Leadership, whether it's a trait or a position, allows individuals to wield influence over others and systems to achieve meaningful results. In a performance-driven culture, leadership is essential. It sets an example and guides other employees towards acting in a manner that benefits the entire company.

Strong leaders possess six key competencies including Navigator, Communicator, Mentor, Learner, Builder, and Motivator, as well as personal characteristics, accountability, courage, humility, integrity, creativity, perseverance, and well-being.

Leadership practices for performance excellence involve setting a vision for the organization and showing commitment, ethical behavior, effective communication, and transparency that others will want to follow.

Strategic leadership is different from ordinary leadership as it requires a team to work together proactively to achieve objectives and maintain a competitive advantage. Effective leadership systems distribute decision-making, communication, and action-taking elements throughout the organization. Steering teams, consisting of senior managers, implement total quality principles into the organization's strategic planning process.

Emerging leadership theories, including Situational, Transactional, Transformational, Substitutes for Leadership, and Emotional Intelligence, build on traditional theories to address contemporary leadership issues. These theories identify important emotional components such as self-awareness, empathy, and social skills that are just as crucial as traditional intelligence to build effective leaders.

Transactional leadership theory uses rewarding behavior to inspire subordinates to achieve their goals, while transformational leadership theory focuses on long-term improved outcomes through shared vision, values, and excellent treatment of employees. Transformational leadership is more relevant to quality and performance excellence as it creates a positive culture with focus on customers, long-term goals, and employee well-being.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to an organization's responsibility towards society's well-being, which touches on ethical, social, economic, and environmental aspects. Acting in a socially responsible manner creates trust with employees and customers, leading to quality products, high customer satisfaction, and significant profits.

ISO 26000:2010 provides a framework for CSR, defining key terms, principles, practices and core issues, as well as guiding stakeholders including the implementation of Governance systems and stakeholder engagement.

The Baldrige Criteria has embedded CSR since its adoption in 1992, with ten core values, including corporate social responsibility, business ethics, public health and safety, environment and quality information. The criteria also includes continuous improvement for regulatory bodies, encouraging organizations to make positive changes in their industries.

Governance systems are management and control systems used by organizations. Without sound governance, organizations face the risk of issues such as financial mismanagement, project failure, and damages to the organization's reputation. Governance ensures that auditing, financial reporting, succession planning, performance evaluation, and compensation all occur appropriately.

Organizations show their societal responsibilities in several ways: For instance, financial institutions such as banks have a responsibility to protect customer information during cyber attacks. Moreover, organizations have been setting environmental goals to minimize carbon emissions and create more sustainable products. Protecting the environment is deemed crucial as this also ensures they keep their customer base and have a significant impact on the industry as a whole.

Work cited:

Evans, J., & Lindsay, W. (2017). Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.