The CEO
In almost every organization, there must be leaders who coordinate activities to ensure smooth running. Organizations that lack good leadership usually experience difficulties in time management resulting in poorly performed duties that fall short of the required standards. Consequently, good leadership leads to efficiency in the running of the organization. This paper attempts to explain leadership positions i.e. principal of a high school, chief executive officer of a certain company, president, class perfect, and also a teacher.
The chief executive officer (CEO) is an individual with one of the greatest leadership responsibilities within any medical center. According to Charles Boland, (a chief executive officer from Arnprior & District Memorial Hospital), this is an individual who is the final controller as well as an administrator of all the activities taking place within the medical environment. The individual has a responsibility to facilitate the placement as well as the integration of the vast departments within the medical sector. The individual is always anticipated to give direction to the general staff, physicians as well as other hospital leaders on the required leadership skills. The CEO has the most vital role in a hospital. He is an individual who is involved in the life-saving criteria of patients. Being an overseer, the chief executive officer has the most important task to help in the reduction of the death rates in devoid of them taking part in the surgical operation.
The CEO’s as administrators, they manage the operation of the entire medical center plus all the activities performed within the hospital environment. He oversees the operation of all the activities that take place within the various departments. The CEO must ensure that all activities are run efficiently and as expected. He furthermore ensures that patients are given proper medical care within the health center. These individuals have numerous roles to an extent that they require support from the general staff. The CEOs are persons who operate the work of being mediators between the sponsors of the hospital and the general staff. He also ensures that what is taking place in different departments is in uniformity (Sheard & Liam, 2006).
The CEO ensures that all the policies that are set by the board of trustees governing the hospital. He ensures that the policy on the plan of administrators is followed strictly. The CEO puts all the health services in order, ensures continuity of the services, be in command of all the services, and brings together all the services so that they operate uniformly. Being a superintendent, the CEO takes part in the procedures of firing illegible workers; employing new workers, and gives guidance and other schooling opportunities to the medical staff. The CEOs participate widely in the scheduling of all the financial arrangements. These administrators take part in the planning of budgets and allocate the funds for each service in the hospital. They also have an obligation in coming up with beneficial plans and intensifying with the inclusion of conducting investigations technically. In hospitals that offer to teach, the CEOs assist in educating new doctors and encouraging them on the important relevance of specializing in the field. These persons take part in the planning of departmental activities and evaluation of doctors as well as other employees within the hospital environment. They aid in the creation and maintenance of policies, development of procedures for medical treatment, assurance of quality services, and sustenance of good relations with the public. They sustain good relations by participating actively in health planning programs within the community and taking part in fundraising activities in society.
The CEO as administrators has to attend the various personnel meetings and participation in the health planning councils. They should tour professional involvement conventions and attend the fund-raising events. It is therefore evident that these individuals work for longer periods as compared to any other work within the hospital environment. They are thus busy throughout. The CEOs may therefore be needed at the hospital at any time to either resolve a dispute or provide some direction and guidance. This job is therefore very demanding and needs a lot of commitment to the set objectives to be achieved. The CEOs are anticipated to have an obligation to technologically boost the delivery of service within the institution, provide the patients with upgraded medicine, improved techniques of solving the customers’ problems, improved instruments for performing surgical operations, new techniques of allocating funds to the workers plus the implementation of innovative policies from the government. The chief executive officer, therefore, helps in keeping the entire hospital not only alive but also healthy (Slee, 1996)
There are some great challenges faced by the CEOs when performing the responsibilities they are entitled to. The biggest challenge faced by most CEOs across the globe is the issue of finance. Since nothing can go on without capital in a hospital, the CEO faces difficulty in finding funds for purchasing. The CEOs also face a problem during the implementation of health care reform programs. This affects mostly in cases of introduction of new healthcare reforms. Regarding the duties performed by these persons, they are too many thus most of the CEOs face a problem of shortage of personnel. There is a need from the CEOs to allocate part of their duties to some other members of staff so that part of their tasks is at least reduced.
Chief Operating Officer
Chuck Baker at Callaway Community Health is a chief operating officer who explains some important leadership responsibilities. He first states a chief operating officer as an individual who has a duty of ensuring that all the activities taking place within the hospital environment run efficiently and smoothly. This is an individual who takes part in the enforcement of policies and procedures within the hospital. This is also a person who is involved in the management of material and human resources by ensuring that the number of doctors is equal to the number of patients. This person ensures that the morale among employees as well as doctors is highly boosted and that the hospital achieves the highest profit possible. Therefore the responsibilities of these individuals are linked to management practices within the hospital. He also greatly takes part in the supervision of the entire sub-ordinate staff.
