping one another was practiced because you know at sometime in the future you would also need help. However, with the passage of time our pioneering spirit of helping is diminishing.<\/p>\n John P. Kotter in his book \u2018Leading Change\u2019<\/em><\/strong> points out that leadership and management are two distinct yet complementary systems of actions. The following summary points out some of those differences.<\/p>\n Along the same lines of Mr. Kotter\u2019s contrast between manager and leader, Mr. Warren Bennis, quoting Sir William Sims, in \u2018Training\u2019 <\/em><\/strong>magazine lists the following contrasts:<\/p>\n Here are some traits for quality manager\/ leaders as presented by Toastmasters Inc.<\/p>\n Note how all three authors emphasized the importance of vision. Quality managers\/ leaders are folks that engage people in honest discussions. They listen and ask advice. They respect the individual. Here\u2019s a little acrostic which summaries characteristics of a quality leader.<\/p>\n A leader is one who:<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s look at a couple examples why the stimulus\/response motivational technique doesn\u2019t work for long. Let\u2019s say your two year old child refuses to eat their peas and carrots. You say \u201cif\/when you eat them, you will get a treat\u201d. The treat is usually dessert. The first time the stimulus may work. However, the next time around it doesn\u2019t go as you had hoped. Of course the child knows the treat is dessert, and continues to be obstinate and not eat the peas and carrots. The drama continues and escalates. Your stimulus changes from something pleasant to a demand. I said \u201ceat your peas and carrots\u201d! The two year old continues to escalate the drama even more, and finally they wear you down. The child gets the dessert, but skips the peas and carrots. Stimulus\/response doesn\u2019t work for two year olds or anyone else.<\/p>\n Most public school systems use the stimulus\/response technique. For example, if you correctly regurgitate on a test what was said in the lectures you will get a gold star or even an \u201cA\u201d. You may not have learned anything of value, but just relied on short term memory to pass a test. Schools fail when students are coerced to learn using stimulus\/response) rather than leading, mentoring and demonstrating how education adds quality to one\u2019s life. The learning process is a continual process, and isn\u2019t limited to scholastics. The quality of life for many students would be enhanced by leading, mentoring, and demonstrating. We must also assist folks in taking their place in society through trades ,vocations and careers. (Note: quality of life is not dependent on wealth, good health, position or pedigree, but on learning, helping and trusting relationships.)<\/p>\n The stimulus\/ response technique is deeply ingrained in our psyche, even though it doesn\u2019t work. Instead of mentoring, demonstrating and educating it relies on insentive ( greed) as the motivator.<\/p>\n Enough philosophy, take a look at a contemporary quality leader which changed the entire corporate culture of Japan, and impacted how the U.S. does business, while doing away with the stimulus\/response technique. Prior to World War II, Japan was noted for manufacturing cheap, imitation products. The United States, after the war, sent Dr. W. Edwards Deming to aid Japan in rebuilding their economy. His focus and vision was transforming that nation into a world leader for producing quality products. He instituted a process which focused on employees, training and empowering the work force. His book titled \u2018Out of the Crisis\u2019<\/em><\/strong> discusses his famous Fourteen Points for obtaining consistent quality.<\/p>\n Dr. Deming was a statistician and employed data in monitoring processes. His model does away with the traditional stimulus\/ response style of management. He pointed out producing quality is a continuous circular, four step process.<\/p>\n Plan-Do-Check-Act:<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Deming also demonstrated that by training employees in the process, empowering them, driving out fear, and keeping relevant data in front of the employees, resulted in consistent quality. My thinking at one time concerning production and quality consisted of only three words, which you had to know ‘\u00a0forwards and backward’. They were \u201cPlan your work \/ work your plan\u201d. It wasn\u2019t until the last two of Dr.Deming\u2019s four steps (check and act) were incorporated that continuous quality improvement materialized.<\/p>\n Dr. Deming\u2019s fourteen \u201cmust do\u2019s\u201d, and his seven \u201cdeadly diseases\u201d (listed below) point out, what leaders must inculcate in order to insure continuous quality improvement. These points are dramatically shown in his \u201cred bead\u201d drama\/ exercise. Dr. Deming in this exercise, takes the role of the typical response\/stimulus manager. The workers (randomly selected from the audience) are given thorough training in the process of \u201cmaking red beads, not white ones\u201d. Bead counters and inspectors record the number of red beads each \u201cemployee\u201d makes.<\/p>\n The process is to correctly insert a paddle into a basin of thoroughly mixed one hundred red and one hundred white beads. The paddle holds only a fixed number of beads. The paddle is removed from the basin by the employee, and the red beads are counted. The employee with the greatest number of red beads after three rounds of effort is rewarded. The employee with the lowest number is fired. The employees, after each round, are once again trained and told the job was to produce \u201cred beads not white ones\u201d. Obviously, no matter how hard the employees tried the process always gave random results. Training, rewards, or the fear of being fired made no difference. Employees had no say in the process, even though they knew it was flawed.<\/p>\n Dr. Deming explains his management theory of quality and continuous improvement by showing that processes are what must be improved. Each and every process must be documented and religiously followed. This results in consistent quality, than \u2018Plan, Do, Check Act\u2018 again and again. The process and empowerment of employees are what eliminates costly and unnecessary rework of products, and results in consist quality.<\/p>\n Dr. Deming didn\u2019t much care for the term \u2018Quality Management\u2019, he preferred \u2018Quality Leadership\u2019. His entire life style was that of a servant leader and not just a quality\/leader. He developed a fourteen points list of actions which leaders \u2018must do\u2019 in order to insure continual quality improvement. He also formulated the \u2018seven deadly diseases\u2019, which are fatal to any organization.<\/p>\n Fourteen \u201cmust do\u2019s\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Seven Deadly Diseases<\/strong><\/p>\n Look at the U.S. economy today and you can see how the ‘ seven deadly diseases” have infested our corporate business processses. The Deming Library has a\u00a0full selection of videos and DVD\u2019s, including the Red Bead scenario. Check it out on the web. ( www.managementwisdom.com\/drdemvid<\/a>)<\/p>\n You\u2019re probably asking yourself, \u201cIf quality management\/leadership is so good why isn\u2019t it used more\u201d?? There are two simple reasons. The first being it\u2019s hard to change old habits, because it takes time and a lot of effort. Secondly the big one, Greed or wanting\/getting more now! A friend of mine once described greed. \u201cGet all you can, can all you get, and then sit on the can\u201d. That\u2019s greed pure and simple, and it has no part in quality management\/leadership.<\/p>\n The next Chapter is the one all the other units have been building up to ‘ Servant Leadership’<\/span><\/a>. To return to the previous chapter click here. Understanding yourself and others.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" QUALITY MANAGEMENT\/ LEADERSHIP Quality is one of those things which may be hard to define. Someone once said \u201cI can\u2019t define quality, but I know it when I see it\u201d. That\u2019s the way it is with quality management\/leadership. So, instead of developing a universal definition, we will look at traits and behaviors of folks and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-415","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/visioneering-ak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/visioneering-ak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/visioneering-ak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/visioneering-ak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/visioneering-ak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/visioneering-ak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":438,"href":"http:\/\/visioneering-ak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/415\/revisions\/438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/visioneering-ak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nworkers as worthless.<\/li>\n
\ntraining prohibit it.<\/li>\n
\nperspective.<\/li>\n\n