Unit 1: General information
GoalsClick to read 
Initiative and work motivation
With the help of quality circles, your employees work voluntarily and together to improve your company. Quality circles promote initiative and work motivation.
Assessing performance of team members
You will learn how to assess the performance of your employees.
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Increasing work performance
You will learn how to correctly criticising and praising your employess. These are important tasks of a manager.
How to perform a quality circle
You will learn the roles and the steps on how to perform a quality circle to improve you leading skills.
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ContentsClick to read 
Unit 1 - A
The quality circle and its rules
Unit 2 - B
The 4 roles and the process of a quality circle
Unit 3 - C
Increasing work performance thorugh motivated employees
Unit 4 - D
How to assess performance of team members correctly
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IntroductionClick to read 
How your employees improve quality in your company
As a leader, it is not always possible for you to see into the smallest corners of your company. You are dependent on the help of your employees when it comes to uncovering weaknesses and improving them in a meaningful way.
One instrument to improve the quality of your company is a so-called quality circle. In contrast to simple meetings or working groups, the clear objective here is to bring about positive changes in your company. It is important that participation is absolutely voluntary. Voluntariness creates motivation and leads to a tangible result.
In the long run, your quality improvement will become a self-runner if everyone involved participates in the quality circles with a positive attitude and supports this form of cooperation.
Ultimately, everyone is then jointly responsible for the success of your company!
Unit 2: Quality circle: goals and rules
The goals of the quality circleClick to read 
- Improving productivity in the work area
- Eliminating errors in production
- Ensuring quality in production
- Finding out new attitudes and behaviours
- Developing more self-esteem and social competence
- Improving group dynamic processes
More information about the quality circle you can find here:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/quality-circle-definition-process.html#quiz-course-links
The quality circle and its rulesClick to read 
The quality circle originated in Japan and is a form of teamwork. Teams have the task of increasing the quality of processes and products in the company. In addition, the performance potential is better utilised and the working atmosphere is improved. In the defined working circles, each employee contributes his or her knowledge and experience.
For a quality circle there are 5 rules to follow in order to structure the group work:

Adherence to these rules ensures that teamwork does not turn into a coffee break but into constructive cooperation.
Unit 3: The quality circle: roles and process
The 4 roles of a quality circleClick to read 
In a quality circle there are 4 roles with defined tasks. The staff members in the quality circle belong either to a project group or to the quality circle team.
Coordination is particularly important in a quality circle. Therefore, the roles form controlling and coordinating instances. The precise distribution of tasks encourages active participation.
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Find more about how to do your own quality circle below
The process of a quality circleClick to read 
A quality circle can be divided into 12 steps. At each step, the tasks are distributed to the members within the project groups.
Step 1
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Step 2 |
Step 3
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Step 4 |
Carrying out a weak point analysis and determine the actual task
üGenerate a list of problem using Brainstorming
üPrioritise problems using A, B, C analysis
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Identifying and assigning the environment, causes, customers and suppliers
üPareto Analysis or Rating based on past data
üRegister the selected problem with coordinator
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Definition of weak points, necessary work steps and goals, which determines the desired outcome of the quality circle.
ü Flow diagram
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(Now the actual work of project groups begins)
The project groups are each assigned an identified weak point and analyse the problem and its causes.
ü Data collection
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Step 5
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Step 6 |
Step 7 |
Step 8 |
The analysis is presented and possible solutions are developed.
üBrainstorming
üCause Effect Diagram
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The causes and solutions are presented to the QC team with a corresponding evaluation
ü Data collection
üComparision
üDiscussion
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The problem is tackled concretely. Necessary staff and material resources are estimated and cost-benefit analyses are carried out
üBar, pie, areal graph, histogram, stratification, scatters diagram
•Why-Why analysis
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An implementation plan is drawn up and distribution of the tasks for implementation by the support of the mentor and the QC team
ü Brainstorming
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Step 9
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Step 10 |
Step 11
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Step 12 |
the solutions developed must be implemented and documented. The implementation plan may have to be successively adapted
ü Brainstorming
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After the solutions have been implemented, the team analyses the results and documents the successes and failures
ü Data collection
üAnalysis
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Successful implementations can be firmly integrated into company processess
ü Key figure surveys
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The project is concluded in the form of a final report. This will take stock of the quality district and document the experiences from the project groups
ü Reporting
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Unit 4: How to increase work performance
How to increase work performance through motivated employeesClick to read 
Many managers are of the opinion that if they do not give criticism, that would be sufficient as positive appreciation. But your employees need concrete feedback, otherwise they don't know how to classify themselves and their work. However, the right and appropriate feedback not only leads to more security, but also increases the motivation of your employees.
