The veterinary professions are facing a crisis in recruitment and retention: workforce shortages are a key challenge, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and recent rise in pet ownership. In the 2021 RCVS Workforce Summit, 65% of respondents stated they experienced conflict between their wellbeing and their professional roles. The most common reasons respondents intended to leave the profession were poor work-life balance, not feeling rewarded or valued and chronic stress. The key driver for the intention to leave the profession was a lack of job satisfaction.1
An important starting point in addressing some of the issues affecting the wellbeing of veterinary professionals is compassion: a key value in the veterinary profession applied not just to patients and their owners, but to each other and ourselves.
What is compassionate leadership?
Compassion can be defined as ‘a sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it’2.
Compassionate leadership involves focusing on relationships by listening to, understanding, empathising with and supporting others. This enables people to feel valued, cared for and respected and cultivates an environment in which we can thrive and reach our potential. There is direct evidence that compassionate leadership improves performance, innovation and quality improvement in healthcare settings3. Compassionate leadership also increases staff engagement and satisfaction, resulting in better outcomes for organisations.4
Compassionate leaders behave in ways that show genuine interest in those they lead, listening with curiosity, working to gain a shared understanding of the challenges they face and taking action to help or support them. They are focused on enabling their colleagues to thrive and be effective in their work, and rather than coming up with all the answers, to engage with others to create shared solutions.
For leadership to be compassionate, it must also be inclusive. Having positive intentions, concern for others and a deep understanding encourages trust, promotes belonging and mutual support, creating an environment of psychological safety in which team members feel able to give feedback, share their ideas and concerns, admit mistakes or ask for assistance without fear of negative repercussions.
Team dynamics are key – it is the collective behaviours of the team that determine whether individuals feel safe and willing to speak up. This leads to a more diverse range of perspectives being heard and considered and fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Team members feel their contributions matter, which helps them become more engaged and motivated, and better decisions can be made when information is freely shared.
Four behaviours of compassionate leadership
Attending
Listening with curiosity and interest to the challenges, frustrations and obstacles others are experiencing, as well as to their ideas and successes.
Understanding
Exploring others’ perspectives and respecting and valuing differences to gain a deep understanding of situations people are struggling with rather than leaders imposing their own understanding.
Empathising
Experiencing and mirroring colleagues’ feelings without being overwhelmed by the emotion and unable to help.
Helping
Taking thoughtful and intelligent action to support others; removing obstacles and providing the resources people need to do their jobs to the best of their ability.
Naomi Strange and Lynne Gaskarth, directors of Drove Vets, Swindon, share some thoughts on what compassionate leadership means in their practice:
“Leading with compassion often means we have to ensure we have those difficult conversations and show that we care enough to give feedback and invest in that person’s development. Its sometimes not an easy balance to strike but creating a listening culture where empathy and understanding of the individual are prioritised is crucial,” comments Lynne.
“At the root of leading with compassion is knowing your team on a personal level, what makes them tick, what concerns them, what their ‘bigger picture’ involves. We encourage everyone to bring their whole selves to work but building a relationship with someone takes time, effort and trust.”
Naomi agrees: “Ultimately compassion has to be genuine, you can’t give mixed messages with what you say and what you do. Trust is earnt.”
Leadership competence
For effective leadership, compassion must be combined with wisdom – meaning that leaders demonstrate competence. There is still the need for leaders to make hard decisions, to give tough feedback, resolve conflicts or deliver disappointing news. Leaders need a deep understanding of people and how to manage them towards agreed aims.
Showing compassion does not mean avoiding difficult conversations, losing commitment to high quality performance or taking the easy, consensus way at the expense of patients. It also does not mean losing the ability to challenge the status quo and make radical change to improve outcomes; rather, it means creating an environment where collective focus and responsibility means that challenges can be met constructively and with humanity.
Compassionate leadership requires courage to move away from hierarchical, top-down management, work towards the collective good and meet people’s needs for autonomy, belonging and contribution that allow them to feel their work is meaningful and that they matter as individuals.
References:
1. RCVS Workforce Summit 2021 https://www.rcvs.org.uk/news-and-views/publications/recruitment-retention-and-return-in-the-veterinary-profession/
2. Paul Gilbert, The Compassionate Mind, Robinson 2009
3. Michael A. West, Compassionate Leadership; Sustaining Wisdom, Humanity and Presence in Health and Social Care, Swirling Leaf Press 2021
4. Dawson & West, 2018 https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/employee-engagement-sickness-absence-and-agency-spend-in-nhs-trusts/
For exclusive access to more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly newsletter
You may also like:
Building Great Workplace Relationships
What’s in a name? The different styles of leadership