Everyday leadership: make your mark

Views: Commentary 309 T current world of veterinary medicine is a challenging place, but each obstacle provides an opportunity to create profound change. Every individual is capable of leadership, and even though the process of leadership is unique to each person, basic principles of leadership can be taught and learned. Understanding leadership and assuming a leadership role are important for veterinarians because, as Kouzes and Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge, have stated, “When the leader in everyone is liberated extraordinary things happen.” The AVMA created the Future Leaders Program after identifying a need to help veterinarians develop leadership skills early in their careers and increase their involvement in organized veterinary medicine. We were selected as the inaugural participants in 2011 and our year-long program will come to completion during the 2012 AVMA Annual Convention in San Diego. As part of the Future Leaders Program, we were instructed to work together as a team on a focused project that could be expected to have an impact on organized veterinary medicine. During our early discussions, we identified the workplace, society, and organized veterinary medicine as the main areas where leadership is important for veterinarians and where development of new skills that can promote leadership and drive change is critical. For our project, therefore, we elected to create a series of personal leadership development tools that can be used by all members of the veterinary profession. Everyday leadership: make your mark