Lack of recognition is one of the most common reasons that dissatisfied employees complain about. The respective superiors are often even very satisfied with the work performance, they just don't comment on it. Correctly criticising and praising are important tasks of a manager.
1. Be authentic
Simply patting yourself on the back on a regular basis leads to the praised employee no longer even registering the positively meant statement. You should also not obsessively look for a small thing to praise or criticise. The most important prerequisite for effective praise is your own conviction of positive performance.
2. Rethink your standards
If you are a person who has very high standards of performance, the first recommendation may mean that you never really get into the situation of seeing a performance as positive. In this case, you should bear in mind that your standard is not the measure of all things and that you should definitely use lower standards when evaluating your employees. You also cannot judge all employees according to the same criteria.
3. Analyse the performance of your employees regularly
In order to be able to praise or criticise your employees in a targeted manner, you need to keep a close eye on their performance. In the case of a mistake, you can usually feel the effect on your own, but positive performance is often much more difficult to recognise. At the end of the day or at the end of the week, look back and ask yourself: Did the respective employee perform above his or her usual level?
4. Match the praise to the performance
Praise is only effective if it is appropriate and individual. It is not so much how much the performance affects the company that counts, but how high the employee's commitment was. If an employee repeatedly fills in for his colleagues, this does not necessarily improve the overall performance, and yet this is certainly a reason for a special praise.
5. Praise consistently good performance
While it is generally true that praise should only be given for more or less outstanding performance, you must be very deliberate in doing so. There are employees who are very reliable and perform consistently well. You must also recognise this and praise them regularly.
Find below 5 recommendations on how to motivate your employees!
Unit 5: How to increase work performance through motivated employees
How to increase work performance through motivated employeesClick to read 
As a manager, you have to assess the performance of your employees at certain points in time. The quality of your appraisal stands and falls with both your observation and the conduct of the appraisal interview. Divide your performance appraisal into 3 phases to achieve a fairer and standardised appraisal.
Do not set your assessments in a rush, e.g. shortly after the end of a completed improvement project. Experience shows that performance appraisal interviews then turn out to be very superficial. There is a great danger that personal and emotional aspects make an objective judgement impossible. The result: dissatisfaction among the employees concerned and a decline in performance in the next project.
3 steps for a correct and fair employee appraisal:
Observe
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Keep written notes well in advance of the appraisal, e.g. during an improvement project, in order to evaluate the performance and behaviour of your employees as systematically as possible and to be able to prove it during the appraisal interview. Use the notes, for example, to refer to the "reliability", the "work commitment", the "work behaviour in different work situations", the "cooperation" or the like of your employees. of your employees. In this way, you avoid that your assessment is only based on impressions shortly before your appraisal interview.
Keep a small notebook for your notes, which you always carry with you. In the best case, you can refer to concrete facts for your assessment. Therefore, always document these events as soon as possible.
PRACTICE TIP: Be careful how you handle these written notes.
Be careful how you handle these written notes; avoid destroying the trustful cooperation. Under no circumstances should your staff get the feeling that you are "keeping files" on them.
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Assess
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Look at your notes carefully before the appraisal interview so that you do not have to refer to them during the interview. Note: It is not evidence you are keeping, but your personal memory aid for a fairer appraisal of your employees.
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Talk through
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Always discuss the appraisal with the respective employee and record the result of the discussion. So that your employee is not blindsided at some point when he or she receives an assessment that does not seem comprehensible to him or her, you should talk openly about it with him or her. This discussion will also serve to plan your future staff deployment for improvement projects. Ask yourself:
ü"How can I promote my employee better?"
ü"How does he envisage eliminating his weaknesses?
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Criteria for an employee appraisalClick to read 
Criteria for an employee appraisal
Objective assessment criteria
The objective criteria are easy to determine because they are completely detached from your employees, e.g.:
üQualifications
üSkills and abilities
üDays absent
üMain areas of use in the project, company, etc.
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Subjective assessment criteria
There is no employee who has only strengths or only weaknesses. Therefore, draw up a list of criteria according to which you judge all employees, e.g:
üAdherence to deadlines
üFlexibility
üMotivation
üSocial competence
üAbility to work under pressure
üCritical faculties, etc.
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Unit 6: Summing up
KeywordsClick to read 
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