Leadership skills are crucial to advance your career, help your veterinary practice run smoothly, and maximize profits. Learn how to step up and be a leader at your practice.

Some people naturally possess qualities that make them great leaders. Even if you aren’t confident in your leadership skills yet, you can still learn how to become a great leader at your veterinary practice. With several key leadership qualities, you can set an example at your practice for other staff to follow and even improve client care.

7 Qualities of Effective Leaders

With passive and active listening, any veterinarian or practice manager can improve their leadership style, take on more important tasks, and show others the way forward.

Here are some key leadership qualities you can learn to help your veterinary practice:

1. Take initiative. 

   1. Great leaders don’t hesitate; they’re constantly moving forward. 

   2. New systems, processes, and programs are constantly appearing.

   3. Do the research and look for the best tools and systems to use in your practice

   4. Check-in, scheduling, billing systems, etc.

   5. If you want to acquire new clients, review your marketing efforts and focus on the areas that work best.

2. Lead by example. 

   1. Great leaders inspire others with their drive, attitude, behavior, and actions. 

   2. Stay positive in the toughest situations and treat coworkers with respect. 

   3. In many instances, the way you act shows your other veterinary practice members how they should work through certain situations.

3. Create a process for communication. 

   1. It’s important to clearly communicate with your team when it comes to your intentions and work goals. 

   2. When issuing tasks, be concise with easy-to-follow steps. 

   3. You might have some great policies in place, but if they’re hard to understand, your staff may not follow them.  

4. Set up for success with the right communications tools. 

   1. Staying up to date on the latest communication technology will also show your drive and desire to help the practice run smoothly.

5. Try daily huddles. 

   1. Getting everyone together for a quick chat to discuss goals is a good way to stress what is important. 

   2. It’s also a great time to let your practice staff know what they should be striving to achieve that day or week. 

   3. Keep these meetings brief, positive, and upbeat! 

   4. Chckup’s Daily Huddle Solution has all the information you need and is ready to go to run a meeting efficiently.

6. Prioritize ongoing education. 

   1. Most people stop learning once they are no longer “required” to learn. If you are one of these people, you and your practice might find yourself behind a competing practice that chooses to stay educated and up to date on what makes a successful practice.

   2. Inspire yourself and team to develop professionally with continuing education.

   3. There’s a plethora of available information online, at trade organizations, and through in-person courses. 

7. Start or join a peer group. 

   1. Veterinarians, veterinary technicians, practice managers, and others can learn a great deal from each other. By getting together, you can learn how to deal with difficult situations, discuss trends, and develop leadership skills.

Organizational Goals Are Crucial

If you want to learn how to become a great leader at your veterinary practice, it’s important to consider goals for your practice. Defining your practice’s goals can help you grow your practice and acquire new clients. 

These goals are general targets you set for your practice around objectives you want to achieve during a specific time period, like filling more appointment slots or increasing revenue by a certain amount. Chckup’s metrics & reporting solutions can help you manage and track these goals and more.

Organizational goals also:

• Define employee output

• Guide operations and expected practice outcomes

• Determine workflow

Take Action When Problems Arise

A chaotic veterinary practice could encounter several issues. If employees aren’t doing their jobs properly, productivity and customer service could suffer. When that happens, you could start losing clients.

Take control of the situation by having meetings to discuss any workplace issues. If someone is cutting corners or not pulling their weight, speak to them privately and provide constructive feedback to help them improve their behavior.

Be direct and let the person know what they’re doing wrong. Then offer positive feedback to help them improve. This is also where setting a good example can immensely help. 

Stay open-minded and think about how you handled problems earlier in your career. Maybe you tweaked something that you can tell your team about to help solve their problem. 

Keep in mind that the way you behave shows your employees they should work through certain problems.

Being a Great Leader Starts with the Right Digital Solutions for Your Practice

Still wondering about how to become a great leader at your veterinary practice? 

From welcoming a new team member to handling billing and client care, your leadership skills set your practice up for success. Schedule your Chckup demo to see how our tools can streamline the day-to-day operations of your practice and free you up to focus on leadership.