LAUSR

Leadership. We acknowledge its importance, indeed both the RCVS and the BVA have identified developing the next generation of exceptional leaders as fundamental to the sustainability and success of the veterinary profession.1 But what exactly does it mean? A definition of leadership is notoriously difficult to find. A Google search on the term results in 300 million hits and Amazon’s book department stocks over 100,000 titles referring to the term. The body of scientific literature is vast and shifting, with new models and theories constantly emerging, but there is a paucity of literature relating to the term in the veterinary context. The study by Pearson and others,2 summarised on p 460 of this week’s issue of Vet Record, is therefore a timely investigation into the experience of senior veterinary leaders. While the desire to produce exceptional leaders is laudable, defining and understanding leadership in the veterinary context is essential to shape the development of relevant competency frameworks and develop a clear concept of the term to which vets and nurses can aspire to. Pearson’s paper identifies this lack of definition, with its subjects describing leadership as ‘intangible’ and ‘something that has passed us by’. Leadership has been a hot topic in the medical industry for some time. It has been consistently linked to improving organisational performance, such as …