[Sharon]

Do you believe there is a difference between managers and leaders? Explain your position and provide examples.

[Sandra]

There is definitely a difference between the two. Managers are the higher power the ones we hope we can turn to for help when we need it but most of the time that’s not the case. They are the ones with the higher authority that do what they can to please the organization that you work for.
Leaders are the ones you go to for help, the ones that help you in a situation when you are struggling at work, they are part of the team leaders will help anyone in any situation they are the you can depend on and all work places that I have worked for have lots of leaders and you wonder why they aren’t the managers because of the help they give you.

[Sandra]

I would also like to add that I work in a hospital setting we have gone through 3 managers in the last year only one of them you could go to with problems but I find mangers aren’t approachable.
When we have a problem at work like issues with family or patients we always go to our charge nurses for help or other staff members that you know will help lead the situation.
There will always be a difference to me between a manager and a leader at work.

[Melanie]

I agree Sandra about the high turnover in Management at the hospital. I worked in a hospital setting from 2005-2014 and most of the time I had an “absentee” Manager whom I had to chase down all across the hospital to try to get a moment of her time or, I had to schedule a meeting with her based on her availability and several times she would end up cancelling last minute on me. It was very frustrating to have someone who wasn’t understanding or approachable to discuss concerns or issues with. These concerns and issues just festered until it was taken up with higher management and a resolution was then put in place to have both our Charge Nurse or the Team Lead be able to problem solve for us and discuss our problems/ issues before deciding if they needed to be escalated to Management. It’s really stressful when your Manager seems to not have time for you or seems to not care about you.

[Melanie]

I believe there is a difference between a Manager and a Leader.

In my experience, a Manager is more involved in the “business” end of things like design and implementation and strategy. They are normally in meetings for most of their day. Running day to day operations and statistics, overseeing the budget and the resources and staffing. My Manager is very rarely seen. We will sometimes see her in our bi-weekly meeting and once in a while she sends an email with updates or matters that require our attention.

A Leader is more of your “go to person” they are the ones you interact with on a daily basis. Those who are there to help you succeed and keep your morale up. My People Leader values our input. During our bi-weekly meetings she asks us how things are going, where do we have issues or problems, how can we solve them. She has a personal interest in us as a “person” she asks about life, hobbies, what you did on the weekend etc. Whereas our Manager only interacts with us as needed or to share an important development or change. My Leader is who I go to for any type of escalation required, time off request, any questions about work procedures. My Leader is also someone who is very approachable, very transparent and wants to see me succeed. She gives me autonomy and doesn’t micromanage. As long as you are performing your duties, doing what is expected and putting in your 8 hrs of work.

[Taraneh]

I do believe that there can be a difference between managers and leaders, but I also believe that managers CAN be leaders, because that is what I strive to be. There are individuals who end up in manager positions who may not possess the skills or traits of a leader, thus giving management a bad rap from frontline workers.

I have been very fortunate that I have had very approachable managers both in my past and present, and I have had pretty unfortunate managers as well. Some who avoid conflict and confrontation and ignore situations until they can no longer hide from them, and one manager in particular who has been an amazing mentor who saw the potential I had to continue advancing my career.

Being in the current role that I am as A-DOC, I can say that I do have a new found appreciation for management as there are several behind the scenes things that frontline don’t even see in order for a unit to run smoothly.

[Suzanne]

In my opinion a manager or management is an individual or group of people who are striving to ensure that the individuals or employees of an organization are working towards the same goal of the organization with the same end result. A leader is someone who strives to keep a group of individuals working together in a positive manner and promotes a healthy work environment and relationships with those people. A leader should be approachable to those people and also take it upon themselves to check in with people to ensure how things are running well and that they are working with those people to ensure a positive work environment.

[Heather]

At this point, in my career, I am a front line manager for personal support workers. I have several levels of managers above me. It is a real mixed bag. I see a few people that are leaders and have a larger vision, but mostly I see managers who spend most of their time worrying about cost. It is very difficult to advocate change for employees when you have managers who are only worried about immediate budgets, even when many things that could be improved would require a modest investment. It is also difficult to deal with managers who just prefer to ignore issues unless you really try to act like a leader and spend a large part of your day advocating for patients and employees in a broken health care system. It appears that those of us in this course are experiencing very similar realities no matter where you are working. I think a leader is someone who is able to listen to people and attempt to solve problems and is able to communicate with all types of patients and employees.

[Andrea]

There is definitely a difference between leading and managing. Leading people is to take them with you in a direction toward a common goal. Managing people is to deal with conflicts or issue that occur while the group is moving toward that goal. When a leader can inspire, the group usually moves more cohesively toward their goal. This can make the manager’s job easier or more difficult depending on whether the groups goal aligns with the manager’s goal.
I believe a manger can be a good leader and a leader can be a good manager but the two don’t always occur together.
In nursing it seems to be the manager who sets the goal and set policies etc, while the leaders are the staff members who jump in and say “OK, we need to do this, so lets get started, how are we going to make this work for us?” Leaders can also be the ones who bring forward issues that need to be addressed by managers, and which often become goals later on.

[Maame]

I believe there is a big difference between a managers and leaders . Managers focuses on managing staff making sure job duties are completed accurately and sufficiently. In addition, providing feedback on
job perfomance and so forth. Whereas, the leader is an indivdual who encourages and innovates the collective group to reach a common goal . In my experience managers’ are most focused on job duties being completed which is understandable. I noticed there was never the need to ask what can I do to make things a little better on the unit or what do you require? It’s always been make sure you do this make sure you do that. Whereas, the RNICs’ ( registered nurse in charge ) in my expereince would advocate on the collective group’s behalf on issues that were arising on the unit that needed immediate attention. In my opinion that is an indivdual I would consider a leader.

[Sandra]

I completely agree that managers are always about the budget in the hospital. We always get from ours can’t order this or can’t get that its not in the budget, everything is about numbers and of course their bonus at the end of the year I find that they aren’t helpful well at least the ones I’ve had. Leaders are the staff that help each other out and the ones you can go to when you need the help and at this moment it seems there isn’t much of it in the hospital setting.

[Author]

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