The chief operating officer (COO) also works in close conjunction with the highest-ranking officer or rather an administrator the CEO. According to Susan Labus, the COO of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, he also investigates with the chief executive officer. He, therefore, makes sure that the general manager is informed on the day to day activities and the operation of hospitals. He also consults the CEO for advice during the periods of making suitable decisions on a daily basis. Whenever the chief executive officer is absent committed somewhere else, the chief operating officer might take his position and assist in reaching decisions. Considering the many duties performed by the CEO, it is evident that he may lack time to associate with the members of staff such as doctors; this interaction process is thus carried out by the chief operating officer. All his obligations necessitate the COO to associate with the general members of staff. The COO should closely interact with the members of staff in departments to have a clue on the obstructions that deter the smooth running of the hospital. This person is thus expected to maintain very close contact with the heads of the department in different fields (Barth, 1995).
According to Bruce Peters a COO at the Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, this is an individual who should assign responsibilities and always ensure that they are finished at the right time. Each of the heads of various departments is expected to report all the operations and the performance of all the activities throughout the whole day. The COO must boost morale among other employees and thus help in improving the workforce. The hospital COO is anticipated in one of his duties to generate a conducive environment for the workers and ensure that the entire personnel appreciates their job and enjoy performing it. This individual may also help in the creation of incentives in terms of awards to individuals who contribute to the prosperity of several hospital operations. The chief operating officer who supervises all the services within the institution relies on the CEO for guidance and ensures proper utilization of the resources within the hospital environment. They play an important role in the reduction of the costs of operation within the hospitals thus as a result of enhancing the proceeds. These individuals have a major role to play as all the final decisions they make affect the entire operations and objectives to be attained within the hospital environment (Snook, 2006).
Tony Sudduth who is currently the Chief Financial Officer of T.J. Samson Community Hospital after being a COO for many years states a hospital COO as a person who assists in coming up with general strategic plans that should be incorporated by all the heads from the various departments. This entails programs that are aimed at the development and expansion, activities related to outreach, and the fiscal management of the entire hospital. These individuals must ensure that all the various departments comply with the set of policies and regulations. The person is also concerned with measures of managing the medical centers. The COO ensures that strategic plans put in place are implemented so that the set goals within the hospital are achieved. The various strategic plans are always put in place with a high concentration on the health care of the entire community (Barth, 1995).
The major challenge faced by the chief operating officer faces some challenges during the time of performing his responsibilities. During the times of talking to the heads of various departments to adjust to the various changes and restructures made regularly on the policies to be followed is when several challenges are encountered. This is because of the increase in regular adjustments in various fields within the hospital sector. Adjusting to these changes is what gives most COOs a challenge (Snook, 2006).
Chief Medical Officer
The chief medical officer within the medical department has also some greater duties to undertake in some specialized fields. James Butterick (an individual from Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis) states a CMO as an individual who also takes part in the activity of preparation of policies plus other plans that help to boost the functioning of the health center at all costs. This person also ensures that the entire programs put in place to help in the protection of the normal well being of persons within the society are properly implemented. This person has an obligation of ensuring that he promotes and takes the necessary measures to make sure that the health of persons within the community is boosted and helps in the reduction of inequalities related to health. The chief medical officer also leads various initiatives which are aimed at improving the quality, safety as well as standards in the services of health at a particular health center.
Vijay Yeldandi, a CMO from Westlake hospital states one of the greatest challenges that the chief medical officers face is getting the right people to work with especially individuals within the society. Some people may come up with measures aimed at reducing the health problems within the society but may not be received well by members of the community. Therefore disagreements may arise between the chief medical officer and the members of the society. This hinders the working of this individual (Blasé & Kirby, 1992).
The Principal
In almost every organization, there must be leaders who coordinate activities for the smooth running of activities. Organizations that lack good leadership usually experience a difficult sense of time and most of their duties are not performed to the required standard. Consequently, good leadership matters most in the running of the organization. This paper attempts to explain the leadership roles of a principal of a high school.
For any educational institution to be successful, it is mandatory that the principal is strong and focused on decision making. The principal should have a clear vision for the school and have the ability to fulfill the dream into reality. However, modern principals are entitled to challenges since the schools have various complexities resulting from society.
Webster (1994), studied for three years about the role of the high school principal. Visits and interviews were used to conduct the study of which more than 150 high schools were visited in 23 states of America and 7 other countries. The study revealed that most principals manage their schools through experience as teachers.
One of the major roles of the principal of the school is that he is responsible for all major operations in the school. The principal is involved in decision making and evaluation of the school project. Through his vast experience in running of the school, he advises the school board about measures to be taken to improve the condition of the school (Webster, 1994).
