LEADERSHIP
CVPA
"Unleashing Access to Care"

"L" LEADERSHIP REVOLUTION

Leadership on the Brink: 6 Strategies to Repair and Rebuild
  • When Leadership Fails, and How to Fix It
  • Any organization requires one element above all others to succeed: effective leadership. This is true for businesses, governments, non-profits, and schools. At their best, leaders set the tone, drive performance, and cultivate an above-average organizational culture. But what happens when organizations have leaders that don’t accomplish these basic mandates? The effects ripple through every level of the place—morale goes in the dumper, trust erodes, productivity drops, and all-time high turnover rates seem just around the corner.

  • Causes of Leadership Failure

  • 1. Absence of Vision
  • A primary responsibility of leadership is to formulate and convey a well-defined vision. When leaders don't express with clarity where the organization is going and why, the teams are left navigating without a compass. This void can lead to a sort of free-for-all in which the organization might be pulling in many different directions as people pursue a sort of 'any-ship-in-a-storm' philosophy. Navigate with poor internal compass for long enough, and you end up in a sort of crazy maze with no exit.

  • 2. Inadequate Communication
  • Leadership breakdown often begins with communication. This encompasses not only the frequency with which leaders communicate, but also the clarity, transparency, and authenticity with which they do so. Ambiguity, mixed signals, or lack of information can foster suspicion and withdrawal.

  • Communication is not just about speaking—it is also about listening and responding with meaning, about understanding contexts and perspectives, about knowing when to say what and when to say nothing.

  • 3. Control Freaks and No Empowerment
  • When leaders cannot let go of the control or fail to delegate, they stifle innovation and ownership.

  • Control suggests a lack of trust in others' capabilities, which good teams and very smart people can work around but only if they aren't demoralized. Controls create a morale problem with stifled teams because they also inhibit growth.

  • Effective leaders allow their teams to be innovative and autonomous while supporting and expecting accountability.

  • 4. Ethical Problems and Untrustworthiness
  • Leadership is built on trust. Trust once lost is seldom regained. When leaders fail to uphold ethical standards—be they in financial matters, showing favoritism, or being transparent—they lose the authority to lead and take down many of us with them. You cannot have real leadership without integrity.
  • 5. Resistance to Feedback and Change
  • Leaders who do not embrace feedback or adjust to the changing environment become roadblocks instead of progress catalysts. Arrogance, complacency, and rigidity are the three warning signs that are easiest to spot. If a leader is unwilling to listen or pivot, when necessary, the team is in danger of pursuing outdated strategies that could lead to an organizational decline.

  • 6. Not Developing Others
  • Leadership is not a solo act. Failing leaders often neglect to mentor or develop future leaders. They may hoard knowledge, fear competition, or simply overlook the importance of succession planning. This short-sightedness weakens the organization’s future prospects.
How to Fix Failing Leadership 1. Reformulate an Obvious Vision and Strategic Direction. The initial move in dealing with leadership breakdown is to hit the brakes and recalibrate. Leadership teams must work in concert to craft a clear, almost painfully obvious vision, and then they must work even harder to communicate that vision throughout the organization. This step cannot be done too many times or with too many different mediums to reach all the different ways people take in and process information. 2. Cultivate Open Communication When you pursue transparency, you prioritize it. This means that to build a culture of open communication, communication at all levels of the organization must first be made open. 3. Empower Through Delegation and Trust Leaders should place their trust in teams and assign them empowering responsibilities of a meaningful nature. They should give them the kind of support that helps them complete the tasks they have been given. This is kind of like a 50-50 deal between the designated leader and the designated team when it comes to carrying out the significant actions that the designated team should carry out in order to achieve the goals for which the designated leader and team are held accountable. 4. Lead with Integrity and Accountability The ethical tone of an organization is set by its leaders. When error is made, leaders must say, "It was my fault," and yes, even say it in public if the error was significant enough. Why is it that it seems many organizational leaders are now so unwilling to say these "magic words"? And why do so many organizational leaders appear to be very uncomfortable with these simple acts of contrition that at least 19 U.S. presidents have shown over the last century? 5. Welcome Advice and Never-Ending Learning Channels for upward advice must be created. Leaders must ask for it regularly, conduct 360-degree reviews, and must be willing to learn and adapt. Leadership must be on a continuous track, including coaching, mentoring, and always more thoughtful reflecting. 6. Leadership Development and Succession Planning Invest in and prepare your future leaders for the task of leading. The ones who can and will lead in the future are already on your company payroll. Your job is to identify them and help them achieve their potential through a career path, solid pay, challenging assignments, trainings, and some of that good old mentorship. Those who lead from within the company pave the way for future mentoring and foster ongoing engagement both internally and externally. ### Article by Bob Murtaugh, DVM, MS, DACVIM, DACVECC, FCCM murtdvm.com / Leadership Revolution

