Judy Gillespie of VetAnswers wrote a great article and posted it to the High Performance Vets LinkedIn group. Not a member? Click here and join in the discussions (Membership is restricted to veterinarians and those in the industry).
The article was titled “There is always room for the best in the industry”. You can read it here.
On social media lately, there has been a lot of angst regarding the oversupply of veterinarians and how it is affecting the whole profession.
This is my reply to Judy’s article:
There are a lot of people focussing on what is wrong with our profession. Yes, we should not have our heads in the sand about the current realities. However, having worked at many different practices, none of them were maximising the potential of their practice. If you keep looking at the problem, you won’t be able to see the solution.
This is true for many individual veterinarians as well. With the increased number of veterinarians in the market and employers looking at costs, then considering employing veterinarians who cost less than highly experienced colleagues, you need to stand out.
Keep asking yourself “Why should they employ me? What can I bring to this practice?” and instead of talking yourself down to yourself by remembering all your mistakes, look at all your great points, wins and what you are great at & what clients have commented you on.
Start focussing on new opportunities, keep learning and building skills so that you are an asset to your practice, not an expense. Learn how to translate this into tangible results so potential employers can see that you are a MUST HAVE for their practice.
My strengths are clients. Building strong client relationships by understanding what clients want and their fears and frustrations & building trust. So your strength does not have to be your veterinary skills. However, everyone needs to have a solid foundation of veterinary knowledge and skills. Without this it doesn’t matter how good you are in other areas.
There are other aspects that will contribute to your success that all veterinarians should be building skills in as well e.g. leadership, communication, emotional intelligence, influence, sales, marketing.
Everyone has a chance to excel in their career. Don’t ever think just because your aren’t a rockstar cardiologist or surgeon, you can’t be a great vet! We will always need talented, passionate GP’s in practice.
Your thoughts?
If you are an associate and don’t know how to assess your strengths or worth in practice, contact me.
Natasha
