Animal health pros and their customers who enjoy grilling beef will benefit from increased beef production this summer. This surge in output means the U.S. is headed for a meat bonanza. Steaks and burgers will likely rival prices of pork and chicken this summer. Source: AgWeb, April 17, 2017. Ground beef in grocery stores has dropped about 9 percent from a year ago, the … [Read more...]
10 inventory myths and mistakes
Phil Zeltman, DVM, tackles 10 myths and mistakes about inventory. Of his 10, these are true in almost every practice or inventory dependent business: Being reactive rather than proactive I know how much of each product we need Not having someone in charge Source: Veterinary Practice News, March 27, 2017. Having more inventory than needed costs your veterinary … [Read more...]
Stop apologizing for delayed email responses
“With email, we treat everything as if we’re in a hurry,” behavioral economist Dan Ariely explained. “There’s a huge difference between important and urgent.” Source: Science of US, April 18, 2017. How many people who email you are truly expecting an instant reply? Sometimes people make this clear, explicitly noting that they need an answer by the end of the day, or week, … [Read more...]
Timing euthanasia and hospice (includes videos)
Mary Gardner, DVM, discusses the educational needs for pet owners as pets reach the time for hospice or euthanasia. “You have to make sure you educate the owner about the disease the pet is facing and the progress that the disease is going to present to the family and to the pet,” she says. Source: Firstline, April 12, 2017. Remember clients are experiencing an emotional, … [Read more...]
Leaders also follow
The roles of leader and follower are interchangeable and depend entirely on the situation at hand. In most successful practices, the person closest to an issue at hand regularly provides the leadership when it falls into their area of expertise. In other situations, that same person is the follower. Effectiveness at both disciplines is one of the keys to a practice’s overall … [Read more...]
Update your LinkedIn profile
How to update your LinkedIn profile based on what you've done and where you want to go. Source: The Muse, March 2017. Figuring out what story to tell at different points in your career can be a challenge. But, you need more than keywords to impress on LinkedIn. Get creative as you update your profile and capture your “So what?” factor using elements that others tend to … [Read more...]
How mindful are you?
In our information-saturated workplaces, mindfulness is becoming as important as emotional intelligence and technical skills. Research shows that people spend almost 47 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing. This impairs their creativity, performance, and well-being. Source: Harvard Business Review, March 29, 2017. Take the … [Read more...]
Small talk can enhance the client-veterinary practice bond
Small talk plays an important role in everyday lives. In the veterinary practice, small talk is the first step toward building solid client–team relationships based on understanding and trust that result in improved patient-care outcomes. In subsequent meetings with the client, team members can refer back to what they learned from casual conversations about the client’s … [Read more...]
Live by Ancora Imparo
“In retrospect,” often begins a story about missed opportunities, augmented with regrets. The story ends with the admonition to “not make that mistake.” Occasionally, “in retrospect” will yield worthwhile advice that contains one real nugget. “6 Pieces of Advice Leaders Wish They Could Tell Their Younger Selves” is this kind of piece. Source: Forbes, September 19, … [Read more...]
Swine Science Online offers opportunity for students, current producers
Leading universities are collaborating to ensure the pork industry is led and managed by individuals who have broad educational and production experiences that prepare them for these roles. The effort, Swine Science Online, teaches scientific principles and management skills involved in pork production for an efficient and sustainable operation. Source: National Hog Farmer, … [Read more...]
5 essential questions in life
James Ryan, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, gave a 2016 commencement address that went viral. Lessons he presented are enjoying a resurgence of late. Ryan notes that if we regularly ask five questions, our chances for personal and professional success and happiness are higher than if we don’t ask them. The questions are: What? (seeks clarification) I … [Read more...]
Transitioning at work
With the acceptance of transgender people on the rise, more employers are adopting specific policies for workers who are transitioning. Julie Cook Ramirez shares one person’s story and discusses the trends in dealing with blurred gender-line realities. According to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2017 Corporate Equality Index, 82 percent of all Fortune 500 companies … [Read more...]
Lead, Coach, Manage
In my experience, the most effective and successful practices have a clear leader and effective coaches. Together, they efficiently manage the entire operation. We have written about leadership and management before. Today’s focus is coaching. Source: LinkedIn Pulse, March 12, 2017. The great sales coaches that I have known see teaching and training as a continuous need for … [Read more...]
Improve your finance skills, even if you hate numbers
If you’re not a numbers person, finance is daunting. “If you can speak the language of money, you will be more successful,” says Richard Ruback, a professor at Harvard Business School. Source: Harvard Business Review, March 31, 2017. Finance and accounting are very simple. It’s mostly addition and subtraction and occasionally some multiplication and division. There’s no … [Read more...]
Reverse zoonosis is an important global issue
Food animals are transported widely and interact with wild species that they would never encountered naturally. With rapid growth in animal production and an increase in movement of animals and people, a human pathogen in an animal could potentially move thousands of miles in just 24 hours. On top of increasing animal trade, we have a growing pet industry. Understanding how … [Read more...]