"L" LEADERSHIP REVOLUTION

Are My Leadership Skills Stuck in the 90's?
  • 5 Strategic Leadership Skills to Manage Multigenerational Teams To efficaciously lead a business team of members from different generations requires a flexible and inclusive leadership approach. Working with a workforce that is increasingly multimodal, adopt a leadership style that recognizes differences. When leveraging teams' strengths, seek an asset-based rather than a deficit-based approach. This is particularly important when leading different generations, as each (and all) team member has expertise and experience to offer when working together.
  • "Every generation must have the freedom to act for itself, while all generations learn and thrive through the shared experiences and knowledge of one another."
  • Open communication is essential so you can quickly get back on the same page whenever conflict arises between two or more different ideas of where team members might be heading.
  • 1-Understand Generational Characteristics
  • Distinct values and work preferences characterize each generation and shape their contributions to the workplace.
  • • Baby Boomers: This group has a strong work ethic, is loyal, communicates well with others, and prefers traditional leadership styles over innovative, modern ones.
  • • Generation X: This generation is the most independent and adaptable. It prizes work-life balance. It likes direct communication with clear expectations. It notices when achievements are recognized. And it looks for "yes" leaders, not "no" leaders.
  • • Millennials: This generation collaborates exceptionally well and leans heavily on technology. However, it seeks authentic, meaningful achievement in its work and regular feedback when done well.
  • • Generation Z: This generation of digital natives embraces diversity, values authenticity and flexibility, and prefers immediate feedback.
  • 2-Adapt Communication Methods
  • It is vital for effective communication to bridge the generational divides.
  • • Utilize different methods of communication: Rely on email for formal communication, instant messaging for quick exchanges, and in-person discussions for anything complex.
  • • Offer different kinds of feedback: Give immediate, specific feedback to your younger colleagues and broader, more strategic input to their older counterparts.
  • • Listen with intention: Notice nonverbal communication and ask questions to clarify or confirm your understanding.
  • 3-Promote Mentorship and Knowledge Sharing
  • Mentorship promotes working together and passing on knowledge from one generation to the next.
  • • Cross generations: Pair employees of different generations. The older half can share industry expertise and insights into how the field has developed and matured. The younger half can enlighten their mentors and, by extension, the company with their insights into emerging technologies, product development, and the thinking that leads to innovations.
  • 4-Foster a Culture of Inclusivity
  • Establishing an inclusive environment guarantees that all team members feel respected and significant.
  • • Celebrate diversity: Identify and laud (and even LOVE) the unique perspectives and experiences each generation brings.
  • • Address biases: Examine your organization's potential age-related biases that work against fairness and inclusion and then address those biases.
  • • Encourage dialogue: Discuss the value of perspectives that differ from yours. Then, incorporate the discussions you have into your work.

  • 5-Embrace a Flexible Leadership Approach
  • Adaptability in leadership is essential for managing effective teams of diverse members because it allows a leader to:
  • • Empower team members: Leaders can give their team members autonomy and ownership over tasks aligned with their individual needs and strengths.
  • • Recognize individual strengths: Adaptive leaders can tailor their leadership styles to accommodate the variety of human work preferences and motivations.
  • • Set clear goals: Leaders must define clear expectations and performance metrics. This allows for some flexibility in how team members achieve those objectives.
Potential Challenges of Multigenerational Leadership When managing teams that span multiple generations, leaders may run into several tough nuts to crack. For one, as mentioned earlier, they face a communication gap. The fluffernutter of a Millennial's email may leave a Baby Boomer encountering a misunderstanding—create a unified standard of communication that all generations clearly understand. Then there's the workstyle issue. If an "Emotional Intelligence" conversation can't clear differences between two team members over a simple misunderstanding, what hope is there for the multigenerational team when workstyle differences and commitment variances create unavoidable tensions? Finally, as with any generation's character, leaders might find their team impeded by bad generational stereotypes. Addressing these problems effectively and harnessing the distinctive advantages of each generation allows leaders to create cohesive teams that thrive on diverse experiences. This tactic improves team collaboration and fuels innovation—critical ingredients for success in today's rapidly changing business environment. ### Article by Bob Murtaugh, DVM, MS, DACVIM, DACVECC, FCCM murtdvm.com / Leadership Revolution