Management and Leadership

​

     Delivering high quality health promotion programs requires both effective management and leadership. By overseeing an organization’s components, management produces order and efficiency, while leadership produces change and movement by articulating a vision and goals. Poor management undermines goals and weak leadership fails to set the course. While management focuses on building a well-functioning team, matching roles with abilities, leadership influences participants and manages change. Diversity is the secret sauce for successful teams, drawing on the strengths of individual members.

​

     Effective leaders are active listeners and self-aware. They solicit and accept feedback, communicate clearly, exhibit strong time management and organizational skills, and the ability to network professionally. They’re collaborators who encourage and support others, know when to step forward and when to step back. Leading by example, they “walk the talk”, are good team players and team builders. Beyond basic business skills relating to HR, financial management, and business plan development, leaders coach, motivate and develop their team members.

 

     Leadership can be viewed as a social contract, with two main styles-- “transactional”, which holds individuals accountable, and “transformational”, which empowers people. While the attributes of both are needed for an organization or program to succeed, transactional leadership sets up an authoritative relationship that fails to drive innovation or provide incentive and motivation to exceed expectations. Transformational leadership, on the other hand, is based on inspiring people to collaborate and work towards shared goals, values, and a clear vision. (van Diggele, 2020)