Friday - continued from last week - click here if you missed it. I woke up the next morning to an alarm, not a phone call, so that was pretty awesome, but then I walked to the bathroom, turned on the light, and saw the most disgusting thing that I’ve seen in years, and for someone who sews up prolapses for a living, that’s saying something. It was frightening, it was a mess, it was… It was how I look in the morning with vanity lights. Thankfully they were on a separate switch, so I turned them off quickly. Despite that frightening turn of events, I rolled out of bed at 6 A.M., feeling surprisingly energized given my long day the day before. I attended the WVLDI (Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative) breakfast that morning. It was another great networking event, and a chance to discuss important topics for women in the profession. There were many women, including my fellow Emerging Leader from Missouri, who were carrying around and feeding infants during the convention and at the breakfast that morning. This was so beautiful and encouraging for me to see. Many others were missing their children from home, running to their rooms on what little breaks we had to pump. Young women are now the face of veterinary medicine, but women are very underrepresented at the leadership level. My graduating class at the University of Missouri in 2012 was about 85% female, which is pretty common across the country. Dr. Karen Bradley, founder of WVLDI, attended a House of Delegates meeting in 2013 with her 7-month-old daughter and her mother along to help with the baby. She posed the question of, “Why don’t we have daycare available for people?” Another delegate, a man about her age, agreed, but this question was widely irrelevant to most other delegates, mainly men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. That same question was actually posed at the breakfast that morning. In 2013, there were 29 women out of 136 members of the House of Delegates of the AVMA. That number had increased to 45 in 2015, which is a big improvement, but far from where we need to be. That being said, broad-sweeping change doesn’t happen overnight, and women need to sit at the table and participate. Lack of women in leadership positions is not just a problem in the veterinary profession, and there are many societal reasons for this. If you are interested in reading more about that, I highly recommend Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. I was also encouraged by the level of participation of men at that meeting. After the breakfast and good discussion, I headed to a workshop and then spent most of the afternoon learning more about emotional intelligence and social awareness. It would be great if someone could travel around and give seminars on such topics to the general public, politicians/government workers, and basically everyone just as a public service. A fascinating thing we discussed was connecting with people’s emotions, but supporting that with data (otherwise it’s just manipulation). Most veterinarians or science-minded people make their decisions based on data, statistics, and research. We’re really good at laying out all the facts and possibly boring you (clients) to death in the process. We don’t do this to try and prove what a big brain we have, this is just how most of our minds work. One thing I learned at this convention: Most people don’t really care about data and research, and they definitely don’t make their decisions or change their behavior based on that. What?! How is this possible?! People want to be shown a truth that connects with their emotions. Huh! This is probably not mind-boggling for most of you reading this blog, but for this left-brain nerd, it was quite the eye-opener. The evening was full of networking events and dinner with other members of the MVMA. Walking back from dinner, it was great to discuss the topics of that afternoon, leadership, and our potential roles in it all. I also continued to gawk at parking garages the size of skyscrapers, and one of my favorite buildings in downtown Chicago, the Chicago Tribune building. Saturday Woke up again at 6 A.M. for ANOTHER breakfast. This was when the exhaustion finally started to hit me. As much as I craved getting more sleep, I’m also not one to skip breakfast, so I rolled out of bed and downed some coffee. It’s a good thing that I made it to breakfast because the President of the AVMA happened to sit next to me, and I got to pick his brain about his experiences. I asked him about work, about his role as president, and of course, what type of caffeine gets him through the day because that’s the most important thing you can ever ask a person who seems to have it all together. The Plenary meeting that morning, while fascinating, was hard for me to get through. I have a relatively short attention span, especially when sleep deprived, and two and a half hours was pushing it for me. I. Needed. Coffee. We moved on to more leadership topics with the Emerging Leaders that afternoon. We did a lot of exercises involving getting in