The Six SIGMA Leader: How Top Executives Will Prevail in the 21st Century

by Peter S. Pande

Book Overview

Through impressive results, Six Sigma has proven to hundreds of organizations around the globe that settling for "good enough" won't work. Now Peter S. Pande, foremost expert on change leadership and coauthor of the bestselling The Six Sigma Way, challenges leaders to seek a new standard of leadership excllence and apply principles inspired by Six Sigma to take their companies to a new level.

The Six Sigma Leader defines successful...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 007145408X
• ISBN13: 9780071454087
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Engaging book with strategies for leading effective change

One of the most important contributions of business leaders is to help their organizations navigate change. Yet for all the sophistication they put into financial modeling, supply chain, pricing, or competitive intelligence, these same business executives are often babes in the wood when it comes to leading effective organizational change. Why is this? I believe many organizations suffer from a particular form of the "last mile" problem. CEO's and top brass are very good at mobilizing others, but sometimes they neglect the role of their own behavior in leading their organizations through important change. Effective change leaders complete the last mile and do both: they identify the strategic options, rally the troops around the right organizational actions and they also model personally the behaviors they seek to instill in others. If one of the larger impediments to change is the inability of many senior leaders to see their own behavior as part of the solution, there is now a practical guide in Pete Pande's very readable and engaging book, "The Six Sigma Leader." In lively prose studded with real-world illustrations, Pande presents clear strategies for leading effective change. Unlike many books filled with jargon and "leadership" platitudes, Pande's work is grounded in common sense and the role of change in delivering improved business performance. For all the talk of the importance of organizational agility, this book offers a practical way for business leaders to make change happen properly. "Change leadership" should become a key part of every CEO's lexicon.

An Excellent Addition to the Six Sigma Body of Knowledge

Dr. Pande has added significant value to the Six Sigma literature by releasing the Six Sigma Leader: How Top Executives will Prevail in the 21st Century. This book provides an in-depth look at some of the most significant challenges facing leaders today. He outlines practical strategies for leaders to employ as a means of improving the quality of decisions made each day that impact bottom line results. He also provides valuable insight into how leaders can effectively navigate the organizational dichotomies they face each day. For example, managing both change and constancy is one of the greatest challenges facing executives today. This book provides an excellent blueprint for more effectively managing this challenge, as well as many others facing executives today. This is an outstanding book for anyone, regardless of position or industry, interested in improving his or her decision-making and thinking skills.

Discipline of Six Sigma for Leaders

First off, it's important to know that this book is not about how to lead Six Sigma, but rather how Six Sigma can help you lead. In this follow-up to the enormously popular The Six Sigma Way, Pete Pande distills 20 years of experience in making Six Sigma relevant to the challenges of today. The traditional applications of Six Sigma are still critical. But Six Sigma is so much more. This book looks beneath the projects and tools--which are no more than the tip of the Six Sigma iceberg--to explore the underlying principles that have made Six Sigma the most powerful business improvement discipline ever developed. The lessons of The Six Sigma Leader are meaningful to individuals at any level, from senior executive to ambitious team supervisor, and can be effectively applied by leaders whether or not their organizations are implementing Six Sigma. It's really about disciplining the change management process. The book lays out a cohesive roadmap to apply Six Sigma discipline to the primary leadership challenge of today. The goal is to shed the "bad habits" of leadership and replace them with proven strategies informed by the lessons of Six Sigma. The discipline of Six Sigma can tell you definitively when you are falling into "bad" habits. Even better, it can offer you solid, proven alternatives - a set of "good" habits, objectively identified through vast collective business experience. In short, Six Sigma can be your everyday guide to making choices that make you more effective. If you've been involved in Six Sigma initiatives, this book shows you how to leverage your Six Sigma wisdom much more broadly. If you know nothing of Six Sigma, this book offers you a reason to explore it as a leadership discipline, even if you never expect to be part of a formal Six Sigma initiative.