Perspectives
Managing excellence:
leadership
Mohamed Zairi
The author
Mohamed Zairi is SABIC Chair of Best Practice
Management, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK.
Keywords
Awards, Benchmarking, Leadership, TQM
Abstract
Managing excellence is a very hot topic presently and
there is a proliferation of articles and books on what
excellence is and how it can be achieved. This paper is
part of a series addressing the topic of Business
Excellence from a practical evidence-based approach. The
thoroughness of the study is reflected by both the number
of model organisations which were analysed but also by
the very comprehensive catalogue of Best Practices found
to be the key drivers that have resulted in the covered
organisations' overall performance in the market place.
Each of the nine papers concludes with a useful checklist
for senior executives and other managers concerned to
assess and measure the effectiveness of their ``processes''
from the point of view of excellence but also maturity.
The TQM Magazine
Volume 11 . Number 4 . 1999 . pp. 215±220
# MCB University Press . ISSN 0954-478X
215
1. Why is leadership important?
The word leadership crops up in all discus-
sions related to organisational issues and
indeed study after study, experience after
experience, have all acknowledged that
leadership is always the key driver for change,
effective performance and organisational
access.
One of the best ways to appreciate the true
meaning of effective leadership is to look at
the experience of successful organisations
such as Motorola. One of the most admired
organisations for its continued success.
Motorola has consistently demonstrated how
it can put in place all the necessary conditions
for operating not only towards survival but
how it could thrive and dominate in global
markets. Its sales in 1995 increased 22
percent to $27 billion from $22.2 billion in
1994. Its earnings were $1.78 billion, com-
pared with $1.56 billion the year before
(1994).
Motorola has been described as: ``Titan of
TQM, epitome of empowerment, tribune of
training, icon of innovation, price of profits
a big Company that sizzles'' (1997).
Motorola is, perhaps, one of the very few
organisations that has clearly demonstrated
that it drives its vision with clear intent; it
manages itself through renewal; it engages the
energies of all of its employees and it does not
compromise on quality. Their six-sigma
philosophy has been a service of inspiration to
thousands of organisations all over the world.
Michael Winston of Motorola (1997) ar-
gues that at the best of his organisation's
success is a passion and desire to improve
quality, to have openness to new ideas, to
engage people in challenging the status quo
and to approve the need for self-renewal and
organisational change. As he puts it:
An organisation's ability to conceptualise and
manage change ± to compete from the inside out
by increasing its capacity for change ± has
become a competitive advantage in itself.
He goes on to say:
Motorola encourages the reinvention of the
company by delivering a consistent message on
the need to change, a high intensity and
consistent focus on markets, customers and
competition; consistent benchmarking, and en-
couraging and rewarding the creation of new
industries, not simply new products.
 Managing excellence: leadership
Mohamed Zairi
2. Zooming in on unique leadership
practices
The following practices are those that have
made Motorola the successful organisation it
is, and they all form the basis of searching for,
nurturing, developing and empowering senior
managers to lead with renewal and convic-
tion, and to create long lasting impacts:
. To establish and sustain the proactive,
innovative culture of the organisation.
. To develop an atmosphere of trust and
mutual support.
. To stress on reciprocal loyalty and mutual
respect.
. To focus on achieving standards of
excellence through plentifying new po-
tentials.
. To seek out new avenues of opportunity
and activating the human spirit.
. To be able to find and nurture cham-
pions, dramatising goals and direction
building skills and teams, and spreading
irresistible enthusiasm.
. To encourage, excite, teach, listen and
facilitate.
. To have actions which are consistent.
. To communicate unshakeable core values.
. To reflect unleashing energy, freeing,
building and supporting.
. To lead through ability and willingness to
empower their followers.
. To lead by virtue of caring deeply for
their followers.
. To establish a vision and communicate it
so that people link their activities to
corporate objectives.
. To act as supporters, resource providers,
obstacle removers, facilitators, consul-
tants and team builders.
. To generate commitment not compliance.
