Delivering quality through authentic, effective and brave leadership

Throughout a career spanning almost half a century, I’ve been fascinated by the impact great and poor leaders have on teams and organisations. I began my career in the voluntary sector before moving into the private sector. I have seen, first-hand, many examples of poor leadership - autocratic managers who ruled by fear and the impact on those lacking autonomy to address issues.  

In 2002 I launched my own business exploring leadership and have since had the privilege of working with thousands of leaders at all levels. My main conclusion is that we make leadership so complicated. It’s not. The most effective leaders I have encountered understand the need to deliver consistent quality outcomes and constantly focus on quality in every part of their team or organisation.  

We’ll come back to the common traits these great leaders display but first consider a very simple model. At the bottom are our desired results. We want our people to deliver quality outcomes flawlessly every time. 

It’s that consistency of excellent delivery which will delight customers, build loyalty, and sustainable growth. It’s what our people want as well, few people come to work wanting to do a poor job.

Barry Dore, Author

Ensuring clarity to build engagement 

We can’t just expect our people to deliver without support. As leaders, it is essential that two elements are in place. Firstly, they must know what to do – have clarity. And secondly, they must want to do it – be engaged. 

If they want to do it but don’t know what to do, they will be enthusiastic but cannot consistently deliver the results you need.

Who is responsible for ensuring both elements are in place? You are! Your people must know what you want them to do, which means:  

• ensuring they have absolute clarity  

• they understand why the job needs doing  

• flawless quality systems and processes are in place to enable consistent quality delivery  

• they remain focused on their most important tasks and are not side-tracked

Creating an inclusive and positive culture 

Your people must want to do it. It’s your job to build that engagement. That means creating a culture based on a great place to work, where people feel trusted, treated fairly, and given enough freedom within a clear framework, where they feel they are united in a common purpose, doing important work, and where they are listened to and can have some fun. 

It’s through your leadership that you will build clarity and engagement.

Barry Dore, Author

In ‘Lead Like Mary’ I explore the common traits of the hundreds of great leaders I have observed and experienced. It really is simple. These great leaders are committed to serving others – they are low in ego and high in humility. They are values-led and trusting, they build clarity and engagement, and they do not avoid hard decisions. They strive to do the right things in the right way.  

Do it right, and those people will deliver exceptional quality outcomes every time. 

Join the CQI conversation on quality culture throughout 2024 and during World Quality Week in November.