The Wagging Tail

When we think of professional development, we often want to put this responsibility onto others. In actuality, professional development is a personal responsibility.
As we progress in our careers, we must take the time to learn better communication, better negotiating skills and better personal presentation. A career demands we improve in each of these areas. A job may not. Do you want a job or career?

Personally, I had no idea what I wanted when I graduated from veterinary school. I suspect a job was most important then. Later on, I realized that a career would better suit me. A career asks that you are willing to progress in many ways. Seeking input from your peers and your clients is one way to receive input to further develop your professional skill set. As a doctor in the hospital, your peers are the other doctors, your clients are your staff and Pet parents. A doctor should not be afraid to ask their team, “How am I doing? What can I do better? What would you like to see me do more of or less of?” Your peers, staff and clients are your first line of self awareness.

There are many courses available for professional development. Dale Carnegie, Covey, local community colleges etc. “Projecting a Professional Image” is a Dale Carnegie course that would suit anyone who wants to improve self awareness and present a better view of themselves to their peers, direct reports and team leaders.

I can’t say enough about reading! I have a library of books on leadership, personal presentation and communication. I tell those who work with me that they must be their own advocates and put in the time to further develop themselves. I have given them several books over the years. A favorite is, “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,” by John Maxwell. All people entering into leadership should read this book.

Professional development and growth are the individual’s responsibility — if you take your careers seriously. Each day people are watching you. I have said many a time, “You never know who is watching you, learning from you, or being affected by you.” I have had people call me years after working with me and tell me what they learned from me or thank me for the development provided. Even when there were hard lessons to learn, we grow from adversity. We are judged on how well we handle adverse times.

As your responsibilities expand, push yourself to do more tasks and duties that are uncomfortable. It’s easy to be successful doing what you do best. Learn to do something difficult or different that can help your career. Develop yourself, you are the only one who can.

There are many reasons veterinarians get into practice ownership; sense of autonomy, financial rewards, leaving their mark on the profession, etc. But at the end of the day, a practice is a business, and presumably an asset that provides a return on investment to the owner. Wall Street/MBA types and venture capitalists that start, buy, and sell businesses for a living do not purchase a business without a clearly defined exit strategy to ensure they can sell their business for a handsome profit.

As a CPA and co-owner of four veterinary practices in Florida, my business partner and I have really embraced the challenge of making each of our hospitals not only successful day-to-day, but viable as a future asset. Our exit strategy is simple: make our hospitals attractive for a future buyer. To attain this, we have medical and business goals to achieve. Achieving these will take years of hard work from our team, daily management and support from us, and a focus on doing the right thing for the Pets in our care.

As managers, we keep the goals in sight by having clearly defined roles and responsibilities and investing in great training for each of our hospital teams. Together, as time goes on, we are building highly functioning, highly profitable veterinary hospitals that will ultimately be an attractive investment for potential buyers! On the contrary, if we didn’t have goals and an action plan, I, my partner, and our hospital teams would probably do a great job of managing our practices day-to-day, but wouldn’t be moving toward anything. We’d find ourselves years down the road and wonder what do to next.

In my opinion, if you are veterinary practice owner without an action plan, it will be difficult to ever meet your goals and your business asset is actually a liability. The closer you get to setting (and working toward goals), the greater flexibility you have when it comes time to retire or get out of veterinary practice ownership. If you own a practice and don’t have an exit strategy, it’s a good idea to follow the experts’ example and consider putting one in place now!

Plopping myself down in front of the TV, sipping my morning coffee, I listened to a discussion between a morning talk-show host and a registered dietician, a few days back. The conversation surrounded the particulars of a certain celebrity who had gained back all the weight she had recently lost. I’m sure other listeners were glued to their sofas too because this story had two things going for it: One, it was about a celebrity and two, it was about weight loss, a sure fire formula to get folks to tune-in.

The first thing the dietician said was, “We need to change our relationship with food, in order to lose weight for the long-haul.” Hummm… Relationship. With. Food. How intriguing. To suggest that people have the same kind of bond with groceries that we do with living, breathing creatures got my wheels turning. I started thinking about this union in a literal sense.

