You know, I’m always surprised how often I’m told that the person I’m talking to was ‘given’ the job of Quality Manager – often jokingly because they were the last one to think of an excuse, or they missed that meeting!
Obviously, I am a bit unusual in that I love Quality Management… but it can and should be such a pivotal role in a company, so I find it strange that it’s handed out, almost as a punishment.
Part of the reason I love it so much, and why it is such an important role is that you have to be aware of everything that is going on and how it relates to your customers and core business strategies. I’m incredibly curious (nosey some might say!) so having a duty to find out as much as I can about all areas of the business appeals to me. It also means that I get to meet and work with a huge range of people, learning about their roles and how they interact with other areas of the organisation. I develop relationships with them as I support their development in identifying and implementing improvements.
I also support the review and monitoring of key company objectives, so I know how the company is performing, sometimes before the senior managers do as I’m putting the reports together. And when the company is performing well, I can feel proud to have been a part of it. I love that!
Now I do understand that if you’ve just been handed a role that you didn’t sign up for and don’t have time for, then you’re a lot less likely to be feeling the love. Traditionally the role of Quality Manager has involved lots of boring administration and chasing people to do things that they know they should do but haven’t. So I’m really excited to see that more companies are taking the opportunity to use cloud based Quality Management systems to ease that pain. Not just because it makes my life easier, but because I’m hoping that more and more people who have been late for that meeting and ‘lumbered’ with the job of Quality Manager, might now be able to see past the boring bits, and can focus instead on the areas of Quality Management that really add value to the organisation – and maybe, they’ll learn to love it a little bit too!