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Everybody should be aware about quality improvement, it is no longer ‘alien’ in this modern management perspective. Leadership is one of the essential elements in quality improvement. The intention of this article is to briefly discuss leadership as it applies to the understanding and implementation of quality improvement. In this regards, leadership has specific implications for the senior managers embarking on a quality journey. This article will try to describe these implications and suggestions actions that senior managers can take to enhance the likelihood of success.

So what is Leadership all about? and what it has to do with quality improvement?.  There are many definitions and explanations the term leadership, for this article we simply use:

“The ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.”

House, R. J. (2004). Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks.

Leadership relates to quality improvement. When implementing quality improvement program, several fundamental activities must be accomplished by the senior management team. These senior managers bear ultimate responsibility for the success of the organization and, by virtue of their positions, have the authority to set direction, establish policy, allocate resources, and select the markets in which the firm will participate. These individuals are responsible to their customers, their employees, and ultimately their shareholders for the success of the enterprise.

As a matter of fact quality management requires skills in both leadership and management. The difference between these two skills sets is stated succinctly by Warren Bennis:

“Leaders are people who do the right things, managers are people who do things right ….many are under-led and over-managed. They do not pay enough attention to doing the right things, while paying too much attention to doing things right.”

The distinction between management and leadership is that leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group that they follow, for example a leader is the spearhead for that new direction while the management controls or directs people and resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established.

In other words, leaders lead the way for quality improvement while managers organize the path for to ensure its on the right track. There is no doubt that leadership involvement is much needed. Leaders build commitment. They assure that everyone understands the organization’s mission, vision, values, and goals. They inspire confidence to the people in actively participate in the quality improvement process.