The principal’s responsibility is to teach and enhance learning activities within the institution. To be more precise, the principal ensures that teachers have the right information is delivered to students and works hard to better up the teachers’ knowledge. In some instances, the principal himself may be involved in classroom teaching especially when he does not have official matters to deal with. Consequently, the principal must advance the skills of teachers using the stipulation of a better curriculum. Their principal is therefore charged with the sole mandate of improving the education and training within the school by providing effective instructions and programs. When the school performs poorly, the principal is entitled to be removed since he has failed in the administration of his duties (Blasé & Kirby, 1992).
The principal takes part in the firing of untrained members of the subordinate staff and employs new ones who are skilled. He also determines the kind of students taken in to learn within his institution. Eligible employees to the school are determined by the principal while students intending to join a certain school are selected through the approval by the principal of the school.
The responsibility of the principal is to lead in the reform of the school that will assist the students to improve their performance.
The principal makes it possible for efficient communication between the parents and the members of staff regarding the various activities within the school. The principal is the chairman of the parent-teachers association (PTA) therefore he informs the concerned parties about the proceeding of school activity (Barth, 1995).
Management of the school lies at the hand of the principal. For example, the principal has to make sure that security, as well as shelter, is well taken care of within the school environment. He also comes up with proper policies and regulations, sustenance of the competence plus handing over obligations to other personnel members within the school (Barth, 1995).
President
Another leadership position to analyze is that of the president of a given republic. This leadership position is the highest in the rank in the hierarchy of administration of a given nation. The president in most circumstances is elected by the people through ballot casting. Therefore the president is expected to serve the interests of all people despite the differences that may arise.
One of the major roles of the president is the head of state of a given republic. This means that he represents the whole country in international conferences and meets with other leaders to make treaties and agreements. Therefore the president is a unifying figure since he represents all the people of the nation in international meetings and conferences (Snook, 2006).
The president is involved in the legislation of bills and the implementation of the constitution. Despite the president being a powerful man, he can never dictate laws to the common people. The president involves other people in the law-making process. However, he accents to the bill after it has been accepted by the members of the national assembly. Then, the bill becomes a new law for the country. After the bill has become a law, the president ensures proper implementation of the law.
The president is the chief of the government. This means that the president is the boss of all state agents and corporations. Therefore the president can intervene in the running of these corporations and also is entitled to hire and fire the senior employee of the corporation.
The president is the commander in chief of the armed forces. This means that he can authorize the use of military troops in other countries without declaring war. However, with the approval of the national assembly, the president has powers to declare war.
The president appoints judicial officers and other administrative officers such as the attorney general and the chief justice. The president is the symbol of fairness and justice to the people since the judicial officers are appointed through the authority of the president.
The president has powers to pardon offenders. The president may intervene in petty cases and show mercy to the lawbreakers. This has helped in creating unity among the people through forgiving each other resulting in harmony. Also, the powers of the president are limited since lawbreakers can not be detained by the president without trial in court.
The president has a duty of safeguarding the resources of the country. He has the responsibility of protecting the environment from possible damage and also he must ensure the equitable distribution of resources without the favor of a certain group. The available natural resources should be utilized according to the national interest and not for the individual benefit (Blasé & Kirby, 1992).
The president has a duty of providing security to the common people. The president is a member of the Security Council which enhances both internal and external security. The president himself ensures that the citizens live in peace and harmony.
However, the leadership positions discussed above have got challenges that they face. Some of the common problems that are encountered in the analyzed leadership positions are; dictatorship, favoritism, corruption, and embezzlement of funds, impunity, tribalism, ethnicity, racialism, and nepotism.
Grocer
One very challenging role in the world is being the manager in a self-employment venture, in this case, in a grocery. This entails understanding everything that takes place all around, understanding the needs of your clients, understanding the factors that affect their decision making, ensuring corporate social responsibility, formulating public relations mechanisms, advertising, dealing with transactions, keeping records, developing future strategies in addition to beating competition, hiring and firing workers et cetera. This means that a self-employed grocery keeper plays the role of CEO, public relations manager, human resource manager, communications manager, accountant, strategist, and all other people within an organization.
Henry Bucks is one person who has served this role for more than five years now. He started as a small stall where he sold fruits in the neighborhood. After a year of struggling and toiling, he started to expand and hence introduced his wife and kids to the same venture. Being the leader in every undertaking, Bucks confesses that although there are great rewards, one has to persevere a lot before emerging a winner in this venture. He says that ensuring that everything is running well, including understanding the customer needs, balancing and keeping records, ensuring that every employee is properly handling his role, getting the best in the market, ensuring that customer’s needs and complaints are well listened to and acted upon is a very difficult task. However, he has managed all these for five years now.
