Leadership in Veterinary Medicine. Clive Elwood
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leadership, on clinical error has been shown (Kinnison et al. 2015).
Veterinary professionals are often employed for their skills, as well as their professional status. With the associated responsibility comes authority which, allied with ‘good enough’ leadership, can be used for good. There are a number of areas relevant to veterinary medicine where leadership, as a function, has been shown to be important. These include:
Well‐being measures, where leadership can have positive and negative effects (Arnold et al. 2007; Perrewe et al. 2016)
Animal welfare (Higgins and Nicholas 2008; Sfantou et al. 2017; Sinclair and Phillips 2018)
Public and society (Wagner and Brown 2002)
Animal health and disease control (Broekema et al. 2017)
Profitability (albeit a limited, single dimension measurement) (Waldman et al. 2001)
Research capital (McCormack et al. 2014)
Higher education (Bryman 2007)
Conservation (Englefield et al. 2019)
Business (Bloom et al. 2012)
2.11 The Discipline of ‘Leadership’ in Veterinary Medicine
Leadership as a specific nontechnical discipline within veterinary training and professional development has a somewhat patchy coverage. There are a number of individuals who have gained specific training, e.g. in the context of a Master's in Business Administration, or as part of professional development in a higher education setting, as well as increasing numbers of training courses which may be short, and classroom based (often focussed on a particular sector or need) or longer and demanding experiential learning and reflective practice. The online Edward Jenner Veterinary Leadership Program developed by the RCVS in association with the NHS is one such example of the latter. In the US, the Veterinary Leadership Initiative provides a specific focus on leadership development (Crowley et al. 2019). Other US‐based initiatives have included leadership as an important development area for in higher education leadership roles (Lloyd et al. 2005, 2007, 2008). The Vet Futures initiative from the RCVS included ‘Exceptional Leadership’ as one of six areas of focus, and included in this identification, encouragement (including from diverse backgrounds), development, role‐signposting, mentoring, and life‐long learning of/for leaders and leadership. Further to this, the RCVS Leadership Initiative three‐year plan laid out specific projects designed to promote leadership development for all, ensure the RCVS is an exemplar of leadership and is fit to lead the profession and to highlight the range of leadership development opportunities for veterinary surgeons and nurses. As the 2019 Survey of the Veterinary Professions shows, there is much ground to cover (Robinson et al. 2019b).
There are a number of publications with a focus on veterinary business management where leadership is discussed as part of the necessary skill set. Klingborg et al. (2006) review leadership in the veterinary context and examine how leadership might be developed. Also from the USA come perspectives on, and studies of, outcomes of leadership development programs (Crowley et al. 2019). In their study of in‐practice leadership Pearson et al. (2018) recorded and interpreted the narratives of veterinary surgeons who had moved into practice leadership positions and suggest that this transition is a struggle that improves with time. Tindell et al. (2020) used analysis of semi‐structured interviews to examine enablers and motivations of women in veterinary leadership and concluded that participants wanted to influence change for themselves, including work‐life balance and developing their role, and for others through a position of influence. They wanted to inspire and mentor the future generation of leaders. External enablers allowed this transition to occur, including formal mentors and informal support systems, opportunities for growth and increased responsibility, and leadership training (Tindell et al. 2020).
The use of role models and their stories to inspire and encourage others into leadership is powerful, e.g. the RCVS' Inspiring Veterinary Leaders initiative. In the book Leaders of the Pack the authors share the leadership narratives of exemplary female veterinarians from a wide range of spheres including public health, education, and shelter medicine; this is an unusual and useful text where the focus is the varied and powerful personal stories (Kumble and Smith 2017). Focussing on the personal narrative emphasises that leadership is experienced individually, in a social context, and that no one point of view is ‘better’.
Compared to the vast literature on leadership, there is currently a very sparse evidence base for ‘leadership‐followership’, or other conceptions of collective leadership (Chapters 5 and 11) in a veterinary context. As the few studies show, leadership in veterinary medicine is a rich area for master's‐level teaching and research, with many intriguing questions to ask.
2.12 The Future of Leadership in Veterinary Medicine
There is cause for optimism. There is movement and the veterinary professions have shown that they have great capacity to look forward, adapt, and survive. In recent years, for example, the political leadership of the veterinary professions has become much more diverse and can be held as an example to other professions and organisations. There are positives and negatives to the consolidation of veterinary business, but we can see that larger organisations have the power and will to consider leadership as a ‘business critical’ activity and invest in leadership development accordingly. As a result, the professions are taking leadership and its associated challenges seriously. There are many inspiring women and men who exemplify good leadership and who will help drive continued change so that veterinary professions remain relevant, accessible to all, effective and continue to punch above their weight.
Looking back at the last 30 years, Charlie could not believe how far the journey had taken her. If you had told her at 17, as a student veterinary nurse, that she would have ended up leading a project to bring holographic consulting into veterinary practices across the globe, including some very remote areas, she would never have believed it. She appreciated how lucky she was to have encouragement, support, and mentorship at every level, alongside some excellent training, as she moved from student to nurse, to head nurse, to district management and (via a masters' degree sponsored by the company) to head of Digital Innovation. She was incredibly grateful for the opportunities but also recognised that the drive, hard work, openness to learning, and willingness to lead were all her own.
2.13 Conclusion
The veterinary professions have developed to serve the (often‐conflicting) needs of animals and human society. The right of veterinary professionals to practise is enshrined in law, and this contains and protects society from the conscious and unconscious anxieties arising from their relationship with animals. The landscape of this relationship is constantly changing, and, at different times, different societal needs dominate, e.g. from the basic needs of food supply to security and safety on to the need for love and companionship, even though the essential paradoxes of human–animal interaction may remain. In modern Western society, dominant anxieties include ageing, pain, death, and loneliness, and it is in this context that a changing relationship with our animal companions and an increasing emphasis on palliation and geriatric medicine might be considered inevitable.
The veterinary professions exist in a complex open system that cannot be simplified. Accepting the consequences of this and respecting the fact that each of us will have our own construction of our role and identity, which helps us negotiate the inevitable paradoxes, might reduce the righteous indignation that abounds when we find we cannot gain consensus on the difficult issues of our time.
As societal needs change, so the veterinary professions must adapt. There is increasing recognition that leadership is an essential professional skill and that, across the professions, we will always need accomplished leadership that reads and anticipates the need for change