I finally had an experience all too familiar to many in the veterinary profession. Although I’m a highly social person by nature when I travel for work, I like to embrace my inner introvert by way of noise-canceling headphones and a good book or movie. On a recent flight, after finding my seat, horror struck when I attempted to fire up my headphones. The battery was dead.
Just then, my seat neighbor sat down and greeted me with an eager smile. I responded curtly and grabbed my book. Alas, the sweet woman misread the cue and pressed on. Eventually, she asked what I do for work. I responded, “I work in veterinary medicine.”
She lit up. Before long came the unaware statement, “Oh, wow! You must love all the puppies and kittens you get to play with!”
Setting aside that I no longer work in a veterinary clinic, I’m sure many of you had similar experiences. Whether on a plane, in line at the grocery store or even within your practice’s four walls, we’ve all encountered non-veterinary folks with a mental image of our profession that mismatches the reality. Much of the public believes that working in veterinary medicine must be a boundless parade of joy-inducing experiences. They assume we’re eternally happy people. Of course, some go immediately to euthanasia and blurt the ever-frustrating, “I could never do what you do.” Ironically, many in our profession would agree that outside economic or morally challenging euthanasia, the decent and dignified death we can gift patients is often a source of fulfillment.
Still, we all know the data by now. Much research has shown that a career in veterinary medicine is wrought with other stressors. Sure, in small animal general practice, at least we get to play with the occasional puppy. We also run the gauntlet of obstacles to professional joy, such as the widening gap in accessible veterinary care, staffing challenges, the weight of personal debt and complicated interpersonal interactions.
Veterinary medicine is a challenging, often stressful, endeavor. It always has been and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. The thing is, embedded in our profession is a wellspring of purpose. What differentiates those who find joy despite the difficulty is whether the nourishment from that spring of purpose is tapped or run dry.
Some of the ability to access the nutrient-rich waters of veterinary purpose falls upon the individual. The mindset we bring to our work impacts our daily experience. However, the delivery of veterinary care is often a group effort, happening in team settings within organizations such as private or corporate practice. As soon as we work alongside others, team dynamics play a role in our work experience. Every team environment is most influenced by the individual with the most power and authority. That’s the leader.
In a 2022 study conducted by my firm, Flourish Veterinary Consulting, we found that roughly one-third of the profession finds nourishment in the daily purpose of the work because of the behaviors of their immediate manager. In particular, managers who help veterinary team members see the meaningful impact of their work tend to have happier, more resilient teams.
The Power of Meaningful Work
Dr. Zach Mercurio is an organization and leadership development researcher and adjunct professor at Colorado State University’s Center for Meaning and Purpose. He’s also a friend and colleague of mine. His link to the veterinary profession doesn’t end there, as his wife works at the CSU College of Veterinary Medicine, and his brother is a practicing veterinarian.
In 2023, Dr. Mercurio and three colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania published the results of their multiyear study in the journal Occupational Health Science. Titled Mapping and Measuring Leadership Practices Intended to Foster Meaningful Work, the article shows how leaders can nourish their teams’ experience of joy at work by tapping into the springs of purpose.
Shortly after its publication, I interviewed Dr. Mercurio about the study and paper. He first clarified the differences between the purpose “of” work and “in” work. He explained that everyone has an intellectual purpose for the work they do. It could be as simple as the need to make money or as complex as the desire to celebrate the human-animal bond. Those are examples of the meaning of work. But the paycheck comes only every week or two, and celebrating the human-animal bond can be so ethereal as to manifest in rare, brief occurrences. In between those moments are the minutes, hours and days of day-to-day work.
Meaning in work comes in the experiences we have in the moments between. When we experience our daily work as positive, purposeful and contributory, we find meaning in work. According to Dr. Mercurio, those experiences have a much greater impact on well-being and motivation than why people work.
Leaders appear to have an outsized ability to enable or disable a team member’s ability to find meaning in work. Among the most eye-opening findings from their research, Dr. Mercurio and his colleagues discovered that six leadership practices account for 48% of the variability in whether a team member experiences meaningful work. Dr. Mercurio said, “Just imagine, as a leader, what you do [in interactions with your team] is responsible for almost half of whether someone will experience meaningfulness in a place they spend one-third of their adult life.”
After researching over 1,600 people across more than 20 industries, they also found that meaningfulness-enabling leadership also improved team members’ experience of mattering at work, their level of motivation, their job satisfaction and, perhaps most importantly to veterinary medicine, how strongly they planned to stay in their current job. Almost 35% of turnover intention was accounted for by these leadership practices.
I believe the research results are critical education for anyone in a veterinary leadership position.
The research described in the journal article came from a deep dive into what real leaders do to activate their team members’ well-being through meaningful work. A robust analysis uncovered these six specific practices that Dr. Mercurio said “have to do with optimizing daily interactions.”
1. Communicate the Work’s Bigger Impact
Veterinary team members who see a direct line between their work tasks and the contribution those tasks make are significantly more likely to experience meaningful work. Leaders can draw that line in a variety of ways. One that stood out in my conversation with Dr. Mercurio is what he calls “purposeful delegation.”
Leaders utilize purposeful delegation when they ensure these three things are clear when assigning a task:
- The impact on or significance for others.
- The task’s necessity.
- The strengths the team member will use in accomplishing it.
For example, a manager might assign a technician to run fecal tests by saying: “I’d like you to handle fecals today. I know it’s not your favorite role, but I want you to know I trust you with this because you’re so diligent and meticulous. As you know, having someone reliable running fecals makes
Dr. Smith’s wellness appointments much more efficient and helps her focus on the client instead of worrying about lab results. Thanks for helping the hospital run smoothly today!”
The statements highlight the technician’s strengths and the assignment’s necessity and significance.
