A veterinary sector organisation has outlined the aim of expanding its leadership mentoring programme after recent analysis revealed challenges and weaknesses within the sector.
Research unveiled at the VMG’s 2024 congress revealed a majority of participants felt they had little or no understanding of financial performance assessment or strategic planning.
The group already offers a support programme to aspiring leaders, with 20 mentors currently signed up to share their expertise.
‘Call to arms’
However, officials hope that the report will serve as a “call to arms” for more leaders to share their skills and experience with a new generation.
VMG director Chris White said: “The report was a real kind of reminder [that] this is a really good way of tackling some of the challenges that are highlighted.”
The drive to increase mentoring within veterinary leadership reflects the broad consensus that recognised the need for improvement at the congress in Stratford-upon-Avon.
But the agreement was also accompanied by warnings that a lack of support for people working in leadership roles can lead, and has led, to some leaving the sector altogether through disillusionment.
Coaching importance
Andrew Penker, an existing VMG mentor, and founder of the XSectorMentor platform that the group also uses, said the report had demonstrated the importance of coaching and mentoring for leaders to be effective in their roles.
He said: “What we’re trying to do is make sure that coaching and mentoring skills are really accessible for people.
“If we can upskill them, then there should be a material difference in how people engage with others at work.”
The current VMG mentoring programme is intended to enable participants to shape the experience by shaping priorities and limitations, as well as assessing preferred learning styles when they first sign up, before they are given a shortlist of potential mentors based on their answers. The scheme also offers a range of online resources and evaluation tools.
Data from one practice, which has been working with the scheme, found 78% of respondents felt they understood how to set up a coaching or mentoring relationship either completely or very well, compared to around 29% in the VMG report.
At present, most of the scheme’s mentors are not matched with mentees, and officials admitted the programme had not been actively promoted in recent times.
Access support
However, as well as matching existing mentors, the group hopes that more will also offer their knowledge and time in the coming months to enable more aspiring leaders to access support.
Mr White said past surveys, which highlighted poor management as one of the main reasons for staff to consider leaving their jobs, highlighted the scale of the potential problem and the importance of addressing it.
He added: “Anything that we can do to improve the leadership and management capabilities of people in leadership roles within the veterinary world, then we would hope to see that shrink.”
For more details, visit the website.
Credit to: VMG embarks on mentor drive for veterinary sector leaders (Vet Times)
Vet Times. (2023). VMG embarks on mentor drive for veterinary sector leaders [online]
Available at: https://www.vettimes.co.uk/news/vmg-embarks-on-mentor-drive-for-veterinary-sector-leaders/