. To act as custodians of the systems of the
organisation.
. To have a heart for people and a head for
the business.
. To focus on performance planning and
enhancement rather than performance
appraisal.
In addition, Motorola is found to place a lot
of emphasis on 3608 feedback initiatives so
feedback can be received from a four-direc-
tional process involving managers, peers,
subordinates and customers. Further, each
senior executive is expected to declare a
``legacy-leaving'' which they would like their
entire career to be measured on.
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Volume 11 . Number 4 . 1999 . 215±220
3. Leadership as a corporate process
Perhaps it is right to suggest that if organisa-
tions are to compete effectively during the
next millennium period, not only will they
have to equip themselves but in addition, they
will have to renew themselves by challenging
the status quo and re-examining their corpo-
rate leadership process. This of course will
mean that not only have they got to challenge:
existing culture and climate; job appropriate-
ness, flexibility, adaptability and knowledge;
policies, procedures, systems and rules of
performance; technology and its role as an
enabler. In addition however, leaders will be
expected to fundamentally re-examine the full
and entire leadership process to take into
account: consumer and customer aspects;
electronic commerce and the information age;
knowledge not as a commodity but a capital
asset; globalisation; market orientation.
Puri (1998) suggests for instance that there
are ten imperatives for success which, he
argues, are fundamental to competitiveness
during the new millennium and beyond:
(1) Commitment to purpose ± share
management.
(2) Future scanning ± integrative operability.
(3) Dynamic customer orientation ± self-
directed systems.
(4) Operational competencies ± operational
simplicity.
(5) Quality excellence ± continuous training.
(6) Personal excellence ± process improve-
ment focus.
(7) Continual improvement mindset ±
performance monitoring.
(8) Concurrent reengineering ± worker-
driver processes.
(9) Credibility passion ± fear-free
environment.
(10) Sensible management ± supportive
culture.
This useful checklist together with the list of
best practices found to be advocated by
Motorola are conveying a similar message in
that leadership:
. is a process;
. is a total process;
. process is concerned with simplicity;
. process is concerned with integration;
. process is a renewal process;
. is a creative process;
. is an invigorating process.
 Managing excellence: leadership
Mohamed Zairi
4. Benchmarking leadership process
One of the best methods to assess the
effectiveness of the leadership process is to
use criteria of excellence from prestigious
quality models such as the Malcolm Balridge
National Quality Award (MBNQA) and the
European Quality Award model (EQA).
A. MBNQA leadership assessment
criteria
. Senior leaders' personal leadership and
involvement in creating and sustaining
values, organisation directions, perfor-
mance expectations, customer focus, and
a leadership system that promotes per-
formance excellence.
. How the values and expectations are
integrated with the company's leadership
system, including how the company
continuously learns and improves and
how it addresses its societal responsibil-
ities and community involvement.
B. EQA leadership assessment criteria
. How the behaviour and actions of the
executive team and all other leaders
inspire, support and promote a culture of
total quality management.
This benchmarking exercise represents a
comprehensive study of best practices found
to be applied in a wide range of model
organisations, including for instance winners
of the aforementioned quality awards and
others. The list of organisations analysed
includes:
(1) UK:
. Royal.
. ICL.
. Elida Faberge Ltd.
. Quadrant.
. ICL High Performance Technology.
. Rover Group.
. Ulster Carpet Mills.
. Mortgage Express.
. BT Northern Ireland.
(2) EQA winners:
. D2D.
. Rank Xerox Ltd.
. Texas Instruments Europe.
. TNT Express.
. Nortel Ltd.
(3) MBNQA:
. Motorola.
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Volume 11 . Number 4 . 1999 . 215±220
. Milliken.
. Cadillac.
. Wallace Co. Ltd.
. Federal Express.
. IBM Rochester.
. Zytec.
. Marlow Industries.
. Solectron.
. Texas Instruments.
. AT&T.
. The Ritz Carlton.
. Granite Rock Company.
. Wainwright Industries.
. GTE Directories.
