How to Run a Successful Veterinary Practice Without the Drama
Insights from Dr. Dave, Nicol CEO/Founder of The Veterinary Leadership Academy
Veterinary medicine has never been more complex. Teams are stretched thin, clients have higher expectations, staffing remains difficult, and many practice leaders feel stuck reacting to problems instead of leading proactively. During the recent webinar How to Run a Successful Veterinary Practice Without all the Drama, Dr. Dave Nicol challenged clinics to rethink what is really causing stress and dysfunction inside veterinary practices — and what leaders can do about it.
The session focused on a simple but important reality: many of the biggest challenges clinics face are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of deeper leadership and cultural issues that, if left unaddressed, continue to create stress, turnover, and burnout across the practice.
According to Dr. Nicol, “Things feel unsustainable as they are. These are existential threats we cannot afford to ignore.”
The Pressures Facing Veterinary Practices Today
Early in the presentation, Dr. Nicol outlined six “brutal truths” affecting veterinary medicine today: pet ownership trends, economic pressure, public trust fractures, internal culture challenges, labor shortages, and the current state of veterinary education.
These challenges are not happening in isolation. Together, they create an environment where practices often operate in constant survival mode. Teams feel overwhelmed by urgent tasks, leaders struggle to find time for strategy, and workplace tension becomes normalized.
One of the clearest takeaways from the webinar was that many clinics are unintentionally prioritizing operational survival over long term leadership.
Leadership Has a Direct Impact on Culture
One of the most compelling parts of the webinar focused on how leadership behaviors directly influence practice culture. Dr. Nicol referenced research from Leadership Actions and Their Effect on Veterinary Practice Culture that examined the relationship between leadership and overall culture scores within veterinary practices.
The findings were striking:
- Leaders without clear vision, time, or the ability to recruit and address toxicity scored an average culture score of 5.3 out of 10
- Leaders who demonstrated those leadership behaviors scored an average of 8.0 out of 10
The webinar also highlighted several common leadership gaps inside veterinary clinics:
- 44% of practices reported having no clear vision
- 3 out of 4 practice owners said they had no time
- 4 out of 10 practices reported toxic behavior
- Nearly 8 out of 10 struggled with hiring and recruitment
These issues are often connected. When leaders do not have time to lead strategically, culture weakens. When culture weakens, recruiting becomes harder. When recruiting becomes harder, teams become even more stressed and reactive.
As Dr. Nicol explained, “If you focus your time on the right activities as a leader, your culture WILL improve.”
Toxicity Cannot Be Ignored
A major section of the webinar focused on toxic workplace behaviors and the damage they cause inside veterinary teams. Dr. Nicol discussed examples such as gossip, exploding egos, unresolved conflict, and fear of confrontation.
The message was direct: avoiding difficult conversations does not protect culture. It slowly damages it.
“Toxicity wrecks culture and causes untold damage to team and individual health,” Dr. Nicol said.
The presentation outlined several consequences of failing to address toxic behaviors:
- Increased stress
- Higher staff turnover
- Damaged workplace culture
On the other hand, practices that actively address toxicity often experience:
- Cultural transformation
- Reduced stress
- Improved performance
Perhaps the strongest statement from the session came when Dr. Nicol shared:
“If you don’t deal with toxic people, you will have a bad culture — whatever else you do.”
For many veterinary leaders, this can be one of the hardest areas to tackle. Clinics are busy, relationships are personal, and conflict often feels uncomfortable. But the webinar reinforced that leadership means protecting the health of the entire team, not just avoiding temporary discomfort.
Vision Gives Teams Direction
Another key topic throughout the webinar was the importance of creating a clear vision for the practice. Dr. Nicol explained that many veterinary professionals have been taught to focus entirely on clinical work while unintentionally neglecting the leadership side of running a business.
“We have been taught badly what vision is and how to create one,” he said.
The presentation encouraged leaders to think beyond day to day operations and define:
- Purpose
- Mission
- Values
- Why the practice exists
- How the team works together
Without a clear vision, practices often drift. Hiring becomes inconsistent, culture becomes reactive, and teams struggle to feel connected to something bigger than daily tasks.
Dr. Nicol emphasized that strong vision helps create alignment and boundaries inside a practice:
“Create an effective vision to rally others around your unifying purpose.”
Leadership Requires Time and Prioritization
One of the most relatable parts of the webinar centered around time management. Many veterinary leaders feel buried under endless urgent work, leaving little room for strategic leadership.
Dr. Nicol described this as one of the biggest blockers to effective leadership inside practices. The webinar used examples of how clinics often spend time reacting to “operational disaster management” instead of focusing on leadership activities like strategic planning, culture building, and operational management.
The consequences of reactive leadership include:
- Constant firefighting
- Lack of priorities
- Lower value work dominating the day
But clinics that intentionally prioritize leadership can:
- Regain control
- Create opportunities for their teams
- Focus on higher value work that improves the entire practice
One of the final takeaways summarized this perfectly:
“You are going to have to choose to put something down so you can pick leadership up.”
Successful Practices Are Built Intentionally
The webinar closed with an optimistic but realistic message. Veterinary medicine will continue facing challenges, but practices are not powerless against them. Leadership actions matter. Culture matters. Vision matters.
“When we focus on these leadership actions our outcomes will transform,” Dr. Nicol said.
The clinics that thrive over the next several years may not necessarily be the ones working the hardest. They may be the ones that create healthier cultures, invest in leadership, communicate clearly, and intentionally build sustainable teams.
As Dr. Nicol concluded:
“If we all take leadership seriously and prioritise specific evidence based leadership actions we can run successful vet practices, without all the drama.”