One of the greatest challenges associated with this time management. One has to ensure that all the mentioned roles are played within the limited 24 hours of the clock. This calls for sacrifice and working extra hours. For instance, he has to wake up as early as three in the morning and sleep as late as midnight. These hours are spent on rolling out strategies, balancing cash books, analyzing customer needs, checking out the stock, analyzing the competition, rolling out, campaign designs, developing strategies to attract and retain customers, et cetera (Beare & Slaughter, 1993).
The second challenge faced by Bucks is ensuring that he shoulders every responsibility for any loss created or any disappointment from the customer. While in a bigger organization failure in service delivery and poor strategy formulation would fall in different categories and hence different people shouldering the responsibilities, in Bucks’ business organization, he is everything and hence shoulders the responsibility of anything that might come his. This forces him to act very diligently to avoid such problems.
Soccer Captain
Bradley is a well known and all-time soccer player in one of the local high schools in Manhattan. It is from this popularity that he was given a leadership role as the team captain. For the three years that he has held this position, Bradley has demonstrated outstanding qualities in executing his role as the leader. One of the things that he does is ensuring that every ball, training kit, and even the players themselves are present at the start of every training session. Apart from ensuring that they are present, he has also to ensure that the balls and training kits are in good condition. For instance, he must ensure that the pressure is standard while the training kits are clean. He also has to ensure that every player is ready to undertake the training session.
As a captain of the school soccer team, Bradley has to ensure that he attends all meetings expected of sports representatives. He has to ensure that he actively participates in every discussion that touches on the soccer team. He has to champion the rights of his team and ensure that they are treated favorably. All in all, the motivation of the team is the most important factor that leads to success. This motivation can only be achieved if the team is treated well. He, therefore, has to ensure that the players are given every right.
In the course of the match, Bradley has the role of ensuring that he is the role model to his fellow players. Considering that the referee sometimes fails in his judgment, it is upon Bradley as the leader of the team to ensure that he approaches the referee and inform him of their dissatisfaction. In case one of the players has his complaint, he cannot just approach the referee. It is the role of Bradley to ensure that he communicates the player’s concerns to the referee. Communicating players’ concerns is not just a matter of the match day. It also includes everyday activities. If the players are not satisfied by any aspect of the team, it becomes necessary that they approach the captain who later approaches the coach to tell him the problems.
Most of the players tend to want to deviate from the rules. For instance, they would always want to ensure that they sneak out of sight and engage in some behaviors like drinking or spending time with women. Whenever Bradley tries to stop them from doing this, they find him as an enemy. This is one of the greatest challenges that Bradley has to face.
Furthermore, balancing between studies and the role of the team captain is challenging. Most of the time, the team captain has to be running up and down trying to ensure that everything is fine before training. Besides, he has to attend meetings and report to the coach about certain issues. If not a good time manager, a team captain might forget his role as a student.
During match days, it is the responsibility of Bradley to ensure that every player is in good shape. He has to report any cases of illnesses in team members to the doctor and the coach. Before the match, he has to ensure that the players engage in constructive activities only. For instance, he ensures that they do not engage in activities like drinking alcohol or spending time with women and girls. It is believed that spending time with women before the game destroys the player’s concentration.
Teacher
Teachers are individuals who have a very vital responsibility in supporting the school and helping out students to attain their success. Amaris is one of the teachers who narrated her role. She is a teacher in Tampa. These are some of the roles that she identified to be very important and can help in building the capacity of an educational institution as well as its success. First, she acts as a resource provider by allotting instructional resources with fellow teachers. These materials are also used by students in their various activities. She also argues that teachers act as instructional specialists by helping their fellow teachers in the implementation of new effectual approaches to teaching. For instance, teachers assist in distinguishing directions or preparation of lessons in partnership with colleagues.
She also argues that teachers are also curriculum specialists. These single instructors aid their equal contemporaries in guiding them towards reaching consensus on principles, complying with the authorized syllabus; the use of common stepping charts, and the growth of collective assessments. It is through teachers that the developed curriculum can accurately be imparted to students. This includes identifying the weaknesses of the curriculum and reporting it back to the responsible sources so that appropriate reforms can be made.
As a leader, a teacher is an icon and pillar upon which troubled students can look for support. As a leader, Amaris has to ensure that all her students are in the proper frame of mind. She has to ensure that she understands every challenge being faced by her students. Once a problem is identified, the teacher has to identify ways through which the student can be assisted. If the problem calls for counseling, the teacher organizes a session with the student or the school’s counselor. This ensures that she attains the primary objective of developing the right minds that will assist in the development of the community at large.
