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Moving into the next stage of your veterinary career can be exciting. If that next step involves stepping into a new leadership role, it can also be exhilarating and challenging. Whether you’re a veterinarian, veterinary nurse/tech, or a practice manager, if you want to excel as a leader, there are five crucial skills that, as a newcomer, you’ll need to build on. In the first post of this series: 5 essential skills for new leaders in veterinary practice we introduced the five essential skills, and in this post, we’ll delve a little deeper into the first of those skills – Communication.
Effective communication is the basis of strong leadership, enabling you to inspire, influence, and guide your team toward shared goals.
How you communicate will also change as you move from sharing task-specific information as a team member (the ‘what’) to more strategically focused information (the ‘why’). Check out these tips on enhancing communication skills and the changes required in this transition.
As already mentioned, your communication should focus on strategic clarity as a leader. This involves shifting your focus from conveying task-specific details to sharing your practice vision, mission, and overarching objectives with your team.
Your communication must be concise and emphasise the “why” behind actions, as this will help your team better understand their contributions to the broader organisational goals of your practice. Your team members are much more likely to want to do an excellent job if they know where their job fits in with achieving your practice’s overall mission and goals.
As an employee, you were most likely a passive listener (you listened to the information, then used it to do your job). As a leader, you now need to be an active listener, which involves giving full attention to the person you’re speaking with, maintaining eye contact, and asking clarifying questions. This demonstrates respect for others’ opinions and helps you gain insights, build rapport, and make informed decisions.
Empathic listening is being attentive and responsive to others’ input during a conversation. You can practice empathetic listening by understanding your team members’ concerns, feedback, and perspectives. Empathy develops trust, encourages open conversations, and helps you address your team members’ individual needs.
As a leader, you’ll need to communicate with various people in various situations. And this is where adaptive messaging is so important. One communication style will never suit every person or situation, so you need to tailor your communication to suit diverse audiences and conditions.
As a leader, you’ll engage with various stakeholders, from team members to upper management and clients, so adapting your messaging style, tone, and content will help you connect with different groups while ensuring the core message remains the same.
Providing constructive feedback is one of a leader’s most challenging communication skills. And many find it so difficult that they don’t do it! However, giving feedback isn’t just about telling people they’ve done something wrong; effective leaders provide constructive feedback and recognise achievements.
You can elevate your feedback skills by delivering it constructively, thoughtfully and in a supportive manner. Focus on specific actions and their impact and offer insights supporting your team member’s growth and development.
Organise regular one-on-one and team meetings to maintain open lines of communication and provide constructive feedback. These interactions will allow you to address concerns, provide guidance, and ensure alignment with your veterinary practice goals.
Telling stories can be a powerful tool in leadership communication. Sharing relatable anecdotes or real-life examples helps you to engage with your team members and can make challenging concepts easier to understand. Don’t be afraid to share some of yourself and your experiences in life, as this can help to build a stronger connection with your team.
As a leader, your communication should focus on resolving conflicts rather than avoiding them. Develop skills to address disagreements openly, mediate discussions to reach mutually beneficial solutions and maintain a happy and productive work environment.
If conflict is something that you’re not comfortable with, research skills that can help you. Read how other people have developed this skill, watch videos, and if you’re lucky enough to work with someone with excellent conflict-resolution skills, pay attention to they handle conflict. You’ll find it’s a skill that will help you in every aspect of your life.
In leadership, efficient communication is essential. Learn to share information concisely and prioritise critical discussions. Recognise that your team’s time is valuable, and your communication should reflect that by being clear, relevant, and timely.
When running meetings, have a set agenda, take minutes and follow up on action items. Don’t waste the limited time you have to communicate with your team by being unorganised and underprepared.
An enormous amount of successful communication is via nonverbal communication, which involves understanding the impact of body language, gestures, and facial expressions. Research nonverbal communication and learn how you can improve your communication ability by developing an awareness of nonverbal cues. These cues can help you improve your ability to convey confidence, approachability, and credibility.
Communication is an evolving skill. Engage in continuous learning by asking for feedback, researching, reading, attending workshops, and studying successful leaders’ communication styles. You can then adapt and refine your own personal communication techniques based on your experiences and learning.
Every week, check out Vetanswers Members’ eNews, as we share a wide range of information with our Members and are always researching new and innovative solutions you can use in your new leadership role. Our Members receive the eNews every Friday morning in their inbox, and if you’re not already a member, join here – it’s FREE!
To help in your ‘continuous learning’ journey, you can also keep an eye on our online What’s On? Veterinary CPD Calendar for interesting CPD events that can help to develop your communication skills. Add ‘free’ in the search bar to track down all the freebie events!
If you’re new to the leadership role, developing your communication skills requires shifting from task-oriented conversations to strategic, empathetic, and inspiring communication. Building on these skills will help you to engage and connect with your team, align their efforts with your veterinary practice objectives, and achieve the outcomes you’re looking for.
Next…. 5 Essential skills for new leaders in veterinary practice: 2. Decision-Making
5 Essential skills for new leaders in veterinary practice: An Overview
5 Skills for new leaders in veterinary practice: 2. Decision-Making
5 Skills for new leaders in veterinary practice: 3. Emotional Intelligence
5 Skills for new leaders in veterinary practice: 4. Delegation
5 Skills for new leaders in veterinary practice: 5. Adaptability & Continuous Learning
After a career in HR working in a range of service industries and teaching at TAFE for several years, I then (somewhat accidentally) found myself in the veterinary industry and here I’ve stayed because I love the people and what they do. I created the Vetanswers Community to provide the support, resources and solutions to help our members build happy, successful, profitable businesses and careers.
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