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The Management Pages Campbell’s recipe for success A CLEAR STRATEGY, LEADERSHIP AND TEAMWORK are the essentials of a successful enterprise, whether that is running a veterinary practice or the private office of the most successful Labour Prime Minister in history, attendees at the SPVS-VPMA congress were told. Alastair Campbell, the son of a Yorkshire veterinary surgeon and the communications director for former premier Tony Blair, was the opening speaker at the meeting of veterinary practice owners and managers in Newport on 29th and 30th January. Having helped organise the Blair government’s trio of general election victories, Campbell retired from politics and earns a living as an author and motivational speaker. His books include Winners, an analysis of the reasons for the success of noted figures from sport, politics and other areas of public life. “But being a winner is not about trophies or titles, it is about a mind-set. It is about setting yourself objectives and trying to meet them. They can be anything – running a marathon, losing weight or writing a book,” he said. While those attending the meeting were responsible for providing the strategy and leadership for their business, Mr Campbell highlighted the importance of colleagues back at the practice in providing the teamwork that is the third key element. He recalled that during the election campaigns of 1997, 2001 and 2005, his first concern had been to ensure the happiness of the group of bus drivers who were responsible for transporting the Labour entourage and media to events around the country. The schedule would often change at short notice and so it was essential to ensure their drivers’ co-operation. “They were not going to get out of bed with the same zeal if they did not feel part of what’s going on.” He acknowledged that a breakdown in teamwork had been one of the main reasons for the failure of the Labour party to secure a fourth term, due to the strained leadership between Blair and his chancellor Gordon Brown. He maintained that the employer’s colleague and eventual successor had been both brilliant and impossible to work with. But in politics, unlike sport, it may be impossible to sack a resentful teammate because they have to stay on the pitch, he said. He advised his audience to make sure that succession planning in their own business is better organised than that for the end of Tony Blair’s period as Labour leader or that of Sir Alex Ferguson, the former manager of Manchester United and one of the “winners” interviewed for his book. One of the characteristics of successful leaders like Sir Alex has DON’t FORGET TO UPGRADE your equipment ASSET FINANCE SPECIALISTS FOR YOUR VET practice RURAL PRACTICE • CITY PRACTICE • ANIMAL HOSPITAL • REFERRAL PRACTICE Founded in 1995 and supported by the world’s strongest financial institutions Peregrine Finance, has grown to become one of the UK’s leading independent finance providers. With a wide range of products, finance terms and minimal deposits, we are able to tailor a solution specific to your needs. www.peregrinefinance.co.uk salesdesk@peregrinefinance.co.uk CALL US ON 0870 241 7679 FOR A COMPETITIVE QUOTE Peregrine Finance is a trading style of Peregrine Asset Finance Ltd, registered in England number: 4208223. Peregrine Asset Finance Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority number FRN649227, Peregrine Finance offers financial facilities to UK businesses only through a number of authorised funders, a list of which is available on request.
VP MARCH 2016 BUSINESS & FINANCE 37 Addressing the gender imbalance WOMEN NOW MAKE UP MORE THAN HALF the population of practising vets in the UK – so is it still appropriate to be discussing the shifting gender balance as a challenge for the profession? Veterinary practice management consultant Sarah Page-Jones thinks not and considers the implication that women vets present a problem for their male colleagues a little insulting. “I wish people would stop talking about the feminisation issue – we are not an issue, we are Sarah Page-Jones. vets,” she said. Nonetheless, she does believe there is a concern over lack of representation at the highest levels of veterinary businesses for the estimated 57% of the practising arm, and around 75% of veterinary undergraduates. Speaking in a session on Leadership and Gender, she pointed out that only about 12% of vets at the owner, director or partner level are women. So she argued the need for measures that will encourage women to develop a greater role in managing the businesses where they currently work in disproportionate numbers as assistants. Part of this problem is due to societal attitudes to what leadership means – the term is traditionally associated with character traits such as decisiveness, independence and reluctance to compromise that are generally regarded as the preserve of alpha male-type personalities. So women suffer when they take on those supposedly masculine attributes if they become leaders in a business or if they choose to remain cautious, collegiate and flexible – and are then regarded as unsuited for the role. “You are seen either as a bitch or a bimbo – there is nothing in between,” she said. She challenged the assumption that there is only one effective leadership style. Women will often excel at the social skills – team building, understanding the views of others and working collaboratively, which are equally important aspects of a successful management team. Indeed, she suggested that a hyper-aggressive masculine approach to leadership may be counterproductive if, for example, it leads to a manager deliberately creating a crisis in order to demonstrate his ability to rescue the situation. Holding back progress A factor that is certainly holding back the progress of women into senior management roles is that the leaders will often be responsible for choosing their successor and a traditional male leader will usually pick someone who appears to show the same qualities that he had as a younger man. Incidents of overt discrimination against women when applying for senior positions are probably rare these days, Ms