Live from CVC San Diego: Evaluating your behavior will help you become a better veterinary leader

San Diego—

Veterinarians need to take time to critically assess their interactions with clients and staff so they can become better leaders.Part pop psychology and management, veterinary consultant Shawn McVey’s Power Hour presentation at CVC San Diego was titled: “Muscle Up and Achieve More with Stronger Personal Leadership.”

“It’s been my personal experience and observation that we don’t take time to work on ourselves. I’m going to challenge you today to get out of the old way of practicing veterinary medicine. Remember, you are selling love. You are selling connection. (Clients) expect good medicine,” says McVey, the owner of McVey Management Solutions in Chicago.

Too often communication is blocked by owners and staff, and that is impeding the practice’s advancement.

Start, McVey says, by critically assessing how you deal with problems and pain. “Why do so many of us avoid this truth? How we cope with our issues will be reflected in our relationship and our business,” McVey says.

“What do we need to do to sustain success? Remember that success starts with me. Do we have problems selling value to clients? Yes.”

In the management realm, McVey says that many practice leaders have trouble facing problems directly, and it is causing far more management-related headaches.

“The tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering they cause is the basis of all human neuroses. We are not uncomfortable because we have problems but because we don’t face our problems,” McVey says.

He also encourages practice leaders to deliver praise consistently to staff and clients.

“The feeling of being of value is essential to mental health and the cornerstone to developing habits of discipline,” he adds.