By Tammy Chastain, DVM
A traditional understanding of leadership usually involves one person in charge or leading with a group of followers underneath them. While this style of leadership has worked in many settings in the past, I have found that nurturing leadership skills in all of my team members has proven rewarding for the staff, clients, patients, and the business. Of course, there are decisions in which a manager or owner of a practice will need to have the final say, but effective leadership in various scenarios can come from any person on the team. Below are a few ideas to encourage leadership skills among veterinary team members that we have found to work well in our practice.
1.) Learn your team members’ communication and personality preferences. As a veterinary team we, have done several different personality profile activities over the years. One of the most helpful and engaging programs in which we have participated is the Insights Discovery provided through IVMA. This program helps team members to better understand each other’s communication styles, default behavior when under stress, and how to better interact with those that have differing personality types from their own. This enhances overall team communication and allows staff members to more easily lead when appropriate.
2.) Get to know what each team member is passionate about. We have some employees who are very detail-oriented and like to work with numbers, reports, and metrics, while others very much enjoy interacting with our community. Some are passionate about animal behavior and stress-free practices and others are artistic and love to keep our clinic looking its best by utilizing their creative skills. We learn about these interests through regular “one-on-ones” with each staff member along with self-assessment surveys done around the time of performance reviews annually.
3.) Try putting those passions to work within focus groups. We have formed working teams dedicated to some of the key areas in our mission statement. Each of these teams is lead by someone who has a particular interest the subject. We have a community care team who looks for ways that our practice can stay involved and give back to our community. Our team culture group focuses on team building and stress relief activities in which our staff can participate. Our client care team is continually working on ways that we can deliver better customer service to our clients. In addition, we have a social media team who develops and posts content on our Facebook page. Smaller group settings may be less intimidating to staff members just starting to get their feet wet in a leadership role.
4.) Find champions for various practice goals and training of other staff. For example, team members who are especially passionate about dental health might be a good point person to lead a challenge for the rest of the staff to improve client compliance of scheduling dental procedures for their pets. A technician that is particularly talented at teaching venipuncture techniques could be the go-to person for this particular task during the training process of newer technical staff. Someone who especially loves to see stress free practices used with patients, might lead activities and learning opportunities to raise awareness of appropriate handling techniques among the other staff.
When the people in your practice are able to utilize their skills to do things they are passionate about, they stay engaged and more satisfied in their work. This satisfaction can be enhanced when those passions can develop into leadership opportunities in the work place. So, the answer is emphatically, yes! Everyone can be a leader in various ways in a veterinary practice.
Dr. Chastain is a 2003 graduate of Purdue University Veterinary School. She is a small animal practice owner in Madison County Indiana.