003: The Most Essential Skills For A Successful Vet Practice Manager w/ Susan Wyman
While doctor and nurse may come immediately to mind you think of possible careers in a vet clinic, there’s more to running a successful clinic than just the medical specialists. Today we get into the nitty gritty of what it takes to thrive in one of the most demanding - and essential - roles in any clinic: Practice Manager.
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Show Notes:
Susan Wyman started out with a degree in Wildlife Biology, got certified as a vet tech, and had a successful teaching career at a veterinary school in Colorado that she loved, before finding her way into the role of practice manager. Since diving into the role, she’s fallen in love with the diversity, challenges, and rewards of managing a busy vet clinic, and shares with us what skills are important for any practice manager, as well as what clinic owners should be looking for when hiring one.
We dive into the importance of communication, how to manage challenges both internally from your staff as well as externally from customers, why it’s essential to develop your community, and a whole bunch more.
What have been your go to’s for problem solving? Do you have a community that you go to for support and ideas? If so, how did you develop that community? Leave a comment below!
In this episode:
- The skills required to be a great practice manager
- Tips on how to keep healthy communications open with staff and management
- How to start your own community to support you and help you grow in whatever your role is
- How to build a strong and successful team
Quotes:
“I have to change the way I think about things instead of the things being black and white. Sometimes they are not and you have to make them grey and think about both sides and be like, ‘Well this is the client's perspective and this is our perspective.’ We only see one side so sometimes you have to keep an open mind about things and look at every single aspect of the situation before making a decision.” (20:12)
“I understand that not everybody is the same as me. I totally get that, but when you are in this position where you are shown all these different personalities and you just have to keep an open mind that you are going to have to figure out a way to deal with those other personalities even though they may be conflicting with your own. And, you have to do it in a professional, respectful way otherwise you are not going to get things accomplished and people are not going to look up to you and not be on your side. Therefore, you may not be as successful as a team as you would want to be.” (31:59)
Links:
Practice Management at the AMVA