Leadership Training Inspires Large Animal Clinic
Twenty faculty and staff members of the UC Davis veterinary hospital’s Large Animal Clinic recently completed a leadership training seminar to maximize efficiency and morale among the team. The Zoetis PeopleFirst™ Leadership Certificate Program covered four 2-day sessions spread out over seven months for a total of 70 hours. Those who participated received continuing education credit for their achievement.
The program covered learning points such as: employee engagement, learning styles, effective communication, active listening and time management. The lessons were enhanced by group discussions, brainstorming and newfound awareness of similar and different challenges. An overwhelming consensus taken away from the training was an eagerness to share this exercise with other members of the team and begin implementing the outcomes.
An example of content covered in the sessions is the impact of employee engagement on performance. Increasing employee engagement leads to more opportunities to excel and optimize efficiency, which leads to enriched patient care and client experiences. A takeaway to engage the rest of the hospital was to foster a collaborative, productive and harmonious working environment that supports a cohesive team. A team actively “on the same page” creates the best possible patient outcome.
Understanding different learning styles was another pathway to a better team performance. Some people learn by seeing an activity performed, while some find it best to read or hear about the activity. For others, it’s learning how to do something by being hands-on. Realizing that there isn’t a “one size fits all” learning process, and adapting to different styles can still ultimately lead a large group to the same end point.
The participants created strategies to encourage team members throughout the hospital, and presented them to hospital leadership. Several services are implementing new approaches to the everyday work environment. Faculty and staff supervisors are better influencing the working climate and boosting morale by focusing on the entire team’s well-being and the concept of “everyone contributes and everyone matters.”
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