b'EMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE,VETERINARY WOMAN CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGEACHIEVE & LEAD TOGETHERKerrie HedleyCHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, XLVETS Kerrie Hedley is Chief Operating Officer for XLVets and co-founder of the Veterinary Women In Leadership initiativea 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 Championsrepresentation of women as leaders within the veterinary for Change: her colleague Susan Goodfellow said: Kerrie hasprofession; not to fill a quota where women are getting a worked hard to raise awareness of the need to support womenleadership role because theyre a woman, but to create a world in leadership roles within veterinary. She has sought to combatwhere gender is not the limiting factor. inequality, raise awareness of leadership, see more womenIt is really important that there is equal opportunity for women thrive, and has worked to create an environment that will allowto be leaders in our profession, not least because we are a more women to reach and enjoy leadership roles within thefeminised profession, yet stats show the number of women veterinary sector.leaders is far from proportional. The benefits of having women S U M M A R Y A nomination from another veterinary professional commented:in leadership positions has been well evidenced: businesses areId wanted to be a vet since about ageIn particular, Kerrie has made a difference through her MBAmore collaborative and profitable, and there are higher levels of 4 and I started my working life as aresearch into the barriers and enablers to female vets becomingempathy, fairness, innovation and creativity - things that would receptionist and auxiliary nurse in mybusiness leaders, and her ongoing work at XLVets and beyondbenefit all businesses!local vet practice at 14 following myto increase the representation of women in all leadership roles school work experience.across the veterinary professions.Leadership isnt a role. Everyone has theI graduated from the RVC in 2011. I wentRead on to find out how Kerrie is making a difference and straight into 100 per cent equine practicechampioning change for women in the veterinary professions. potential to lead.and worked for two different XLVets practices.Please summarise how you are working towards changeOne of my greatest learnings from my MBA project wasI absolutely loved everything aboutin the veterinary professions and why do you feel this isthe correlation between self-identification as a leader XLVets and had really enjoyed theimportant? and leadership development. Im really passionate that business side of practice, so when a 12In 2019, I completed my MBA dissertation project which wasleadership isnt a role. Everyone has the potential to lead. I month maternity cover role for Equinean exploratory study into the barriers and enablers to womenlike Brene Browns definition of leadership: Anyone who takes Business Manager came up at XLVets, Iin the veterinary profession becoming business owners ofresponsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, thought Id give it a go!veterinary practices in the UK. There were high levels of interestand who has the courage to develop that potential. across the profession in taking part in that research, and a second phase was broadened out to explore the barriers andTherefore, I believe the language we use around leadership enablers for women to be leaders. Building on this research,is important, often we inadvertently tell people they arent we have aimed to action many of the enablers to women inleaders when we describe leadership training courses, or leadership. The change were working towards is for increasedwhen leadership is regarded as only specific senior positions. www.veterinarywoman.co.uk 7'