By leadership here we don't mean only the top rung people. Usually people have a misconception that a CEO or the president or the COO of the company needs to have a visionary leadership quality to take the company to the peak of the success. However it needs to be mentioned here that Leadership commitment is a trait that should be present in every leader whether they are team leaders or the CEO's or much-recognized informal leaders.

The Importance Of Informal Leaders

The informal leaders are the most recognized and highly influential leaders in a Six Sigma project. The presence of quality leadership commitment trait in these informal leaders is very much essential for the success of any Six Sigma strategy. For better understanding the informal leaders can be categorized into three main groups: connectors, mavens and sales people.

Connectors: They are those individuals in a business unit who have a knack of naturally building a rapport with any employee, client or customer. They should be the first in line to be identified for implementing a Six Sigma strategy because they are the very heart of influence who not only knows other people but are also very active in performing introductions and constructing a network through referrals.

Mavens: They are the ones who are responsible for connecting employees with the technology that is being utilized in the business. Technological changes are a big affair and since they are at the core of the technological changes and new introductions, it is a wise decision to make them a natural part of the implementation team.

Sales people: They have the widest network and connections with all the departments in the business units. They are also the people who look into the money matter more than the others. So if they are made to understand that Six Sigma can be a path to their personal gain they will help to spread this method throughout the departments.

The role that is played by these informal leaders is of vital importance to the business. In fact, informal leaders are irreplaceable and for the successful implementation of any Six Sigma strategy, active participation from these informal leaders is required. The informal leaders look into motivation, application and practicality element that are the most essential factors for a successful introduction and maintenance of 6 Sigma strategies. These leaders also look into other important matters as well such as preventing alienation, confusion and resistance that usually arise with the change in the processes of the business.

Informal leaders are a very integral part of Six Sigma implementation and maintenance team and keeping them out of the loop of the team means sure failure of the strategy. Besides, informal leaders will resent being out of the major activity loop and will not extend cooperation in the areas they excel resulting in the lack of procedural influence. Therefore you should have well trained informal leaders. Occasional hiring of Black Belt trained informal leaders will also give an impetus to the successful implementation of Six Sigma strategy. In other words, they are the people who will help to get the ball rolling as well as rolling in the right direction.