The team behind ‘Veterinary Women in Leadership’ (VWIL), a collaborative project between XLVets and Veterinary Woman, were delighted to host the first of many vibrant discussion groups in the summer of 2020, exploring the question ‘What can the career stories of the past teach the leaders of the future?’. Leading contributors from every corner of the profession, including clinical practice, academia, the charity sector, pharmaceutical industry and civil service, took part in the conversation, which was open to all and free to attend. The session was chaired by Veterinary Woman's acting Editor Jenny Langridge and XLVet's team member and small animal vet Alice Moore.
Jenny kicked off the proceedings by asking the group to share examples of successes or failures that they had experienced during their careers to date. The question sparked a discussion around how we perceive or define success and failure, and how we can reframe failures to consider them as successes instead. With this latter point in mind, it was highlighted that in saying no (or being told no) to one opportunity, we allow our-selves the ability to say yes to another. One attendee shared the advice ‘as one door closes, a window might open and you have the choice of whether or not you want to go through that window, even if it may not be the conventional route’.
The group acknowledged the typically perfectionist nature of many veterinary professionals and how this can translate into a significant and sometimes debilitating fear of failure. Individuals shared freely their career pathways, including steps they took that may have been traditionally considered as ‘backwards’ or ‘side-ways’, and how these experiences ultimately contributed a huge amount to their education and sense of self belief. One participant admitted that her ‘CV of failures’ was longer than her ‘CV of successes’ – to which many other attendees, all boasting impressive careers themselves, nodded in agreement.
Leading on from this topic, the group then focused for a short while on the challenges surrounding self-confidence and how these are arguably more prevalent amongst women than men. It was noted that women can have a tendency to passively wait for a leadership position to be offered or given to them, whereas men are perhaps more likely to proactively ask for it or ‘take’ it. This is arguably a reflection of wider societal issues surrounding accepted norms and expected behaviours relating to gender in the workplace.
In answer to Jenny's question ‘How can today's leaders better support future leaders?’, the discussion then settled on the subject of equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) for the remainder of the session. Drawing on the individual experiences of sexism, homophobia and discrimination relating to chronic illness during their careers, the group shared advice on how to tackle such issues within the workplace and beyond. While it was agreed that good intent must always be assumed in the first instance, the group recognised that the views of many individuals holding leadership positions are key, and leaders should lead by example. For example by showing visible engagement with initiatives aiming to improve EDI. It was recognised that, while improving EDI in the workplace fundamentally improves the experiences and wellbeing of veterinary teams, it also enables the delivery of a higher standard of care for patients. Diversity strengthens teams – as demonstrated by Matthew Syed's popular book ‘Rebel Ideas’, which many of the attendees had read and enjoyed.
A key part of the conversation centred around the importance of ‘active allyship’ and the responsibility of everyone to call out inappropriate behaviour or language, whether or not they belong to a marginalised group. This concept should be embedded in workplace culture; both between team members and between veterinary staff and clients, with the full support of the leadership team. All too often the pressure to call out behaviour is placed upon the recipient, and this can be very emotionally draining. Challengers can be accused of ‘crying bully’ or subjected to the ‘war on woke’, and this can be particularly hard to address. Receivers of chronic abuse will understandably start to ignore offensive behaviour, rather than repeatedly challenge it, and this can lead to a dangerous level of acceptance within a team.
Valuable advice was shared on how best to achieve active allyship without coming across as adversarial. One participant pointed out that if a veterinary professional was to miss something clinical, either on examination or interpretation of results for example, their colleague would not have any issue with simply pointing it out, so why should we consider our response to this sort of behaviour any differently? Another attendee suggested that, in the absence of an active ally, it should be perfectly acceptable for a recipient to respond by asking the offender to make an effort to educate themselves on EDI issues and to take responsibility for their own behaviour.
The final part of the discussion covered EDI training and its role in contributing towards continued professional development within the industry. It was very interesting to note the differences between larger organisations such as the civil service or pharmaceutical companies, which have clear HR policies and complaints procedures in place, in comparison to the traditional partnership business model often found in private practice. It was suggested that all business managers should have a basic level of HR training in order to meet their essential CPD criteria, and that failure to do this would arguably be a quality of care issue. In the same way that veterinary professionals are striving to lead the way on environmental sustainability, they should be seeking to safeguard the human element of their workforces as well. Resources such as ‘Civility Saves Lives’ came highly recommended, both in improving patient care and motivating teams to work harder.
In addition to HR training, the group high-lighted the importance of feedback and noted that as individuals advance into management, they are often less likely to receive it. Many participants were in favour of the ‘360’ feedback model, championed by Veterinary Defence Society's Training, amongst others, which allows anonymous feedback to be shared constructively within and between teams. Everyone acknowledged the importance of clear communication channels and the need for leaders to identify ‘blind spots’ through receiving feed-back. In the absence of such systems, one participant emphasised the power of anonymous unionisation in achieving cultural change and avoiding the need for ‘whistleblowing’. They suggested the online platform ‘Organise’ as an effective method of achieving this.
It was clear from the afternoon's discussion that issues around equality, diversity and inclusion must remain a constant focus for leaders, both current and forthcoming. Contributions to the conversation were constructive and educational without exception, and will have inevitably inspired fellow attendees to continue striving for improvement within veterinary workplaces. With such an outstanding group of women at the helm of so many fantastic organisations, there really is no doubt that a better future must lie ahead of us.
Veterinary Women in Leadership also ran at networking event at London Vet Show 2022, and an online CPD event in December 2022, entitled “Realise Your Leadership Potential”, which aimed to explore actions delegates can take towards reaching their career goals.
Before their next event is open for registration, the VWIL Facebook group is open to everyone within the profession, and helps to support discussion and networking: https://www.facebook.com/groups/699945773924495/about
A recording of the discussion can be found at veterinarywomeninleadership.co.uk