b'ARTICLEClive Elwood MA VetMB MSc MS (Ashridge) PhD FRCVSpractised as a specialist in private practice for 20 years, including ten years as Managing Director of Davies Veterinary Specialists, before retraining as an executive coach. He holds a Masters in Executive Coaching from Ashridge Hult Business School and is a European Mentoring and Coaching Council Senior Practitioner. As the founder of Trellis Coaching and Consulting Ltd., Clive brings together understanding, empathy, warmth, curiosity, challenge, and support to his coachingco-creating a safe space for his clients to think, feel and grow. In December 2021, his book, Leadership in Veterinary Medicine, was published through Wiley-Blackwell.Veterinary teams will, to varyingFigure 2degrees, include veterinary professionals and paraprofessionals, non-clinicalWho colleagues and, importantly, clients. Butare wewhat is a team, and what is effective?Specic A team is a group of individuals workingaims Individual Clarifying Sharedneedstogether to a common purpose, wherePurpose: The Iterative Process of Team diverse contributions and the qualityMission Developmentof inter-personal relationships allows goal attainment which is greater Unifying than the sum of the parts.Teams arepurpose Commonalitieschallenging, sophisticated, dynamic, amazing entities, requiring energy and investment to create, develop and lead. So, do you need a team, or would a workof effort, the working environment, and group do (figure 1)? Is the task complex,the coherence (or not) of stakeholder does it require constant re-assessmentneeds. Effective teams nevertheless and adjustment, are the relationshipshave common features (figure 1).between the individuals critical to task achievement? If the answer is Yes, youBroadly, enablers of team performance need a team. include the potency or agency of the The definition of team effectiveness isteam (can it make a difference), the context dependent and influenced bypsychological safety within the team factors such as the primary goal andand the civility of interactions, shared success criteria, the time window formental models (including team purpose performance, the need for sustainabilityand values) and effective diversity of experience, knowledge, skills, and behaviours.Figure 1 Diverse Creating the teammembership What is your teams purpose? Can you succinctly define its mission? It might be SharedShared purposevery clear and short-term e.g., To rescue leadership and valuesthis trapped horse or more flexible and Key Factors Inuencing Team Effectiveness:long-term e.g., To attend to the health A Context-Dependent Model and welfare needs of our patients. The purpose will greatly influence the team Mutual Effectiveaccountability communication created. Clarifying shared purpose and motivations is an iterative process which Psychological develops as a team builds (figure 2).safetyIndividuals within a team will have www.inspiredvet.co.uk35'