Leadership and management roles tend to differ in many ways, although they sometimes overlap. Leadership is defined based on personal characteristics such as the passion to achieve a certain vision or the ability to inspire and motivate others because leaders are usually action-oriented. On the other hand, management is responsible for cultivating relationships and overseeing resources such as staff and equipment (Muhimpundu et al., 2019). The management team is involved in the implementation of services and ensuring effective utilization of the available resources. This paper intends to explain the difference between leadership and management roles and explain how a nurse can take advantage of the situation when roles overlap.
Management is aimed at administering and ensuring the smooth running of daily activities, while leadership entails focusing on the vision to achieve the set goals. Managers influence people to work for them while leaders encourage them to follow their recommendations. Management and leadership overlap because both are intended to support the achievement of goals (Sudarmo, 2020). An overlap can be realized when a nurse administrator introduces new rules which must be followed and acts as a role model.
Although the administrator enforces rules as a manager, he/she also inspires and motivates nurses to follow their guidelines (Fraser, Castrucci, & Harper, 2017). As a nurse leader, one can take advantage of the overlap to influence the achievement of the set objectives through dictating certain activities while encouraging nurses to remain accountable and responsible.
Leadership and management differ because they apply varying approaches to influence workers to meet their obligations and duties. While managers present rules to be observed, leaders are more admissible and usually offer an example to be followed. However, the two roles tend to overlap because their intended goals coincide, and an individual can use both approaches to influence a desirable outcome. The overlapping responsibilities can benefit nurse leaders in achieving their goals and remaining focused on the realization of their objectives.
References
Fraser, M., Castrucci, B., & Harper, E. (2017). Public health leadership and management in the era of public health 3.0. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 23(1), 90-92. Web.
Muhimpundu, M. A., Joseph, K. T., Husain, M. J., Uwinkindi, F., Ntaganda, E., Rwunganira, S.,… & Billick, L. B. (2019). Road map for leadership and management in public health: a case study on noncommunicable diseases program managers’ training in Rwanda. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 57(2), 82-97. Web.
Sudarmo, S. (2020). Human resources management and leadership for public services in the 21st century. International Journal of Business, Economics, and Management, 3(1), 219-225. Web.