Page-Jones suggested. However, ambitious women should be aware of the existence of “second generation” biases – more subtle and usually unstated attitudes towards what women can and cannot do. It is necessary for women vets to recognise when these barriers are put up against them and be prepared to challenge those male, and sometimes female, colleagues who hold such views, she said. Leadership skills may not come naturally to most men and women but there is training available to help nurture these abilities. Such gender-neutral training is likely to benefit both male and female students although there is evidence that women will develop much stronger leadership skills if they receive that training in single-sex groups, she suggested. Lt Col Neil Smith, a past president of the RCVS, was one of the few male veterinarians attending the session. He wondered if offering special training for female practitioners might help to perpetuate the gender stereotypes that Ms Page-Jones was trying to break down. He also wondered whether it was a sign of impatience to be worried about the progress of women into management roles in practice when the change in gender balance within the profession has been such a recent and rapid phenomenon. There could be no similar concerns about lack of representation for women in the leading veterinary organisations when 10 of the 19 candidates for election to RCVS Council in 2014 were females and the six successful candidates were an equal mix of men and women, he suggested. Nevertheless, the veterinary profession still has work to do in addressing equality issues. It was important to encourage a more diverse profession that is no longer so heavily dominated by white, middle-class and privately-educated graduates, he said. Being mindful of mental health matters MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED AS A PARTICULAR RISK for the veterinary profession, which has made huge advances in helping colleagues who struggle to cope. But is enough effort put into tackling the underlying causes of these issues and – after a successful recovery – could patients find their careers blighted by the stigma that still attaches to mental illness? This is what speakers at a panel discussion were asked. Alastair Campbell, former “spin doctor” for the Blair government and now a mental health advocate, joined two veterinarians willing to share experiences of dealing with their own personal crises for the debate. This came a year after the launch of the RCVS’s Mind Matters project – one of many initiatives intended to address the veterinary profession’s dreadful record on suicide and severe psychiatric disorders. Mr Campbell felt that improved prospects for those suffering mental illness reflected changing attitudes in the wider society rather than top-down initiatives: “We never know where this change comes from but it’s not from government,” he said. “Legislation doesn’t lead changes in attitude like those we have seen to gender equality or smoking. Often it reflects it.” Mr Campbell insisted that being able to deal with a breakdown caused by stress and alcohol addiction was the “best thing that has ever happened to me” and has helped him to become a better person. But he acknowledged Campbell’s recipe for suucess – continued been their ability to pick the right team and be prepared to test players out in unfamiliar roles. Mr Campbell, whose own struggles with mental health issues have been well documented, believed that managers should also be willing to place their faith in colleagues with unconventional ideas. He offered a lengthy list of hugely successful people like Winston Churchill, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin and Florence Nightingale who all suffered from mental health “problems” like depression or obsessive personalities. Another distinguishing trait of many of the successful people discussed in the book was their perfectionism which drives a quest for constant improvements in their performance. Mr Campbell recalled his conversation with the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci who achieved the first perfect 10 from the judges at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. that he was in a fortunate position and many people dealing with similar problems would have to keep them hidden for fear of losing their job. Veterinary surgeons may be especially reluctant to acknowledge that they are no longer coping with their problems because of their self-appointed role as the solvers of problems for others, suggested Richard Hillman, founder of a successful Midlands practice and former president of SPVS. He described his experiences of a breakdown two years ago caused by overwork and the financial pressures of managing a business. He explained the treatment that helped him overcome those problems. Yet he acknowledged that he, like managers of any business, may think twice about recruiting someone who was candid about having had mental health problems. He suggested that loneliness is a major factor in the aetiology of such disorders and may particularly afflict those at the beginning of their careers as well as those with senior managerial responsibilities. Heather Niman, a young graduate continued overleaf Alastair Campbell, Amy Martin and Heather Niman. Ms Comaneci did not believe she could have achieved perfection in her routine on the asymmetric bars, insisting that she had done better in training before the event. “It was her own belief that there is always room for improvement – whatever the judges say – that drove her on to more Olympic gold four years later,” he explains in the book. Another trait essential to success in any field of activity, Mr Campbell argued, is the capacity for reflecting on one’s own performance and learning from any mistakes. One of the less well-known figures interviewed for the book was the Irishman Colm O’Connell, a Roman Catholic missionary and school teacher in Kenya who was drafted in as coach of that country’s hugely successful team of middle and long distance athletes. “The winner is the loser who evaluates himself correctly,” O’Connell told him.
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