Leadership and Management Two Sides of One Coin

¶ … manager and a great leader at the same time. So long as a manager incorporates into his or her management style an appropriate leadership theory, such as transformational leadership or servant leadership, that manager will unite the faculties of management and leadership in his/her person. In the field of public health, both management and leadership are necessary for supporting a fluid, functioning, coherent and cohesive workplace and organizational culture.

Professional attributes such as trustworthiness, knowledge, ability, transparency, honesty, empathy, quality communication skills and leadership are essential in the health care field, and none is more important than leadership. Health care providers not only have to show leadership among staff but also with patients, who expect to be treated with care and understanding. By demonstrating these qualities, it can inspire others to do the same: in this manner, professionalism and examples of proper behavior can spread among workers so that the organization becomes a more positive factor in peoples' lives overall (Hunter, Neubert, Perry, Witt, Penney, Weinberger, 2013).

A manager in public health should be able to communicate at all levels, which means possessing an ability to listen and demonstrate Emotional Intelligence -- a major aspect of transformational leadership. And in servant leadership, a manager should demonstrate a desire to help others to meet their own individual needs. These two styles are similar in that they are both oriented towards helping followers to develop and grow as workers and as human beings; they differ, however, in their approach, with transformational leaders utilizing a goal-oriented method and servant leaders utilizing a needs-based approach (Northouse, 2016).

Topic B

Administrators do not necessarily need to be both leaders and managers, as leadership is a special quality that should be used appropriately. If everyone is attempting to be a leader, it makes it more difficult for followers to rally behind a single head. Cohesion can be lost through division. Thus, there should be departmental leaders among management, with other managers playing facilitator roles, overseeing operations from a strategic perspective -- ensuring, for example, that there is competency in the provision of health care, that services are being provided adequately, that appropriate research is being conducted so as to be able to identify innovative answers to challenges in the field, etc. Leadership is needed to drive the overall organization, but is not necessary that every manager show the same level of leadership: some managers may be needed to act simply in a monitoring capacity, while others may need to act in a motivational capacity, while still others may need to act in a servant capacity. It all depends on the leadership styles that the individuals are comfortable with and what the organizational culture is needing. Of course, likeability can always help to improve morale (Sanders, 2006) and is a strong component of both leadership and management.