with Complexity
Leadership in complex situations is not linear and cause‐effect‐solution pathways are rarely useful. Good leadership requires an ability to appreciate complexity, that there may be more than one potential solution or where optimal outcomes overall may have unwelcome, unpredictable and/or unintended consequences elsewhere in the organisation. Developing the capacity to accept and hold this complexity without being crippled by doubt, fear, and the need to understand is necessary to be able to function and take action. In complex systems, seeing the effect of action, and being prepared to adapt accordingly, might be the only way to move forwards.
Overthinking complexity can lead into a maze of overcomplication that is difficult to get out of. On the other hand, not recognising complexity can lead to a failure to account and plan for, and adapt to, unpredictable outcomes. The simplicity minded leader will carry on with the same approach even when it is clear to those looking on that it is not having the desired consequences and that a different tack might be needed. In a veterinary context this is akin to increasing the dose of an antibiotic in the face of anti‐microbial resistance.
3.2.5 Systems Literacy
This is an awareness of how different organisation systems function. The veterinary professions are complex open systems, as discussed (Chapter 2), and different organisations will have different dynamics (Chapter 6). A good‐enough leader has awareness of the system in which they are leading, and this comes, in part, from an ability to step on the balcony and to hold complexity. But it also includes much more ‘mundane’ information such as who reports to who, who holds the purse strings, what interactions there are between departments and individuals, what mechanisms are in place to get things done, what gets in the way of effective functioning.
Whilst understanding the system around you, it is important not to get too bogged down in ‘one way of doing things’. Have a look at other organisations and systems. How do they work, and what are their key features? Get involved elsewhere if you have time and inclination; there are plenty of commercial, voluntary, professional, and charitable organisations that would be happy to provide a great learning experience in exchange for your services (See Chapter 6).
If you do not understand the way organisational systems work, you cannot know which levers to pull or, thinking strategically, might need to be changed to enhance the efficacy of your own domain.
Helga was on a mission to build a new kind of pathology business. She knew she wanted to bring the pathologist into the heart of case management, and she had ensured she had all the training and qualifications she needed. But she was less confident about how businesses worked. Obviously, she had some experience of practice and working in a university during her residency training, but there were plenty of other models out there. She resolved to find out and used her network to negotiate visits to a range of laboratories and other businesses in the next couple of months, as well as speaking with friends and colleagues to truly understand what she would need to build into her business vision.
3.2.6 Political Awareness
All human organisations are social and, therefore, political. Politics is about the use of power and influence to get what you want (implicitly in service of the group – see ‘Socialized Power Motivation’). Part of leadership is assessing and understanding who wants what, who they might be influencing to get what they want, what power they yield (see Chapters 5 and 6), who they are in conflict with, and how to balance leadership needs with potentially unaligned needs of others by use of power and influence.
‘Playing politics’ is not a complimentary attribution and in leadership you have to be careful with the use of your political power. If it is yielded in a way that is deemed unfair and/or self‐interested, your leadership function will, ultimately, be compromised. You are at risk of becoming surrounded by acolytes rather than supporters.
On the other hand, if you are too naïve and do not appreciate the currents of power that are ebbing and flowing around you, you run the risk of being undermined and losing credibility so that your ability to lead is dangerously compromised or you are even bypassed completely.
3.2.7 Environmental Awareness
Veterinary leadership occurs in a complex socio‐political environment. An awareness of the external environment, be it market forces, social movements, veterinary politics, or changing business dynamics, are important for being able to function and make sensible decisions. Even for those who are leading at a less strategic level, it helps to be able to understand and, if necessary, explain, why things are being done in certain ways and to be able to outline the wider context. For those at the upper ends of organisations, being able to read and respond to external influences is a critical leadership competence.
This does not mean all veterinary leaders have to plunge into veterinary politics; this can be a distraction from your primary purpose. But leadership should be well read, well‐networked, and able to appreciate and understand the factors and powers that might be driving critical issues in one direction or another.
3.2.8 Strategic Vision
This combines most of the other competencies above so you can conceive of and visualise how your team, division, practice, or organisation needs to look in the future so as to maintain its efficacy and support its mission. It requires imagination and creativity grounded in the art of the possible and a broad understanding of what, and how, to change to get there.
Visionaries are legendary, but rarely do they succeed as leaders. When they do, we laud them and examine their brilliance, such as with Steve Jobs of Apple Computers, but there are few books written about visionaries who fail. Strategic vision needs to be tempered with confidence, certainty, and accuracy, and with caution, careful judgement, and appropriate sense‐checking and scrutiny.
Those who cannot read or react to inevitably changing circumstances (the world is changing all the time) run the risk of their position, role and function ossifying and becoming irrelevant or worthless as others adapt and evolve around them.
3.2.9 Creativity
Complex, dynamic, unfamiliar, and unanticipated situations require creative solutions. What worked then may not work now, so leaders have to think (and feel) on their feet and be imaginative. This may well be in collaboration with others and, for those with a technical bent, may be difficult without skills of delegation, empowerment, and trust. Creativity is about seeing things a different way and not taking certain ways of doing things for granted. That is how we always do things round here is the death knell of creativity.
Being creative for creativity's sake is not helpful. Colleagues will soon become frustrated or disillusioned with the leader who is always looking to be different; if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Save your creativity for when it is really needed and when the elegant, creative solution sweeps all objections before it. But do not stifle creativity, welcome, and respect all suggestions and reward (even with a simple ‘Thank you’) ideas that seem off the wall. The person with the wacky idea now might be the one with the life‐saving suggestion in the future.
