Paper Example on Leadership and Management for Assistant Practitioners

Introduction

The aspects of leadership and management govern every existing organization. They revolve towards projecting an organization towards a specific goal which is either attained by the motivation of employees and control. According to, (Investipedia, 2017), leadership involves guiding and influencing the subordinates to work with credence in themselves as well as the zeal to attain a particular goal. Leaders ought to be the pacesetters in organizations and often act as an example to the other employees irrespective of their abilities or positions in the company. On the other hand, management entails the overall control of an organization by setting rules and structures which are meant to be adhered to achieve a company's goal. In most cases, the managers set the goals in an organization since they make chief decisions and coordinate the activities in it (Inc., 2018). However, leadership and management are synonymous in that, they complement one another, and none can outweigh the other. For an organization's management to be fully effective, the outlook on both the leadership and management skills have to balance that is; there has to be a good understanding between the two aspects and he has to be viewed on a more prominent perspective for both the leaders in charge and their assistants. Based on a London Business School survey by (Leadership and Management, 2017), the most prominent challenge facing today's institutions is active engagement. Active engagement of staff or employees in institutions created an excellent executing strategy for any institution and combined with the best leadership and management skills, and it enhances performance which works best for whatever field. This paper will address the responsibility of assistant practitioners as discussed above.

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Similarities and Differences

Moreover, as much as leadership and management tend to seem like one facet, they have their differences and similarities. Certain situations may occur whereby the one in charge leaves the responsibility of leading and managing an institution in the arms of the assistant practitioners and such a scenario one ought to know how to differentiate a relationship between the two. The main difference between leadership and management is that; leadership tends to be more influencing in that a leader puts themselves in a position whereby the subordinates have to follow them not by use of power or force but a direction whereas management involves administration. A manager overlooks himself and only gives duties that must be obeyed, unlike a leader who is not meant to instill fear at all.

Secondly, a leader focuses on serving the people who are under him whereas a manager focuses on the system structure. According to a review by (Zaleznik, 2004), managers tend to embrace the moment of being in control in that they seek power and firmness to solve problems quickly. A leader, on the other hand, tolerates the activities of his or her subordinates no matter how unbearable they are and therefore tries to find control and stability in the chaos. Additionally, management essentially requires problem-solving skills in that he may need that those under him provide solutions to questions as soon as possible to prevent any inconveniences whereby in leadership, a leader is all about "directing affairs to fulfill one task" (Zaleznik, 2004).

Consequently, leadership and management do have some principles that make them similar because from a more comprehensive point of view they are the same thing. Management and leadership all have a core concept of working with people (Nguyen, 2013). This means that anyone in a manager's or leader's position has to understand and have knowledge on how to relate with people as well as 'live' around them. It often feels like a huge burden for most people since at times people tend to be very complicated to comprehend mostly when they are a lot in number since those under you are not obliged to follow instructions whether there are consequences if one supports them or not, since this is more of a free will situation. In most cases, the subordinates always know more than those in control mostly if an organizational structure is involved.

Types of Leadership in Institutions

Bringing organizational structures to the context, leadership often involves different kinds of leadership. According to (Bass, 1990), directing people towards a particular aim can be commanding, pace-setting, authoritative, democracy and affiliate. These principles can be broken down into specific leadership types in institutions which include; autocratic leadership, democratic leadership, strategic leadership, laissez-faire leadership and team leadership among others (Raza, 2015).

Autocratic leadership involves creating a vision in that a leader enhances the aspect of being followed (Bass, 2008). In being autocratic, a leader goes ahead and makes decisions without involving his or her subordinates in whatever way. Democratic leadership is more about being open-minded and open to sharing problems (Mintzberg, 1990). This consists in putting oneself in a position where they ask what others think about situations, and in most cases, this outweighs the rest and tops typically ineffectiveness. On the other hand, strategic leadership involves pace setting whereby the decisions are well thought out by those in charge. It consists of showing and setting standards, and those under such authority can only do as their leader is doing.