Amaris helps her colleagues in the implementation of innovation techniques (Mcnamara, n. d). She says that teachers enhance learning among colleagues thus facilitating relevance. Senior teachers act as role models to colleagues acclimatizing new teachers to the environment by familiarizing them with the policies of the new school. Teachers as school leaders and supporters of the school initiatives and represents of fellow teachers in various fields need to share their obligation for the success of the entire school. Some teachers act as catalysts of change among students while others have their duty in using all the skills they learn to enable students to attain their goals.
Amaris faces challenges especially in periods of helping students to manage apprehension and grief. This is usually the most difficult and frustrating situation. She also faces a challenge during transferring from one institution to the other. Some teachers also face challenges when the subjects taught within the institution are changed and he is given new subjects. Some seem to take long a long time to the preparation of new lesson plans.
Furthermore, being a mother and a teacher is a great challenge. While Amaris must ensure that everything is ready for school the following day, she also must set aside time for his family. She has to ensure that her children get enough time with her. Furthermore, she has to ensure that her husband is satisfied with the attention she gives him. This is one of the challenges that she has to meet as a leader.
My position as a Leader
Another leader that plays a great role is a class prefect. I play this role. The prefect has a significant role in supervising other students in doing work such as general cleanliness. He has the task of assigning different work to students since the students are subject to the authority of the perfect.
I have had the responsibility of reporting indiscipline cases of the student to the teacher. This is a role I play considering that a prefect is an extra eye of the teacher since he observes the conduct of other students and any irregular behavior is reported to the teacher by the perfect.
I also act as the pacesetter for other students. This is because students will follow the trend of their prefect in tackling the problem. Therefore the prefect should serve as a good example to others since they are likely to emulate the behavior of their perfect.
As a perfect, I provide guiding and counseling to other students. The perfect is a member of the disciplinary board of the school and therefore provides the necessary counseling to the students who have gone astray. The perfect is also entitled to punish other students when they commit minor offenses in the school.
The perfect acts as the link between the teachers and the students. Even though the teacher and the student meet regularly in class, their feeling towards each other can never be determined. The perfect meets not only the teachers but also the students and informs either party promptly about the feeling towards each other. This enhances interpersonal communication in the school that may lead to success and prosperity.
As perfect, I assist the teachers in performing their duties. For example, the teacher expects me to maintain order in the classroom, collect the assignment on behalf of the teacher, informing the entire school about time through bell ringing, and maintaining the cleanliness of the classroom.
The perfect inform the headteacher about the conduct of the teachers towards the students. The performance of the teacher in the covering of the syllabus is reported to the headteacher by the perfect. This ensures that the syllabus is covered at the appropriate time and that no topic is omitted in syllabus coverage.
As a perfect, I act as a representative of other students. During the meetings with other leaders of the school, I represent the interests of the students. He, therefore, informs the students about the resolutions of the meeting to date the students about the affairs of the school.
Like any other extracurricular role, being a perfect gives me the challenge of balancing between classwork and other responsibilities as a class prefect. This calls for great time management skills. It also calls for sacrifice. I have to stay up late and wake up earlier than the rest of the students. I use this time to handle my academic issues like accomplishing assignments and revising. This allows me to make up for the time lost during other activities.
In conclusion, the leadership position should be handled with extra caution since a small blunder in administration may cause significant damage. Therefore those individuals selected for leadership positions should be of extreme integrity. Furthermore, leaders require being transparent and accountable in performing their duties.
Reference List
Barth, R.S. (1995). The Principal Learner: A Work in Progress. International Network of Principals’ Centers, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Beare, H. & Slaughter, R. (1993). Education for the twenty-first century. London: Routledge.
Blasé, J. & Kirby, P.C. (1992). Bringing Out the Best in Teachers: What Effective Principals Do. New york: Corwin Press.
Drucker, P.F. (1990). Managing the non-profit organization: practices and principles. New York: Harper Collins.
Mcnamara, C. (n. d). Basic Overview of Role of Chief Executive Officer. Web.
Sheard, S. and Liam, B. (2006). The nation’s doctor: the role of the Chief Medical Officer 1855-1998. Padstrow: cornwall.
Slee, D. (1996). Health care terms. London: Tringa press.
Snook, D. (2006). Opportunities in hospital administration careers. New York: McGrawHill.
Webster,W.G. (1994). Leader centered principalship: the principal as teacher of teachers. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.