Policies and procedures define your processes, are a part of deploying your strategy, and identify what is important to the business.  ISO standards require certain procedures and forms as critical elements to improvement and a working management system.  Yet, how often have you contemplated your business strategy in terms of policies and procedures?

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If you need to make a strong business case for the value of quality to management then you need Cost of Quality.  Crosby described the cost of quality as the cost of nonconformance.  Juran, another quality guru explained it as the cost of “poor” quality or the costs incurred as a result of poor quality.

If you are trying to explain the importance of quality to management then you need to explain it to management using the language of management — costs.  Cost of poor quality (COPQ) consists of four basic elements: prevention, appraisal, internal failures and external failures.

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First, understand that your boss may not know he is a bad boss.  A hands-off manager may not realize that failure to provide any direction or feedback is a symptom of a bad boss. Instead, consider these 10 ways to deal with a bad boss.

1. Be nice to your boss. Never be rude or give your boss a reason to talk bad about you. Be a better person than your boss.

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A lot of people get promoted into a management position because of their skills and accomplishments, yet end up being a bad boss.  I am sure you have experienced a bad boss at some point in your career. Perhaps even more than one…  Have you ever had the opportunity to work with a good boss?  What makes a good boss good or a bad boss bad?

There are a lot of qualities that you might like to see in a boss.  Here are the top ten qualities that make a good boss:

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Solving problems is not specifically a management task, but managers are faced with a lot of daily problems that need to be solved.  As a manager you have a slightly different set of resources than your employees.  So how do you, as a manager, go about solving your issues?  There are ten ways that management solves problems.

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Lean thinking has been popularized by companies like Toyota, Apple, Dell, and many others.  But will practicing lean thinking produce a competitive advantage?

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As a business executive, you face many difficult daily challenges like creating and dominating new markets or finding and keeping the best people.  But then, like many executives, do you find yourself spending too much time solving everyday problems (that only you can solve, right?), which prevent you from growing your business and becoming a better manager?  You may be making some of these management mistakes:

1. Do you have a compelling vision for your company, that projects a remarkable future, but few of your employees have heard of it or could explain it if asked?

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Communicating with authority figures make many people nervous.  Your boss holds the power over your performance reviews, salary reviews, and future work assignments.  Don’t be intimidated by all that authority.  Your business communications can be improved.  You just need to understand your boss and what they expect from you when you do communicate.  You don’t have to be nervous if you keep these ten simple ideas in mind.

10 Considerations to Communicating with your Boss

1. Keep your boss informed. Your boss doesn’t like surprises.  If something bad has happened, its better they find out from you now then from someone else later.  If you want a better boss then keep them informed.

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Have you heard of Management by Objectives?  It was first popularized by Peter Drucker in the 1950’s.  This is basic goal setting, where you pick (or agree on with your employees) your objectives and then drive everyone to the result.  Results are important, but so is keeping control of your organization.  The problem with Management by Objectives is that we don’t want to become overly focused on the goals to the point where we begin to ignore the environment around us.  What’s better than Management by Objectives?

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There are a number of things that can and do go wrong on a project.  You are probably familiar with many of the most common project management nonconformances or failures.

Common Project Management Nonconformances include:

• Errors, omissions or just plain poor assumptions
• Delays which affect the project schedule or the originator’s ability to meet project deadlines
• Late submissions
• Rework
• Unauthorized changes to projects, schedules, plans, etc.
• Non-compliance with established policies, procedures, specifications or project specific Quality Assurance Plans
• Cost overruns (which result from all other failures)

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