Do You Have a Leader or Boss?

Leadership is a critical factor in restructuring, and giving life and energy to developing human resources and performance improvement plans. Traditional management, the boss, focuses on command and control. The innovative and pioneering manager, the leader, focuses on the ever-changing needs of coordination and the orchestrated participation of various department managers, experts, programs, and staff, for effective decision-making. As nurses, we should continue to grow and develop, and learn to differentiate between "boss" and "leader/manager".

There are many leadership styles and models, all of which examine the relationship between those styles, and effectiveness. But no single leadership style is correct all the time; nurse managers must be flexible, able to adapt and change to the situation at hand. People who share a common direction, and sense of community, can get where they're going quicker and more easily because they are traveling on the strength of one another. Managers have the responsibility to motivate employees so their behaviors contribute to achieving organizational objectives. Stella Henry, RN, BS, is co-founder and director of Vista Del Sol, a long-term care center in Culver City, California, where she manages and supervises more than 60 nurses. Stella has this to say about the difference between a leader and a boss, "A leader has to inspire loyalty, whereas a boss can (not always), be someone who is either feared or ignored as much as possible. A good leader sees people as individuals and is interested in their growth, and is as interested in the welfare of the person as well as that of the establishment."