The Four Essential Elements of Leadership

Let’s take a peek at Typical Animal Clinic to see the day-to-day operations from an owner/manager/leader perspective! Dr. Control spends his days doing what he loves….caring for pets. But, he’s got a lot on his mind because he also happens to be the practice owner. To help him run the practice, he has a Practice Manager, Frustrated Frieda. Frieda spends her days putting out fires and running every decision by Dr. Control for fear of making a mistake and/or to make sure he approves. Meanwhile, Typical Animal Care continues to wallow in the throws of constant staff turn-over, searching for the next “perfect Associate”, and the person who appears to be running the show is Gossiping Gail from the front desk. How do we inject a little leadership into this practice?

Leadership is a crucial ingredient in the success of any small business, including your veterinary practice. Without leadership, there is no direction and without direction, there is no growth or prosperity. John Quincy Adams said it best when he stated, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Based on his statement, there are four essential elements to being a great leader:

1. Through your actions, inspire others to dream more. Encourage your team to come up with ideas for new services, and create an environment where they feel comfortable sharing those ideas with you and the rest of the team. Let them “in on” all your ideas, so they are an integral part of the process.
2. Through your actions, inspire others to learn more. Are you stagnant when it comes to self-improvement, or is the staff CE budget the first thing you slash when things get tight? If so, this is an area you can tweak! Whether you’re a practice owner or manager, becoming a member of an organization, such as the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association (VHMA) opens up a wealth of learning opportunities. Not only should you take actions to learn, but also set clear expectations for the professional growth of your team.
3. Through your actions, inspire others to do more. Be a constant presence, modeling the behavior you expect from your team at all times. Be the presence that is constantly setting and raising the bar for your team to accomplish more each day.
4. Through your actions, inspire others to become more. Are you a teacher to your team, or do you hoard your knowledge? Truly great leaders share their knowledge and encourage anyone willing and able, to master the same skills and knowledge they possess. Be a teacher and you will be pleasantly surprised at the personal and professional growth you inspire in others.

Combine these four essential elements with a dash of humility, and a healthy dose of frequent communication and you will well be on your way to leading your practice team to levels you haven’t even stopped to imagine. Start now—-dream big, learn more, do more, and become the leader that is itching to get out there!

Tags: actions, communication, inspire, leadership, leadership in veterinary practice

This entry was posted on Monday, July 4th, 2011 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.