August 2024

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education blog, guest blogger Randy Hall, Leadership Coach, Founder & CEO of VetLead, discusses 10 things that great veterinary leaders do in veterinary clinics. Read on to learn the key characteristics that define great veterinary leaders!

10 Things Great Veterinary Leaders Do

In every successful veterinary practice, there’s a leader who stands out. Not simply a manager, but a visionary who inspires their team to achieve extraordinary results. These exceptional leaders aren’t born; they’re made through a combination of cultivated skills, habits, and mindsets.

Leading a veterinary team presents unique challenges. You’re not just managing a business; you’re guiding passionate professionals dedicated to animal care in a high-stress, emotionally charged environment. It demands a special kind of leader – one who can foster trust, inspire collaboration, and ignite a shared passion for excellence.

Essential Qualities of Effective Veterinary Leaders

Let’s look at 10 key characteristics that define great veterinary leaders. These aren’t abstract concepts but actionable behaviors and mindsets you can develop to elevate your leadership and transform your practice. Whether you’re a recently promoted supervisor navigating new responsibilities or a practice manager seeking to enhance your skills, these insights can be a roadmap for your leadership journey.

Ask good questions

The more I work with great veterinary leaders the more I understand that their goal is not to give people information, but to make them think. We as humans, can’t unsee, unlearn or unthink, and so just by using questions that cause thought, we are able to expand people’s minds and therefore change their future.

Plan to show up at their best

Many of the great leaders I work with in veterinary practices big and small have a routine and pattern in the morning that helps them show up at their best for their team and their business. They purposely and consciously prepare to lead, rather than showing up and just hoping they can.

Build habits as much as skills

We absolutely need to develop our skills in order to be effective as a leader. But most of the skills we think about, such as coaching, leading change in our practice, creating engagement, sourcing and developing talent, also require that we simply do some key things consistently. Anyone can be a great coach, but the great ones build habits that allow them to consistently be the person that can help others improve, grow, and succeed.

Focus on leadership and management, and know the difference

Great veterinary leaders do not try to manage people. What normally happens when we think about people as things we need to manage, is that we end up telling them what to do, using incentives or consequences to motivate, and essentially wishing they were different. That’s far different from leadership designed to support, develop and coach in ways that help people become their best.

Learn about the team’s goals

Great leaders know that you don’t give goals to people, you discover the goals they have. They approach team members and clients alike with a desire to understand them, learn about them, and find a way to effectively support them in the pursuit of those goals. They know that people moving toward their own goals are more engaged, more productive, and more successful.

Understand that accountability is not something you do to someone

So often we hear the phrase “hold someone accountable.” But what that really means is that we issue consequences after they have done something wrong. Great leaders follow a process that helps their team think and act with accountability consistently, rather than just waiting until they don’t and then punishing them for it.

Know the difference between authority and leadership

Authority is simply the ability to make organizational changes in your veterinary practice. It might be compensation, or promotions, or shifts in work or responsibilities, or even employment. That’s not related to leadership in any way. A title like “Practice Manager” can give you authority but it does not make you a leader. Leaders cause people to think and work differently because of the way they interact with them, not because of the changes they make to the organization around them.

Continuously learn

You never stop becoming a better leader, exploring new ideas, new questions, new approaches to human behavior change or to creating a fully engaged team. Leadership is not a destination, it’s a continuous improvement journey that allows you to have more impact on an ever-growing group of people, who become better than they would have been without your support.

Think longer-term

There are so many times when we have to sprint in the veterinary day-to-day chaos. The end of the month, the end of the quarter or the end of the year, all present deadlines and measurement intervals where we rate performance and determine our worth. But the amazing leaders I have been around consistently think longer term. They focus more on progress and improvement than perfection, and they are willing to invest in potential in ways that cause it to emerge and produce amazing results over time.

View mistakes as opportunities

They know that humans learn by what they do next after a mistake is made. While repetition of the same mistakes over longer periods is rarely good, they know that anyone stretching, growing, trying new things or building new skills, will screw up more than they will be correct at first. They embrace those missteps as opportunities for improvement and a chance to create a new and better path forward, and they treat them as moments along the path to success, not as failures.

Nurturing Leadership Excellence in Your Veterinary Practice

The journey to becoming a truly exceptional veterinary leader is ongoing, marked by continuous learning, growth, and self-reflection. It’s about embracing challenges as opportunities, celebrating victories, and consistently striving for improvement.

Remember, leadership isn’t just about authority; it’s about making a genuine impact. By cultivating these 10 essential qualities, you can unlock your full potential, inspire your team, and create a thriving practice where everyone feels valued, empowered, and dedicated to delivering exceptional patient care.

Download the free resource “10 Things GREAT Leaders Do Consistently in Their Veterinary Practice” HERE!


Randy Hall VetLead

Author Bio:
Randy Hall, Founder & CEO, VetLead
Randy spent over 15 years of his career in the animal health industry. Since founding his consulting business in 2009, he has worked with thousands of veterinary hospital leaders and staff members to help them capture their full potential of their own veterinary practices.

This VETgirl online veterinary continuing education blog is written by VetLead. Please note the opinions in this blog are the expressed opinion of the author(s), and not directly endorsed by VETgirl.


  1. I recently became shift lead and I feel like this blog gave me a ton of great insight on how I can manage my new role. I always told my boss how I didn’t want my coworkers to think of me differently but this is a perfect example of what I meant I wanted to be like.

Only VETgirl members can leave comments. Sign In or Join VETgirl now!