"Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can't get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn't even matter."
— Gilbert Amelio
communication has always been a downfall for me. i think it is because when i was a kid, the only opinion or thought that matter was my dads. there was not room for anyone else to argue or give their opinion. it was do it this way and keep your mouth shut. not using it as an excuse but rather a starting point for moving forward. i have struggled always to be an effective communicator but make excuses for it doesnt fix the problem. i dont like confrontation, i get this from my mom. she always gave it, never stood up for herself or her thoughts. once again, not an excuse but a place to start. when we start to inspect our lives and we find things that we dont do well or that we would like to change, it is more effective if we know why or how we got to where we are. i guess for me this is how i think every day. someone brings in a sick pet and it is my job to back track them to the beginning of the sickness. what i am seeing on the table is that way because of some other things, it is those other things that i need to know so that i can fix the problem and not just the symptoms. i need to force myself to effectively communicate with people. i tend to be very blunt and not use a bunch of emotions when talking to my employees and it freaks them out and is totally ineffective so i tend to not say anything. this is something that i know that i need to master in order for me to be an effective leader. regardless of how i feel about someone or something, i need to learn to communicate in a way that works for each individual person as they all have histories and things that make them the way they are as well. good leaders are constantly trying to learn and be more effective communicators. im putting this at the top of my list for things that i need to work on! i dont want to be just the best veterinarian i can be, i want to be the best leader of those who work for me as this will make my whole team the best!