From a leadership point of view, what did Thomas Berry, author of Managing the Total Quality Transformation, mean when he said: "Too often management attempts to implement strategy by describing attitudes, however, management needs to take steps to influence the actions employees take."

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Effective leaders provide guidance, often in the physical "walk the talk" type of format. These leaders make sure that their actions correspond with a written vision or mission statement. Effective leaders communicate the values of the organization to their employees by translating the vision and mission into day-to-day activities. To do this effectively, leaders talk with customers, identify the organization's critical success factors, and share this information about the things the organization absolutely must do well in order to attract and retain customers. Creating alignment is essentially policy deployment, the step-by-step process of translating the organization's vision and mission into strategies supported by goals and objectives that in turn become work activities for the employees. Leaders ensure that the organization's vision, mission and strategies, goals and daily activities remain focused on these critical factors.

In order to create alignment, effective leaders practice Dr. Deming's point: Implement leadership. Knowing alignment is not created by wishful-thinking, effective leaders are the first to ask:

Does the employee know what he/she is supposed to do?
Does the employee have the means to determine whether or not he/she is doing the job correctly?
Does the employee have the authority and the means to correct the process when something is wrong?

Effective leaders are also the first to realize that if any of these questions go unanswered, chances are, fault lies with leadership, not with the employees. To help create alignment, effective leaders carefully design employee policies supporting the links between the critical success factors identified by their customers and the employees' day-to-day activities. Effective leaders set realistic goals for their employees and give timely rewards to those who meet these goals. Leaders seek out employees' ideas and actively support the good ones. Very few people are truly good listeners, effective leaders have learned to listen to their employees. It helps to keep in mind that the same letters spell the words "listen" and "silent.". Leaders also place a high priority on expanding employee capabilities and responsibilities through education and training.