Laissez-faire leadership is the most controlling compared to the other types of leadership because it is a dominant type of leadership whereby those in authority only give the direction, and those under him or she can do as they are told (Northouse, 2013). This type of leadership does not accept nor appreciate feedback whatsoever and hence ends up being the least satisfying and productive. A different kind of leadership is the affiliate leadership which revolves around teamwork and the people always come first. Everything is done under such authority outlooks the aspect that a leader can only be in control (Northouse, 2013), hence it stands in being effective because even the leader overlooks that he or she is in control at that moment.

An Action Plan to Reduce the Number of Increased Deaths in Nursing Wards

In most countries, the most substantial number of deaths happens in hospitals which triggers a need for action to solve this rising issue. In most situations, the outcomes are drastically felt for both the hospitals and the communities that surround them. It is time to try and eradicate the ignorance behind such consequences since in one way or another they can be solved using specific measures. The following context gauges the implementation of leadership and management principles in a community hospital scenario.

Following an increase in deaths in nursing wards, an alarm ought to be raised on how to come up with a solution to curb this rising pandemic. In such a context the answers should serve as the core goals that the health facility is projecting towards. This could be quickly achieved with the formulating of an action plan which would act as a step by step guide on how to come to the solution. The primary objective of this action plan is to reduce the increase of deaths in the nursing wards. Therefore, for these goals to be competent enough, they have to be divided into different categories according to the time frame taken to achieve the solutions, the evidence that supports these different categories as well as the duration for the review.

A short-term goal that could be brought forth ongoing about the situation is to try and understand the problem. Recognizing the problem entails breaking down what the actual problem is or could be. Based on a review made by (Anon., 2014), it's stated that most deaths are an outcome of what assistant practitioners and probably those above them do in such situations. This could either be in their response time, the number of practitioners handling the case and what conditions those handling the case are under hence from this one can comprehend what the actual problems are and how to go about them.

The short-term goal is to be supported by clear steps on how the issue is to be tackled within the expected time frame, which could be a week or two depending on how alarming the question is all those involved. The first step will be to raise the issue and to review the identified problem. This should allow a discussion among colleagues, the visionaries, and management about the objective. Gathering information about the topic from patients in the hospital could also be a right way forward through issuing of questionnaires. The evidence collected is to be analyzed which would later pave an approach to identifying the solutions and creating a strategy on how to meet the set objective. A review of this is to be given to the manager by the end of a week or two.

Additionally, a common goal is to be derived from the short-term one. This mostly involves the implementation of solutions and focuses on trying to eradicate the problem. A strategic approach to this would include discussing the matter with the management. Seeking opinions from colleagues could later follow to understand if the set objective would be useful or not. After getting a gist of what the solution would bring to the facility, the answers can be implemented. A review of this is to be given after two weeks by the manager.

A long-term goal would later follow, and in this context, it would play the primary goal. A long-term goal would revolve around accessing if the implemented solution has brought any changes or reduced the issue. This could be attained by gathering feedback from patients and those working in the institution. The data collected from this would later be analyzed and reviewed to access improvement or a decrease in the issue. When the overall objective is met, visionaries and manager of the institution should ensure there is sustainability on the met purpose and that there would not exist such a pandemic in future. A review of this is also to be done after four weeks by the management.

Discussion

The first step in solving a problem is often admitting that there is one. In the above context, the first step in coming up with a compelling action plan is laying out the problem as it was irrespective of those in charge, who is causing the problem and who is profoundly affected. Responsible leaders and managers can put away their differences and attitudes and raise questions (Girling, 2018). This often comes out as a mature and useful type of leadership since everyone involved will help come up with a solution. This would make everyone involved able to gauge what role it is that they are supposed to play to achieve the set objective as well as enhance teamwork.

Secondly, creating an action plan which acts as a problem-solving strategy is quite useful since it centers the aspect of engagement among colleagues (Wichita, n.d.). In the action plan, everyone who is affected by a situation whether directly or indirectly has a role they have to play to make the process successful to bring effective change. Everyone the issue revolves around ends up being involved, and this often allows good teamwork.

Moreover, the mentors and managers in this scenario ought to be willing to be open-minded on the issue. In most cases, those in authority ar...