065: The Importance Of Empowering Female Leaders w/ Dr. Doug Aspros

Apr 2, 2019

Former President of the AVMA, current Chief Veterinary Officer at Veterinary Practice Partners and founding board member of the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative (WVLADI), Dr. Doug Aspros has an impressive resume spanning many fields of veterinary medicine. Throughout his different positions, Doug noticed a lack of female representation in the board room. He decided to do something about it and helped create WVLADI as a response to this lack of diversity in veterinary communities. On this episode, Doug helps us analyze the male lens, its influence in veterinary medicine, and everything in between.

Doug believes in raising your hand and saying yes to life in order to open doors and works to help others, women in particular, have access to better opportunities. By opening your work culture to as many types of people as possible, you will achieve greater success and create lasting happiness in your workplace. Today Doug helps to breakdown exactly how we can prepare women to take on higher leadership roles, as well as how we can alter these positions to better meet the responsibilities and needs of women.

Creating a more flexible, dynamic and stress-free work environment leads to more productivity and satisfied clients, and Doug believes the key to this is giving individuals the chance to be whoever they want to be. By understanding the artificial impediments standing in the way of women and helping them knock them down you can help promote women to their fully realized roles in our profession and in society.

It is time to help women realize their potential and encourage them to seek higher leadership positions for the betterment of our entire industry.

Does a specific woman come to mind when listening to Doug’s inspiring feminist mentality? Give them a shoutout in the comments section on the episode page!

 

In This Episode

• Advice to those who want to take action and see more representation in leadership
• Why including women in leadership should matter to men
• Finding a diversity balance in leadership to achieve greater success
• What you can do to encourage a more flexible approach in your workforce
• Why working fewer days can lead to being more productive in the short and long term
• Bonus Fact - What life is like living with a Grey African Parrot

 

Quotes

“We haven’t evolved the way we work in veterinary medicine in a way that really supports women and allows women to act as leaders and enjoy their careers.” (6:43)

“There are a lot more women in the room, but I want to make sure there are whole lot more women in the room 10 years from now.” (8:48)

“If you want to get any group into more prominence and give them more opportunity, you have to actually make that happen. And you can't make that happen if you don't will it to happen.” (14:24)

“We all got into this profession because it actually is a wonderful profession and there are just so many good things about it, but the things that aren't great about it lets fix.” (23:07)

“This is not just somebody else's problem. You as a member of the veterinary community, this is part of your problem too. And it is important for you to understand it and play some role in fixing it.” (34:37)

“I'm proud of whatever contribution I have made to make this profession better.” (39:50)

 

Links

Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative Website

Veterinary Practice Partners

 

Find the full show notes here 

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