. Westinghouse.
Examples from the catalogue of best practices
obtained are illustrated in Appendix I for
the UK and EQA winners/finalists and in
Appendix II for the MBNQA winners/
finalists.
5. Managing excellence through
effective leadership
The analysis of the comprehensive range of
best practices, examples of which are illu-
strated in Appendix I and II, conveys a similar
message. Not only do these practices refer to
leadership as a total integrated process which
drives corporate performance, but they do
also indicate that effective leadership is about
propelling organisations to greater heights
and better achievement and a continuous
process of self-examination and renewal.
The checklist (Appendix III), derived from
the work of Blazey (1997) and specifically
adapted, represents a useful instrument for
practitioners to check that other leadership
processes form the point of view of previous
discussions in this paper (i.e. totality, simpli-
city, integration, etc.).
References
Blazey, M.L. (1997), Insights to Performance Excellence,
Quality Press, ASQC, Milwaukee, WI.
Puri, S.C. (1998), ``The second renaissance: ten
imperatives of competitive success in the new
millennium'', ASQ's 52nd Annual Quality
Congress Proceeding, May 4-6, Philadelphia, MA,
pp. 47-52.
Winston, M. (1997) ``Leadership of renewal: leadership
for the twenty-first century'', Global
Management, American Management Association,
pp. 31-3.
 Managing excellence: leadership
Mohamed Zairi
Appendix I
Table AI. Best practices from analysis of full quality award submissions
Category Royal Mail
1a Visible MD and executive team
involvement committed to a new way of
in leading working which was called
total quality Customer First.
Commitment from the top
was visible through the
mission/values display in all
2,000 units, independent
measurement of
performance as a business,
comprehensive training and
re-skilling programme for all
employees, managers at
each level leading their
teams in initial training and
quality improvement
projects, executive teams in
all units using the tools and
techniques of TQM and
have a direct involvement in
them, managers taking part
in more than 1,500
guidance groups and
communication cascades
which enable all managers
to lead the teams they
support through changes
such as team briefing.
Leadership charter specifies
the actions and behaviours
expected of managers in
support of the mission and
values.
The effective leadership
feedback process has been
completed to deploy the
leadership charter and
upward feedback and
leadership improvement
system.
The effective leadership
feedback process provides
aggregate feedback to the
employee steering group.
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Volume 11 . Number 4 . 1999 . 215±220
ICL Manufacturing Division
Support of entire
management team, the
managing director, senior and
middle managers and
supervisors was essential to
the improved performance
and higher customer
satisfaction.
Face to face communication is
a key feature with the MD
talking to the whole
workforce in small groups of
50 people at least once per
year. Seven meetings per day
starting with the first shift
and going through to
10.30pm. Staff express their
views and listen to the MD.
Formal cascade process is
used for announcements on
organisational changes,
company news, quality results,
customer feedback and quality
training. Managers and
supervisors gather their staff
together and make the
announcement with questions/
answers prepared to assist
the managers.
Managers take responsibility
for finding answers to
questions which staff raise
and cannot be resolved
immediately.
Online satellite broadcasts are
used where appropriate and
staff not able to see the
broadcast are given a video
the next day.
ICL Way defines seven
commitments which are
required of all employees. It
also defines the obligations
of every manager to develop
and apply.
218
D2D
Management has shown
leadership by being among
the first in Europe to gain
ISO 9000, apply for EQA, use
scorecards with customers
and pilot the environmental
standard BS 7750.
Management commitment to
quality includes commitment
to the Business Model. The
EFQM covers everything they
do and all management use
it as the business model to
benchmark and measure
TQM performance.
Commitment to zero defects
which is the target for all
products. Zero defect days
are held at sites where the
MD and GMs give
presentations to employees,
customers and suppliers to
show the importance of and
commitment to total quality.
Continuous emphasis of
quality with everyone being
trained in some quality
related initiative every year.
Annual kick off events are
held by the MD where he
talks to every employee in
small groups on the previous
year's performance and
strategy in a relaxed
atmosphere.