2. Recognize and Nurture Potential
To play off something Dr. Mercurio often says, “People who feel seen and valued show up and add value.” Likewise, leaders who notice their team members’ unique strengths find ways to let those strengths shine and brighten, leading to happier, more engaged teams. Dr. Mercurio and his colleagues found this second practice to have a powerful association with job satisfaction and mattering among team members.
One way a veterinary leader might use this practice is in strengths spotting. For example, every small animal practice seems to have a resident cat whisperer. As a manager, noticing your cat whisperer is step one. To embrace this positive leadership approach, consider, “What about this person makes them a particularly effective cat whisperer? What strengths do they use?” Jot down your answers and share them with your cat whisperer.
3. Foster Personal Connections
The adage that bosses shouldn’t have a close relationship with their teams is worn and obsolete. Study after study shows that the quality of the relationship between manager and team member is one of the top predictors of all sorts of outcomes, like job satisfaction, performance and turnover. Dr. Mercurio’s study solidifies the data.
Leaders can foster personal connection by finding routine opportunities for what Dr. Jane Dutton, the co-founder of the University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizations, refers to as “high-quality connections.” These are brief, positive interactions between leaders and the led that foster beneficial outcomes for both parties. In short, taking the time to connect personally with direct team members is an essential skill of effective leadership.
4. Discuss Values and Purpose During Hiring
I’ll admit, this one surprised me, although it probably shouldn’t. We know that misalignment with company values can be a primary contributor to burnout in veterinary professionals. It stands to reason that aligning with
values contributes to workplace fulfillment. And yet, in my experience, few veterinary organizations make their values a central line through recruitment, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and continual performance and impact conversations.
I know one hospital that does this quite well. First, its value system is clear, going beyond simple words like “teamwork” and extending to measurable, objective behaviors. For example, “This is a place where teamwork is important. We strive to always look for ways to help and say yes when asked to help.”
Next, the hospital includes values assessment in the interview process, including having multiple team members sit in on or conduct interviews to gain various perspectives. The hiring decisions are based primarily on a value match, with a lesser emphasis on skills and experience. The first step for new hires is culture onboarding, where the hospital owner spends several hours with them to talk about the team’s culture and values. Values conversations are later incorporated into team meetings and annual reviews.
5. Enact Integrity Through Modeling Values-Based Behavior
You’re a veterinarian who moved across the country. You apply at a practice that spends a good chunk of the interview talking about values, and, to your delight, the hospital’s values closely align with yours. On your first day at work, the practice manager takes you aside and asks about all your favorite parts of being a veterinarian. She assures you, “I’m writing these down so we can be sure to give you ample opportunities to do the things that bring you joy.” Midday, the medical director takes you to lunch off-site and spends the entire time getting to know you not as a veterinarian but as someone with unique hobbies, family, friends and quirks. After a few days of onboarding, you come in for your first day of appointments, and the technician team has balloons and your favorite ice cream cake waiting. (The medical director was listening.) You begin to imagine, “Where did this magical place come from?”
Now imagine the hospital owner, who told you about the importance of integrity in the practice’s culture, is in an appointment. While he’s in a treatment room with a technician, out of earshot of the client, you hear him say, “I know we don’t have lepto around here, and this dog spends 99% of his time on her lap. But I bet I can get her to run the $300 lepto test. That’ll up my average transaction for today.”
Suddenly, everything that felt good about the practice comes crashing down in a cascade of doubt and dismay.
Leaders who fail to model the values they espouse fail their teams in insidious and often immeasurable ways. Dr. Mercurio and his colleagues found that a leader’s values modeling is essential for a team member’s job satisfaction, experience of meaningful work and turnover intention. The practice I described had the strongest association with employee turnover.
Veterinary leaders must consistently walk their talk.
6. Give Employees Freedom
If I had a puppy for every veterinary team member who complained to me about a micromanaging boss, I’d be buried in puppy breath for the rest of my life. One of the explanations for our collective aversion to being micromanaged is our deep psychological need for autonomy. There’s a difference between setting a goal and dictating how someone will achieve it. The failure to separate those two things is among the most common leadership flaws in veterinary managers.
We don’t get happy, high-achieving team members from a command-and-control approach to leadership. That tactic leads to people jumping ship and into the warm waters of other job opportunities. Job satisfaction comes, in large part, from a meaningful sense of autonomy at work.
Dr. Mercurio suggests that effective leaders instill a sense of values-bounded freedom in their teams. For example, if you aim to ensure that appointments never exceed 30 minutes, you can empower your team by stating: “I’d like to see appointments completed in less than 30 minutes. If you have an appointment that might take longer, I want you to know you have as much freedom and flexibility as you need so long as whatever you do fits within our hospital values.”
For too long, we’ve led our veterinary teams and organizations from a foundation built on a combination of management tactics and intuition. As Dr. Mercurio often says, intuition is not an effective leadership strategy. Our teams are made up of human beings with human needs. No veterinary professional gives their best without feeling at their best. Our teams will care as much about their jobs as their leaders care about them. That’s the essential lesson of research like this. It’s high time we translate the data into daily leadership practice. That way, we’ll build a profession that is a boundless parade of daily joy.
LEARN MORE
The Center for Meaning and Purpose at Colorado State University offers online courses on positive psychology, positive career counseling and coaching, and positive organizations and leadership. Visit bit.ly/3VNHLl1 for additional information.
STORY ARCHIVE
Josh Vaisman is a frequent contributor to Today’s Veterinary Business. Check out:
- “Cultivating the Veterinary Garden,” bit.ly/garden-TVB
- “The Four P’s of Positive Leadership,” bit.ly/fourPs-TVB
- “What Is Professionalism?” bit.ly/professionalism-TVB