Is it possible to have a personal connection to some thing as inanimate as an energy source? After all, you don’t see people over indulging with water or air and these elements are more necessary to human survival than food. No, I’ve never heard anyone say, I just can’t walk past a plant store; the oxygen levels are way too tempting for me. All I have to do is take one step into the store, and I end up hyperventilating and THEN, I’m ridden with guilty for whiffing it all in, and over indulging.

I don’t doubt that people can have an attachment to objects, but a real relationship? I guess it’s possible. Take Tom Hanks’ character, Chuck Nolan, in the Movie, Castaway. The ball (Wilson, remember?) was his BFF! For 1500 days Wilson never left his side, always provided a listening ear and never judged or criticized. Wilson was really the reason Chuck was able to survive during his nightmarish ordeal. This inanimate object shared in the character’s darkest moments and was by his side during times of momentary happiness and triumph. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I guess that’s how it is with food. It’s never far away, it doesn’t judge or ask why. It’s always there, tasting good and providing momentary pleasure, a quick escape from life’s chaos and problems. When we feel alone, left to deal with the struggles on our island, it comforts.

But we don’t live on an uninhabited island. We can choose to take comfort in food or deal with pain in other ways. We can take a walk, pick-up the phone or just live in uncomfortable moments, knowing they’ll pass. I guess the question to ask yourself is this: What kind of relationship do I have with food? Is it a doting mother, providing an ever-present cushion of protection from emotional pain and discomfort, or maybe a co-dependant friend who only tells you what you want to hear? I’m not suggesting we break the ties that bind. Food is, of course, something we physiologically need. It just seems to me, we need to decrease the level of intimacy. Maybe the best kind of association to have with food is like that of an acquaintance. Always enjoyable, spending time together, but not a relationship tied up in dependency.

As a veterinarian you typically have a fast-paced, fully booked schedule. Maybe you’re using food for instant comfort, perhaps not taking time to think about what it is that is going on at that moment. Do you find yourself grabbing for unhealthy foods during the day in an attempt to comfort yourself, for a quick escape or a need to self-nurture?

I read an interesting article in the April 2009 issue of “Your DVM Career” magazine. It had a mixed bag of news for us. Revenue is expected to be down in some areas but up in some areas. The rising cost of simply being in business is listed at the number one pressing issue facing veterinarians. Fewer veterinarians are expecting to hire. And, less of the younger veterinarians are wanting to become practice owners in the future.

In general, it says, veterinarians believe they will be more dependent on revenue from diagnostics and less from the sale of products such as flea, tick, and vaccinations. The amount of money that people are willing to spend on pets before they stop treatment has decreased. In my practice this seems to be true to some extent. I seem to have a lot of clients who present with sick pets, but it seems like clients are letting their pets get sicker before seeking veterinary care. Rather than presenting at the time of onset, they seem to wait a day or two (or longer!) to see if it will “run its course.” This does cause an increase in diagnostics performed, but the problem is people seem to have less total money to spend on those diagnostics. We’re trying to use these times to educate clients on the value of preventive care—to avoid crisis intervention by preventing illnesses. It’s certainly less expensive to prevent parvo than to treat it, or to prevent fleas than to treat FAD, or to prevent heartworms than to treat them, etc, etc. I wonder what strategies others are finding helpful.

I agree that rising costs are a big issue. The costs of team member retention, inventory, flea and tick products, etc are a big concern. It isn’t comforting to buy flea products and have them sit on the shelf unsold, and it isn’t comforting to have a client want to buy flea product and not have it available for them on the shelf. We manage our inventory weekly and that seems to help. If we buy what we think we need in a week, then it’s unlikely to sit and gather dust and we’re very likely to be able to afford to purchase supplies for one week (vs. a month, a quarter, etc). Please feel free to share any cost-saving measures that you’ve been using in your practice.

Fewer veterinarians wanting to become practice owners may or may not become a concern. When the market turns around, perhaps more of the new grads will aspire to be owners and more of the owners will want to hire new associates. We’re not really expecting a crisis in this area, but it is something we want to be cognizant of and plan for. Veterinarians nearing retirement age may want to think of a way to hire an additional associate, in order to increase the chance of finding a successor.

Our practice certainly isn’t recession proof, but people, in general, are proving that they want to take good care of their pets.