 Managing excellence: leadership
Mohamed Zairi
Appendix II
Table AII. Leadership ± 1.1 senior executive leadership
Motorola
Each year a training and education
event is held for senior
management with the CEO picking
topics of critical concern. Top
executives then thrash out the
issues with the help of carefully
chosen experts.
Wallace Co. Inc
Quality process seeds were sown
by the company's top five leaders
each of which went on more than
200 hours of intensive training on
the methods and philosophy of
continuous improvement.
Top level hands on involvement is
seen through participation of at
least one senior leader in all
quality activities.
Leadership drafted the company's
mission statement.
Quality Management Steering
Committee lead quality
improvement and membership
includes the CEO and other senior
executives. Committee meet
formally each month.
Two levels of management besides
senior executives in a flat
organisational structure.
The TQM Magazine
Volume 11 . Number 4 . 1999 . 215±220
Milliken
Senior management set in motion
Milliken's pursuit of excellence, a
commitment to customer
satisfaction that pervades all
company levels at all locations.
Participation in the recognition
process by senior management is
commonplace and extensive
Role of the executive is to lead,
coach and set stretch objectives.
Also to applaud and recognise
success.
Quality policy statement is signed
by the CEO.
SQIs form the basis on which
executives are evaluated.
Federal Express
Receipt of the award is seen as a
license to practice.
SQIs form the basis on which
executives are evaluated.
Executive bonuses rest on the
performance of the whole
corporate meeting performance.
improvement goals
If employees do not rate
management leadership as high as
they rated them the year before
then no executive receives a year
end bonus.
219
Cadillac
Executive staff establish and
communicate the vision, values and
methods for achieving excellence
as a company.
Personal involvement of the senior
executives in education and
training reinforces commitment to
quality values.
Executive staff sat as HR
Management Policy Committee
providing direction and support to
the HRM Operating Committee.
IBM Rochester
Each senior manager owns one of
the six critical success factors of
improved product and service
requirements definition, an
enhanced product strategy, a six
sigma defect elimination strategy.
Further cycle time reductions,
improved education and increased
employee involvement and
ownership.
Saturation of the vision through
top to bottom participative
education.
Posters were important in getting
the quality message across to all
employees.
Top team trained by the CEO at a
top business schools for five days.
Policy is to lead by example
Branch managers were trained in
the tools and techniques of the
MBNQA using Xerox and other
consultants.
 Managing excellence: leadership The TQM Magazine
Mohamed Zairi Volume 11 . Number 4 . 1999 . 215±220

Appendix III

Table AIII. Assessing the leadership process

Effectiveness
Never occurs Always occurs
Criteria of best practice 1 2 3 4 5
1. All senior leaders are personally involved in performance
improvement
& & & & &
2. Senior leaders spend a significant portion of their time on
quality and performance improvement activities
& & & & &
3. Senior leaders carry out many visible activities (for example
goal setting, planning and recognition and reward of
& & & & &
performance and process improvement)
4. Senior leaders spend time with suppliers and
customers
& & & & &
5. Senior leaders mentor managers and ensure that promotion
criteria reflect organisational values
& & & & &
6. Seniors leaders study and learn about the improvement
practices of other organisations
& & & & &
7. Senior leaders clearly and consistently articulate values
(customer-focus, customer satisfaction, role model leadership,
& & & & &
continuous improvement, workforce involvement and
performance optimisation) throughout the organisation
8. Senior leaders base their decisions on reliable data and facts,
pertaining to customers, operational processes and employee
& & & & &
performance and satisfaction
9. Senior leaders hold regular meetings to review performance
data and communicate problems, successes and effective
& & & & &
approaches to improve work
10. There is evidence of adopting change to improve leader
effectiveness
& & & & &
11. Priorities for improvement are driven by customer, performance
and financial data
& & & & &

Commentary
The second of a series of reflections on business excellence and quality management ± offers some useful
insights into the area of leadership.

220