Leadership and Management Roles in Optometry

There is a great emphasis on the roles of leadership and management in Optometry as a small business. Optometry practice owners and practice managers must understand the relationship between the role of a leader and a manager when operating an Optometry practice.

The leadership of an Optometrist is not dependent on the factors, traits, and skills (this explains why both men and women make great Optometrists) that the Optometrist has but rather from the situations that the practice has been through and the decisions he made that drove the practice throughout the situation in a particular way. Therefore, an Optometry practice over time will go through many stages (for example the launching or start, the growth, the maturity, and decline) and the decisions that the Optometrist makes driving the practice through these stages will determine the type of leadership he is. Depending on the situation the practice is in, determines the type of leader the Optometrist is.

The managerial role of an Optometrist relies more on consistency and certainty. The Optometrist should be able to process and obtain a full understanding of planning and implementing strategic plans by contributing their knowledge and skills in this field. Technical Optometric expertise is required to give the practice a competitive advantage and to be able to produce enough returns to satisfy salaries, bonuses, and new positions within the practice. He should demonstrate effective skills for presiding over daily medical and business operations and setting as well as achieving short-term goals.

Both leadership and management in Optometry use guidance to achieve goals either through influence or planning. While leadership is constantly behind the creation of new ideas, management is behind creating processes that put ideas at work. The manager’s role is to keep employees in line with the practice’s jobs and responsibilities while the leader Optometrist enables them to be unique and distinctive entities within the practice.