Tag: leadership
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Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Tool #7: The Containment Tool
How leaders hold emotion without fixing it One of the hardest things for leaders to learn is that support does not always mean solving. In caring professions like veterinary medicine, leaders are often drawn to the role because they want to help. They want to reduce suffering, make things better, and restore order when things…
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Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Tool #5: The Boundary Tool
Why clear boundaries protect teams, not distance them Boundaries are often misunderstood in leadership. They get framed as cold, rigid, or unapproachable. Something that creates distance between leaders and teams. In caring professions like veterinary medicine, leaders may even avoid boundaries out of fear they’ll seem unsupportive or uncaring. In reality, boundaries are not about…
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Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Tool #4: The Repair Tool
Why strong leaders don’t avoid missteps, they repair them No leader gets it right all the time. That’s not a character flaw. It’s a reality of leading humans in high-pressure environments. And yet, one of the most damaging leadership myths is that good leaders shouldn’t need to repair anything. That authority is weakened by apology.…
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Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Tool #3: The Clarity Tool
Why clear expectations are an act of care, not control One of the fastest ways to increase stress on a team is surprisingly simple. Unclear expectations. Most leaders don’t intend to be vague. In fast-paced environments like veterinary medicine, expectations often live in someone’s head instead of being spoken out loud. Everyone is busy. Everyone…
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Why Veterinary Medicine Is So Expensive (and Why That’s Not the Same as “Overpriced”)
Few topics create as much tension in veterinary medicine as cost. Clients feel shocked and overwhelmed.Veterinary teams feel blamed and misunderstood.Conversations become emotionally charged on both sides of the exam table. To understand why veterinary care is expensive, we have to move beyond emotion and look at how the system is designed. The reality is…
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How Lean Six Sigma Can Be Applied to Veterinary Medicine (Without Losing the Human Side)
Lean Six Sigma is often misunderstood in veterinary medicine. It’s frequently associated with manufacturing, rigid productivity metrics, and pressure to do more with fewer people. In a profession built on care, ethics, and emotional labor, that association can feel deeply misaligned. But Lean Six Sigma, when applied correctly, is not about squeezing people. It is…
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Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Tools
A practical series for leading humans doing hard work This series is for leaders who care deeply, work in high-pressure environments, and want tools that actually help teams function better, not just sound good in theory. Each post introduces one emotionally intelligent leadership tool, explains why it works, and shows how to use it without…
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Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Tool #1 : The Reset Tool
Do you consider yourself a fun leader? I do. And I’m not afraid to say it. Not because work is a joke, but because tension is real, especially in veterinary medicine, and teams need healthy, intentional ways to release it. Fun leadership is often misunderstood. It gets lumped in with being unserious or unprofessional. But…
Heart and Mind VetMed 