Leadership in Veterinary Medicine. Clive Elwood
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over‐emphasis. There is an underlying assumption that these competencies can be developed and modified as needed and in the following chapter (‘Self‐Leadership’) we will look at how to gain awareness of, and adapt, your own leadership repertoire. There is an additional assumption that different situations will require deployment of different repertoires.
Figure 3.1 Components of leadership repertoire. Cognitive, emotional, and intuitive competencies that may be associated with ‘good‐enough’ leadership.
3.2 Cognitive Competencies
These help with the necessary knowledge and understanding underpinning the leadership role. Some are more trait‐like than others, but together they contribute to the effectiveness of leadership through the ability to make sense and meaning.
3.2.1 Curiosity and Growth Mindedness
We are used to applying our curiosity in the service of our technical role and this can be directed to nontechnical challenges too. Carol Dweck says:
Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts). This is because they worry less about looking smart and they put more energy into learning. (Dweck 2016)
A desire to understand people and what is happening in and around you, and a desire and willingness to learn and grow is a fundamental competency for leadership upon which all others are based. Underlying all of this is the concept of neuroplasticity and a trust in our ability to change how we think, behave, and feel (see Chapter 12).
Leadership requires adaptability both in the moment and over time. We can find ourselves in unfamiliar territory where we need to develop new understanding and ways of being. There are a number of reasons why we can be fixed into old and unhelpful ways of thinking. At times of stress, for example, we tend to fall back on familiar and comfortable thought patterns and behaviours. Changing our thinking can, therefore, be most difficult when change is most needed, unless we have access to internal and external support and may have even prepared for the need for change ahead of time.
We should not, however, change for change's sake. Curiosity that moves into overanalysis, or distracts from the matter in hand, or manifests as a need for ever more information before decisions are made is paralysing, unhelpful, and frustrating. Sometimes we need to save our questions for later if there is a need to decide now, e.g. at times of chaos and crisis.
3.2.2 Cognitive Capability
Various forms of intelligence (e.g. verbal–linguistic, logical‐mathematical, interpersonal) have been described, and the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership is discussed later on (Gardner 1993). Whilst the exact balance of the different intelligences needed is likely to differ according to the situation, leadership in a complex dynamic arena requires a certain level of cognitive capability in order to assimilate, understand, assess, and respond to the short and long‐term challenges.
If one cannot understand, intuitively or explicitly, the situation, it is possible that the wrong choices and decisions will be made. In the context of veterinary medicine, where academic intelligence is not in short supply, credibility is lost if there is no capacity to work with smart people. Whilst this does not, necessarily, mean leaders have to be as technically capable or well qualified as those they are leading, they do need a baseline level of ‘smarts’ (Goffee and Jones 2007).
There are brilliant leaders and there are brilliant people who make good leaders. But we all know that there are brilliant people who make poor leaders. This is why it is important to recognise that different intelligences are measured in different ways and that the ability to pass examinations and achieve high professional proficiency (e.g. in the pursuit of a veterinary career) is no guarantee of, or requirement for, effective leadership.
3.2.3 Mental Modelling
This is related to cognitive complexity. In ‘adaptive leadership’ theory this is described as ‘stepping onto the balcony’ (Northouse 2019). It represents the ability to take an overview of the whole picture, like you are looking at the dance floor and seeing the dancers from the balcony. Individual dancers are less important than being able to see the sway and rhythm of the whole crowd below, where there is movement, where there is stillness, what is the shape of the whole, who is doing the work and who is not. It can be achieved by ensuring you interact with the breadth as well as the depth of the group, by holding opinions lightly (including your own), by sense‐checking and being objective. Gaining this mental model can help with determining pressure points and bottlenecks, planning interventions and understanding potential responses. This capacity is as important for the theatre supervisor planning the day ahead as it is for the course director developing a new curriculum.
Too much time spent looking from on high and not getting down on the dance floor is counterproductive. It is important to be in, and feel, the ebb‐and‐flow of interaction around you as well as to take a step back. Sometimes examining the detail is necessary. On the other hand, the leader who gets bogged down in detail will lose the sight of the whole picture and may well miss critical events. Loss of the big picture and tunnel vision, often as a response to stress and uncertainty, is a common underpinning characteristic of systems failure, including medical error (Syed 2016).
3.2.4 Comfort with Complexity
Leadership in complex situations is not linear and cause‐effect‐solution pathways are rarely useful. Good leadership requires an ability to appreciate complexity, that there may be more than one potential solution or where optimal outcomes overall may have unwelcome, unpredictable and/or unintended consequences elsewhere in the organisation. Developing the capacity to accept and hold this complexity without being crippled by doubt, fear, and the need to understand is necessary to be able to function and take action. In complex systems, seeing the effect of action, and being prepared to adapt accordingly, might be the only way to move forwards.
Overthinking complexity can lead into a maze of overcomplication that is difficult to get out of. On the other hand, not recognising complexity can lead to a failure to account and plan for, and adapt to, unpredictable outcomes. The simplicity minded leader will carry on with the same approach even when it is clear to those looking on that it is not having the desired consequences and that a different tack might be needed. In a veterinary context this is akin to increasing the dose of an antibiotic in the face of anti‐microbial resistance.
3.2.5 Systems Literacy
This is an awareness of how different organisation systems function. The veterinary professions are complex open systems, as discussed (Chapter 2), and different organisations will have different dynamics (Chapter 6). A good‐enough leader has awareness of the system in which they are leading, and this comes, in part, from an ability to step on the balcony and to hold complexity. But it also includes much more ‘mundane’ information such as who reports to who, who holds the purse strings, what interactions there are between departments and individuals, what mechanisms are in place to get things done, what gets in the way of effective functioning.
Whilst understanding the system around you, it is important not to get too bogged down in ‘one way of doing things’. Have a look at other organisations and systems. How do they work, and what are