By Dr. Michael Rivera, author of Lead Like a Pro, Inspire Like a Leader
What’s the distinction between a leader and a manager? While a manager is led by policies, procedures, and the team, a leader sees the big picture and inspires the team to go in a certain direction. There’s a difference between these two roles, but they’re not conflicting. In fact, they’re complementary.
Management is critical to meet the company’s expectations. This is important because the leader can’t use inspiration alone to ensure that key tasks for which they’re responsible get done. Hence, management is an important function. However, the problem arises when the person in charge identifies only as a manager and doesn’t push boundaries or exceed expectations. To excel and get above-average results, it’s also crucial to employ leadership to influence and provide a clear direction for teams on a larger scale.
Many health-care leaders rely solely on feeling, intuition, and emotion to make decisions, leading to a one-dimensional approach in a multifaceted industry. They end up leading blindly. In this book, I teach leaders a framework to lead like a pro with six core pillars that can be customized to specific organizations. It’s a toolkit for leading with systems, structure, and consistency. While leading like a pro starts with high-level systems and processes that focus on efficiency, inspiring like a leader is about inspiring, influencing, and leading by example to exceed expectations. The former streamlines the effective running of an organization, while the latter pushes forward to achieve exceptional results.
When you lead with structure and organized systems, you’re empowered to inspire others to reach their full potential. By cutting through the noise and providing a clear road map for success, leaders can elevate their game, inspire their team, and foster a culture of excellence within their organization. On the ground and in the classroom, I’m hiring, training, and retraining leaders, both old and new, and I’ve been repeatedly hearing the million-dollar question: What does it take to be a successful leader in health care? This book is my answer to that—the health-care leadership manual I wish I’d had when I first started out in the industry.