touch with your emotions, and even drawing happiness charts. Like most veterinarians or scientifically minded people, getting in touch with my emotional side really isn’t my forte. That’s what Downton Abbey and Cold Stone Creamery are for. While drawing our happiness chart, I was starting to realize that my nickname of “Robot” in high school was somewhat justified. That being said, it’s probably a good exercise for anyone to do. We got a whole hour break later that afternoon. I debated squeezing in a workout, but decided there wouldn’t be enough time and settled for watching Alaskan Bush People. I had to watch at least some cable TV. I don’t have such luxuries in rural Missouri. After some amazing HDTV therapy, the House of Delegates winter session was fascinating. The House of Delegates is composed of a delegate and alternate delegate from 70 territory and allied medical groups. Association policies are set by the House of Delegates, so it was interesting (at least for me) to watch. It was quite interesting to watch the painstaking process in any policy change or amendment. I still have a very basic understanding of this entire process, but it was interesting to become more familiar with it. This is why sometimes change can take awhile, but this process is not something you necessarily want to rush. While discussing this with the House Advisory Chair the following morning at breakfast, he noted that there are two things you don’t want to see made: sausage and law. But usually, the end product is pretty good in both cases. Well, I can definitely say that’s the case with sausage. While sitting at a table with various veterinary leaders later that day, they looked to me for insight as to what new graduates are facing. Not one to mince words, I noted that many women in the profession are facing challenges due to lack of paid maternity leave or support during that time in their lives. I thought a few of their heads might explode after I said this. After some of the comments that followed my statement, I thought MY head might explode. I have the utmost respect for (most of our) leaders in the veterinary profession, but a profession that is mostly female needs to be represented at the leadership level. Period. And this misunderstanding and and somewhat contentious conversation was a prime example of that. More diversity at the leadership level is needed to spark discussions like this, and these discussions need to be encouraged. It was quite amazing to see so many smart, amazing, hardworking women in one place among the emerging leaders, even though women are still relatively absent at the higher levels of leadership. This is an exciting time in our profession, and waves of change are certainly coming. I’m excited and hopeful that I can be a part of that, even in a small way. After learning so much, trying to broaden horizons of other professionals, and just being my amazing self, I had no trouble sleeping that night, with the twelfth re-run episode of Alaskan Bush People as my nighttime lullaby lulling me to sleep. Sunday Last day of the convention! I was still enjoying my time there, but like many conventions, I was running on fumes at this point. Everyone was getting a little tired and slap happy, so Sunday breakfast was becoming more like stand-up comedy. I have an extensive joke repertoire (some appropriate, some not), so do not make the mistake of getting me started with jokes. Thankfully, no one seemed to mind. We closed up the meeting with a great talk in bridging the gap between generations (namely Boomers vs. Millennials). I got on the plane and capped off my trip by spilling my entire glass of Coca Cola in my lap. I really don’t recommend doing this ever, but especially on a small airplane. It made the walk outside in 8o weather quite unpleasant. To conclude this “to-be-continued” long blog post, my take-homes from this trip are relatively simple. I am thankful to the MVMA for giving me this opportunity to learn more about leadership, myself, and getting to network with my colleagues and people of influence. We’re all in positions of leadership, whether we like to think of it that way or not. Whether we’re leading our siblings, our children, our employees, or our peers in a local organization, our influence can have quite an impact and ripple effect. Being a good leader involves influencing a group of individuals to achieve a common goal, which is a lot harder than it sounds. Most importantly, it’s using that social influence for the greater good. I’m not perfect. I still have a lot to learn, but anyone can be an effective leader with the right tools and motivation. Even if that means you have no free time to sleep or watch Real Housewives. Although, the ladies on that show could teach us a thing or two if we needed to be a slightly psychotic leader who throws tables, punches, and slurred insults around. I’ll save those lessons for the next family get-together.
1 Comment
Bekki
1/27/2016 05:21:09 am
Lean in, lady!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Jessica Stroupe, DVM
Archives
August 2017
|