Our series on “Champions for Change” will feature people of any gender in any role who are making a difference and creating positive change for women in the veterinary sector – enabling aspirations, inspiring and supporting others to grow and follow their passions, and empowering our community.
Kerrie Hedley is Chief Operating Officer for XLVets and co-founder of the Veterinary Women In Leadership initiative – a collaboration between Veterinary Woman and XLVets to inspire and facilitate strong, healthy, representative leadership of the future across the veterinary industry.
Kerrie received two separate nominations for Champions for Change: her colleague Susan Goodfellow said: “Kerrie has worked hard to raise awareness of the need to support women in leadership roles within veterinary. She has sought to combat inequality, raise awareness of leadership, see more women thrive, and has worked to create an environment that will allow more women to reach and enjoy leadership roles within the veterinary sector.” A nomination from another veterinary professional commented: “In particular, Kerrie has made a difference through her MBA research into the barriers and enablers to female vets becoming business leaders, and her ongoing work at XLVets and beyond to increase the representation of women in all leadership roles across the veterinary professions.
Read on to find out how Kerrie is making a difference and championing change for women in the veterinary professions.
Please provide a brief bio/summary of your career story:
I’d wanted to be a vet since about age 4 and I started my working life as a receptionist and auxiliary nurse in my local vet practice at 14 following my school work experience. I graduated from the RVC in 2011. I went straight into 100 per cent equine practice and worked for two different XLVets practices.
I absolutely loved everything about XLVets and had really enjoyed the business side of practice, so when a 12 month maternity cover role for Equine Business Manager came up at XLVets, I thought I’d give it a go! Nine years later, I’m still with XLVets and my role is Chief Operating Officer.
The transition from Equine Vet to Chief Operating Officer has been a journey I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, and which has enabled me to keep learning and developing. I’ve done a CertVBM and an MBA, as well as coaching and mentoring along the way. I loved being a clinical vet, and I use exactly the same skills every day in my role. My drive to make a difference and nurture others is more than fulfilled in my role at XLVets.
Please summarise how you are working towards change in the veterinary professions and why do you feel this is important?
In 2019, I completed my MBA dissertation project which was an exploratory study into the barriers and enablers to women in the veterinary profession becoming business owners of veterinary practices in the UK. There were high levels of interest across the profession in taking part in that research, and a second phase was broadened out to explore the barriers and enablers for women to be leaders. Building on this research, we have aimed to action many of the enablers to women in leadership. The change we’re working towards is for increased representation of women as leaders within the veterinary profession; not to fill a quota where women are getting a leadership role because they’re a woman, but to create a world where gender is not the limiting factor.
“Leadership isn’t a role. Everyone has the potential to lead.”
It is really important that there is equal opportunity for women to be leaders in our profession, not least because we are a feminised profession, yet stats show the number of women leaders is far from proportional. The benefits of having women in leadership positions has been well evidenced: businesses are more collaborative and profitable, and there are higher levels of empathy, fairness, innovation and creativity – things that would benefit all businesses!
One of my greatest learnings from my MBA project was the correlation between self-identification as a leader and leadership development. I’m really passionate that leadership isn’t a role. Everyone has the potential to lead. I like Brene Brown’s definition of leadership: “Anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.”
Therefore, I believe the language we use around leadership is important, often we inadvertently tell people they aren’t leaders when we describe leadership training courses, or when leadership is regarded as only specific senior positions. This makes leadership seem unattainable, when actually it is available to us all.
How do you feel this is making a difference?
I think that measuring success around the Veterinary Women in Leadership initiative is a long game and tricky to objectively measure. We have seen a 103 per cent increase in the number of women business owners within the XLVets community over the last 5 years. And several women have reached out to me from the original research focus groups to say thank you, and that the opportunity to hear other women’s career stories made them see leadership was possible and achievable for them. These women shared that they have subsequently taken the leap to apply for a new role, have taken on more responsibility, or it has changed how they show up at work. This feels like real change catalysed by the project.
“We have seen a 103 per cent increase in the number of women business owners within the XLVets community over the last 5 years.”
What motivated you to want to change things?
During the research focus groups, I had the great privilege of hearing women’s career (and life) stories and heard about many of the barriers they faced along the way. This included overt discrimination in the workplace from both men and women. I feel very fortunate that I don’t think I’ve faced those challenges to the same extent, and having heard some of the enablers, I felt compelled to do what I could to improve things.
Additionally, I have recently returned to work after 15 months of parental leave. Having children, juggling childcare and the preconceptions about what is possible as a mother in the workplace was a significant barrier to women as leaders – “the motherhood penalty”. Again, I’m incredibly fortunate to have had amazing support on my return to work, and I think that better support for returners is a key action all workplaces can take to knock down the barriers to leadership. I feel I have personal experience I can offer to support this change through mentoring and development of a community.
What are your next steps to continue creating change for the better?
We are just in the planning stages of a third phase of Women in Leadership research to see what has changed and how we can best enable veterinary women as leaders, so we will use that to inform our plans for the coming years. In the meantime, we will continue to share different career stories to show what is possible (“if you can see it, you can be it”), connect women to support each other through our mentoring platform and offer the opportunity to gather and connect at events throughout the year.
Additionally, XLVets have launched their returners community this year which brings together people returning to work for any reason to support them on that journey. While it is not just for women, I think it will be an important enabler to increasing women in leadership roles.
Kerrie can be contacted as a Veterinary Women In Leadership mentor or at kerrie.hedley@xlvets.co.uk
Our thanks to Kerrie for sharing her inspiring story of how she is championing change. If you would like to nominate a Champion for Change or share your story, please let us know.
For exclusive access to more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly newsletter
You may also like:
Veterinary Woman ‘Champions for Change’
Champions for Change – Dr Katrin Jahn
Champions for Change – Racheal Marshall