Attributes of a Black Belt

Six Sigma Black Belt is a very challenging and demanding job, no matter, how enticing the title might sound. There are multiple stories on how the term "Black Belt" was coined and if it has any link to karate. As various sources indicate, this term term was coined in Motorola in the early days of Six Sigma and is, indeed, drawn from martial arts. "Black Belt" term signifies a systematic, intensive training to achieve a certain depth in the skills needed to perform the required tasks successfully. It requires a mental discipline and experience to attain that level.

Apart from the technical and statistical skills, there are some other skills, which a Black Belt has to possesses and demonstrate in order to successfully execute his/her projects. Below are a few of them, either from my own experience, or from leftovers of some article/book.

• A Black belt has to be patient, yet persuasive. Let the data drive the conclusion and not just the past experience, intuition or gut feeling of either yourself or your champion, or your team members. Follow the road-maps taught in your training.
• Demonstrate leadership skills, to keep your team members focused and achieve the desired results. Never use "Just Do It" approach.
  
• Be imaginative and creative in driving the improvement process. Think outside the box and use the power of your data and Six Sigma tools.
• Black Belt should be able to translate the vision of leadership, their intention, to the real world, i.e. his/her team. The challenge here, is to communicate the visions at lower levels of hierarchy without losing the real essence.
• Black Belts are change agents working with their teams to execute the vision of their leadership. They should be able to overcome resistance to change from others and get them to practice new behavior.
• Be ready to take responsibilities and risks. If something goes wrong, only you are accountable for it. If everything goes well, whole team gets appreciation.
• Question every process, and every step in the process. Rethink the existing business processes and improvise them.

Remember, that this is not an all inclusive list or the success-mantra. There is always more to it....