The distinction between management and leadership is not always clear, especially because the same person is often called upon to exercise both functions. The best way to improve both management and leadership skills is to understand how the two terms are different, and where they overlap in a public health context.
The World Health Organization's working paper on "Better Leadership and Management in Health" notes that leadership and management are complicated concepts, but goes on to use both terms together repeatedly as if they were impossible to separate in practice. However, the same paper goes on to define a healthcare manager as a person responsible for overseeing resources like equipment and staff, planning and implementing healthcare services, and cultivating relationships with service providers and the public.
In their 1985 book "Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge," authors Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus define leadership in terms of personal character, the ability to inspire trust, and the passion to fulfill a personal vision. According to Bennis and Nanus, leaders are action-oriented and capable of inspiring other people to take action too. In "Essentials of Management and Leadership in Public Health," author Robert E. Burke, Ph.D. quotes Bennis as saying "managers do things right and leaders do the right things."
The North Carolina Public Health Academy's "Public Health Leadership and Management Self Assessment" provides public health managers with a list of management competencies they can use to assess their own performance. This list includes program planning, monitoring and evaluation, managing the organization's budget, negotiating and overseeing the organization's contracts, recruiting and managing the employees and managing organizational risk. Day-to-day planning and supervisory duties generally fall under the heading of management rather than leadership.
The leadership competencies listed in the "Public Health Leadership and Management Self Assessment" include creating an ethical organizational culture, creating shared vision and values, inspiring and motivating personnel, working effectively with the strengths and weaknesses of your personal leadership style, and understanding the impact of culture on public health issues. These are all much broader concepts than the detail work associated with the management competencies. Leaders sets the direction for the organization, and managers implement it. A person who can do both is both a manager and a leader.
- World Health Organization: Toward Better Leadership and Management in Health
- Essentials of Management and Leadership in Public Health: Robert E. Burke, Ph.D.
- The North Carolina Public Health Academy: 1 Public Health Leadership and Management Self Assessment
- Amazon.com: Leaders - Strategies for Taking Charge
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