Differences in Leadership and Management
In order to fully appreciate the challenges in becoming an
exceptional leader, I took the time to understand not only the basic attributes
and capabilities that make a leader, but the fundamental management skills one
should possess in order to become a strong leader.
According to a thought-provoking article in the Journal of Public
Health Management and Policy, there are specific elements, such as being an
effective manager, that contribute to the making of an exceptional leader. Before
researching the qualities of a leader, I did not entirely comprehend the
difference between leadership and management. The article in the Journal of
Public Health Management and Policy defined leadership as "doing the right
thing", while management is described as "doing things right"
(Edward Baker, JPHMP).
Although the Journal of Public Health Management and Policy stated
that leadership means "doing the right thing" (Edward Baker, JPHMP), I questioned what that meant, and how it relates to becoming an
effective leader. According to the Journal of Public Health Management and
Policy, there are four specific elements that contribute to becoming a
successful leader. These four necessary disciplines include vision, strategy,
operations, and tactics (Edward Baker, JPHMP). What does that mean specifically? I believe that a leader must
demonstrate capabilities in all of these areas in order to carry out an
organization’s mission, and motivate individuals to execute on the mission.
However, in order to be an exceptional
leader, an individual must also understand the responsibilities of management.
The Journal of Public Health Management and Policy states that management
"translates strategies into operations" (Edward Baker, JPHMP); said otherwise, management is responsible for the execution of
the vision set forth by the leadership team. Successful managers utilize and
rely on tools and techniques that allow their teams to operationalize their
organization’s strategies.
My takeaway from this article is an awareness that successful
leaders must exhibit both managerial skills as well as core leadership
competencies. Leadership and management
are complimentary, and without management skills, a leader may never rise to
the level of exceptional.
Hi Olivia, it is nice to meet you via your blog! My name is Pam and I currently work for Johns Hopkins Medicine as a Senior Planning Analyst. I graduated from the HMP program in 2012 and just earned my Masters in Health Care Management from Johns Hopkins University last month. I too agree that in order to be an exceptional leader, one must demonstrate the ability to both lead and manage. You mention in your post that you questioned the, "doing the right thing" piece of being a leader. In business and in health care specifically, leaders are posed with ethical, moral, and value-based dilemmas on what I would assume is a daily basis. I think having the ability to "do the right thing" is key, although the definition of "right" will vary person-to-person. I can share an example of this from my professional experience. At one point in my career, I managed technicians and one of the individuals had religious beliefs that in this situation, did not align with those of the patient's they were providing care for. The patient was able to identify this by what the technician was wearing on their head. Based on what the patient observed, they demanded to be seen by another technician (this was after verbally expressing offensive statements). Justifiably, the technician was very upset and shared their concerns with me. It was then up to me to escalate the issue to senior leadership and advocate for resolution. Ultimately, the patient was asked to seek future care elsewhere, as their discriminatory behavior towards the technician was not acceptable. In this case, you could either argue that leadership did the "right" thing by protecting their employee, or that they did the "wrong" thing by asking the patient to seek future care elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteHi Olivia. My name is Gloria J Elko. I work in the healthcare field for the Army, and have been in for about 15 years, and specifically in the healthcare administrator track for the last 5. It's great to meet you! There is definitely something to be said for the difference between doing things"right" and doing the right things. I have seen what I call under developed leaders hide behind outdated policies under the guise of doing things right, with no room for exceptions or situational based decision making. The flip side are those leaders who ensure policies are kept up to date, and aren't written in such an iron clad way that it prevents staff from doing what's right (morally, ethically, legally, and situationally) for the patient. I will caveat that an important characteristic of a leader is honest self awareness. Identify the times your leadership is lacking and adjust. Ask yourself did I lead, our did I manage today? Is that who I want to be, and if not how can I adjust tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your big this semester, and wish you the best of luck. Please let me know if you need anything.
Gloria J Elko
I concur - leadership and management are two sides of the same coin. I liken it this way: management is about getting the trains to run on time; leadership is about getting the trains to go where they should be.
ReplyDelete