Depression now the leading cause of illness and disability worldwide
Failure to adequately address depression can lead to financial loss for families, employers and governments, notes the World Health Organization. Worldwide depression rates increased 18 percent between 2005 and 2015. Source: Science of US, March 30, 2017. Depression now affects more than 300 million people globally, but a stigma associated with the condition still exists, … [Read more...]
Test yourself: Define your sense of humor
Just for fun! Psychology researcher Rod Martin took a different tactic to measure humor, an amorphous, multifaceted concept, in a scientific way. Modeling his approach after recently developed tests to measure anxiety, he focused not on the jokes themselves, but on how respondents used humor in everyday life. The end result would become his signature work: the Humor Styles … [Read more...]
April is stress awareness month
There is a calendar event for almost everything these days. For 25 years, April has been stress awareness month. Industries such as animal health have become aware of stress in the last two years or more. Fueled by the loss of colleagues and friends, animal health pros are working hard to make changes in how we work, our expectations, physical limits and to provide resources to … [Read more...]
Make time for strategic thinking every day
No matter what your level, strategic thinking is a critical skill. It can always be improved. To hone your capacity to see the big picture, start by making sure you have a solid understanding of the industry and business drivers. Be proactive about connecting with peers in your organization and in your industry to understand their observations of the marketplace, and share … [Read more...]
Consider the consequences of action or inaction
We don’t resist change. We resist the fear of failure which is one of the two consequences of change. A change will either succeed or fail. No one is resistant to success, so our fear is failure. That fear sometimes prevents us from acting, which has its own set of consequences. Source: Vet Advantage, March 2017. Negative or positive consequences are great motivators in … [Read more...]
Wallace talks KC and the KC Animal Health Corridor
Craig Wallace, CEO, Ceva, U.S. Holdings, Inc. recently talked about the value of the Kansas City area to life sciences, especially animal health companies. As 2017 chairman of the KC Animal Health Corridor, Wallace invites animal health pros and investors to attend Global Animal Health Week in Kansas City, August 28-29. Source: KC Animal Health Corridor, March 3, … [Read more...]
Editorial – Resist setting goals you don’t care about
Animal Health Digest was born out of my desire to serve the industry that has been my career home for more than 30 years. Frustrated that I never seemed to have enough time to read what was being published on animal health topics spawned this idea nearly two decades ago. Ms. Saunders explains why my passion to read for an industry gave birth to a key focus are that aligned with … [Read more...]
Middle management is so exhausting
People are fascinated with the dynamics of power in organizations. They often focus on top leaders or how to deal with and motivate the more powerless workers. The reality is that most employees possess a middling amount of power and must repeatedly alternate between interacting with higher- and lower-power colleagues. The experiences discussed in this article are prominent … [Read more...]
There is no replacement for direct interaction
One of the primary reasons to get teams together has to do with the hardwiring of the human brain. Yes, our technology is constantly improving, which allows for more virtual meetings and geographically diverse teams. But, “building trust is a multisensory experience,” says Valérie Berset-Price. “Only when people are physically present together can they use all of their senses” … [Read more...]
Universal canine vaccination eliminates human exposure to rabies
MSD Animal Health/Merck Animal Health has announced the publication of a new study in the journal Vaccine. It demonstrates that universal canine vaccination is an effective public health policy for eliminating human rabies exposure. The study reviewed examples of a successful One Health collaborative strategy that focused on elimination of canine rabies as the most expedient … [Read more...]
Euthanasia, a vet’s perspective
Dr. Eric Barchas shares that euthanasia is the hardest and most emotionally challenging part of his job. And, he says, it has not gotten any easier as the years go on. He explains his approach and reasoning when it is time for a cat’s life to end. Source: Catster, March 14, 2017. Behavioral problems are a leading cause of euthanasia in cats. And by behavioral problems I … [Read more...]
Not my circus, not my monkeys (includes video)
CVC educators, Drs. Sarah Wooten and Kimberly Pope-Robinson, offer some perspective to help veterinary professionals stop personally owning every team and client problem. Source: Vetted, March 15, 2017. As members of a giving profession, veterinarians sometimes struggle to learn that dirty little word: NO. INSIGHTS: Animal health pros will recognize the situations and some … [Read more...]
Air out the office now!
Study after study has shown that the amount of ventilation, or fresh outdoor air brought inside, is a critical determinant of health. A research team from Harvard and Syracuse Universities dug deeper to find out if better air influences a worker’s ability to process information, make strategic decisions and respond to crises. The results show it is time to air out the office … [Read more...]
Be flexible to keep your best people
Employee turnover is a problem in most industries. However, it is a major problem when star performers leave your organization. You can retain your best people and attract more like them relatively easily if you first understand what these top performers want. Source: Gallup, March 8, 2017. However, brand and reputation also reflect a sense of pride. Employees want to feel … [Read more...]
AKC Museum of the Dog returns to New York City
“The AKC Museum of the Dog houses one of the largest collections of dog art in the world and is an important part of the AKC’s history and future,” said Ronald H. Menaker, chairman of the board for the American Kennel Club. The relocation to Midtown Manhattan also provides a means for the Museum to generate revenue from additional admissions, memberships, sponsorships, and … [Read more...]