As veterinary professionals, we are taught the technical skills needed to become the best practitioner. Clinical skills that equip you to solve complicated cases and better patient care. However, if you are put in a managerial position where you need to lead a team, how can you best do that so that your team feels genuinely supported?
In our first #PlatinumBookClub review, I want to introduce you to Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead. She deals with the four principles that managers need in order to build the organisational culture that supports authenticity, people bringing their full selves to work and be the creative problem solvers that will make your business thrive.
The principles (discussed in the context of management) are:
- Rumbling With Vulnerability.
Leaders need to lead with courage - it is about showing up and making a decision, even when you cannot control the outcome. It is about creating a space for coaching conversations where you offer guidance, but not tell your employee what to do.
Great leaders give feedback without the blame and shame - from a place of vulnerability - and allows the receiver to set boundaries and decide what to do with the feedback. It is about being clear and building trust so that unproductive behaviour is minimised.
My favourite quote in this section is: “Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time attending to fears and feelings, or squander an unreasonable amount of time trying to manage ineffective and unproductive behaviour."
- Living Your Values (Rather Than Simply Professing Them)
When last did you check in on what your core values are? Have you mapped out your three core values and investigate whether the practice you work for align with your values? Living your life on purpose in alignment with your core values helps you navigate decision making. It allows you to run decisions through the filter of what you stand for.
This section of the book deals with the fact that courageous leaders will never be quiet about the things they truly believe and stand for. Even if it is the easy way out. They will speak up, even if there are consequences and will not stand for injustice or incidents that go against their core values. These decisions are tough to make and takes a lot of courage!
- Braving Trust (And Being The First To Trust)
Trust is about using intuition and instinct, combined with sound business knowledge and experience - not blind trust! It is about owning mistakes, shortcomings and answering: “what part did I have to play in this situation. It is about taking responsibility for successes and failures.
A trustworthy leader is someone who you can count on to act in a certain way. Trust and vulnerability go hand-in-hand, the one does not come before the other. Trust also coincides with confidence as you first need to trust yourself before you expect others to trust you. Vulnerability and trust does not mean breaking down every wall, it actually involves setting boundaries for team and yourself so that they know the environment that they can safely operate in.
- Learning To Rise.
Learning to stand up after a difficult situation, instead of giving up involves a growth mindset - being better next time you encounter the situation and not giving up after the first sign of trouble. It takes perseverance and courage to recognise the emotions that a given situation evokes in you - approach it with curiosity, rumble with it instead of numbing and armouring up! When you seek to understand why you feel the way you feel, you will be able to recognise triggers in the future. Courageous leadership is about how you respond to fear - will you deal with it in or will you numb, avoid and take the easy way out?
Highly recommend this book to any leader who wants to learn, create a work environment where others can trust and thrive and choose to lead in alignment with your core values.
