VETgirl spotlights influencing upper management in practice

VETgirl has released a new practice leadership podcast, “How to Have More Influence on Upper Management in Your Practice,” featuring founder Dr. Justine Lee and guest Randy Hall, founder and CEO of VetLead. According to the episode listing, the conversation focuses on how veterinary professionals can influence upper management “responsibly and respectfully,” framing influence as a learned workplace skill rather than a title-dependent privilege. (podcasts-online.org)

The episode arrives as leadership and culture have become more prominent topics in veterinary continuing education. In October 2023, VETgirl announced a collaboration with VetLead to expand leadership-focused educational content for veterinarians, veterinary technicians, practice managers, and other emerging leaders in the profession. VETgirl said at the time that it had maintained a leadership track since 2019 and wanted to keep growing that library, signaling that management development is now being treated as a core part of professional education, not a side topic. (vetgirlontherun.com)

That broader context matters. VetLead describes Hall as a longtime leadership coach with prior senior learning and development roles at Bank of America and Pfizer Animal Health, and says he launched VetLead in 2018 after recognizing that veterinary practices faced profession-specific leadership challenges. The company’s current offerings include a 12-week Veterinary Leadership Program, CE-accredited workshops, and a library of podcasts and articles focused on accountability, communication, and team engagement. (vetlead.com)

While the full VETgirl episode text is not publicly available, the topic aligns closely with Hall’s published guidance elsewhere. In VetLead materials, he repeatedly stresses that leaders need to listen well, create engagement, and move away from authoritarian management habits. In a recent VetLead article on turnover, Hall argued that leadership blind spots often show up long before resignations do, especially when practices slip into survival mode and stop hearing concerns from the floor. That gives the VETgirl episode a practical subtext: influence upward isn’t just about personal career growth, but about surfacing problems early enough to protect team stability. (vetlead.com)

Industry reaction appears to be less about this single episode than about the larger demand for management education in veterinary medicine. Other veterinary leadership programming, including NAVC and independent practice-management content, has increasingly centered on communication styles, coaching, conflict, and real-world management challenges, reflecting a market in which clinical skill alone is no longer seen as enough for sustainable practice performance. That makes VETgirl’s decision to keep publishing leadership content notable, especially on a platform better known for clinical CE. (navc.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, especially technicians, supervisors, and associate veterinarians, the ability to influence upper management can directly affect workflow, morale, retention, and patient care. In many hospitals, frontline employees are the first to spot friction points involving scheduling, staffing, client communication, inventory, or culture, but they may lack a clear path to be heard. Educational content that teaches people how to raise concerns constructively, frame ideas in operational terms, and build credibility with decision-makers could help practices address problems earlier and reduce the kind of disengagement that often precedes turnover. That’s especially relevant as veterinary employers continue to compete on workplace culture as much as compensation. (vetlead.com)

What to watch: The next signal will be whether VETgirl and VetLead continue building this series into more structured workforce education, such as certificate tracks, workshops, or team-based leadership training, and whether other CE providers keep following suit as management capability becomes a more explicit part of veterinary career development. (vetgirlontherun.com)