There are multiple differences between leaders and managers. According to Clarke, L. (n.d), the difference between leader and manager can be drawn on the following grounds:
- A leader influences his subordinate to achieve a specified goal, whereas a manager is a person who manages the entire organization.
- A leader possesses the quality of foresightedness while a manager has the intelligence
- A leader sets directions, but a manager plans details.
- A manager takes decision while a leader facilitates it.
- A leader and the manager is that a leader has followers while the manager has the employees.
- A manager avoids conflicts. On the contrary, a leader uses conflicts as an asset.
- The manager uses transactional leadership style. As against this, transformational leadership style is used by the leader.
- Leaders promote change, but Managers react to the change.
- A leader aligns people, while a manager organizes people.
- A leader strives for doing the right things. Conversely, the manager strives for doing the right things.
- The leader focuses on people while a manager focuses on the Process and Procedure.
- A leader aims at the growth and development of his teammates while a manager aims at accomplishing the end results.
However, (Gillikin, n.d.) states that managers are often considered to be the members of an organization that are more interested in executing goals and objectives rather than creating new visions and missions for their organizations. With this, Arruda (2016) writes that leaders are often the ones promoting full scale change within their organizations while managers are more interested in maintaining the status quo. So, the main difference between leadership and management largely lie in philosophy and the practical execution of one’s role. While the philosophical differences strongly contrast from one another, some of the practical aesthetics of management and leadership overlap. Many managers are called to create plans and objectives for their organization that can encourage long term growth and budgeting over time. While these long term changes are not designed to be visionary, a practical manager may end up optimizing or changing major operational practices that have been used for some time in a company.
In addition, by its very nature, the professional nurse role is one of leadership. Across the healthcare continuum, regardless of our role or practice setting, we are looked to as leaders. The call to leadership moves all of us to a higher plane of responsibility and accountability, with or without a management title; it is inherent in all nursing positions from staff nurse to CEO. We all have similar goals and responsibilities for patient care. With all the changes currently underway in our healthcare delivery system and the nursing profession, all nurses must strive to emulate the hallmarks of good management and leadership and never stop working on our professional growth. We all need to stay informed and be politically saavy; we need to know what our professional journals and nursing organizations are saying and advance our education. In the end, all nurses must be visionaries, critical thinkers, skilled communicators and teachers. And the good news is you do not need a formal manager or leader title required to do any of these things (Williamson, E. 2017).
Nurse leaders that want to encourage change in their organizations should do so by being proactive managers that want to increase the value of the services their facilities offer. Thew (2018) writes that nurse managers can take advantage of the industry’s shift to value based care by looking at how they can optimize the use of their fellow nurses in the field. Rejecting some of the financial reimbursements that come with solely focusing on fee based services means that nurse managers will create more optimal business strategies.
References:
Clarke, L. (n.d.). Key Differences Between Leader and Manager. Retrieved from https://inside.6q.io/whats-the-difference-between-manager-and-leader/
Gillikin, Jason. (n.d.). Management vs. leadership in a healthy organizational culture. Small Business – Chron. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/management-vs-leadership-healthy-organ