Make your own success

Mike Eng interviews the man behind The 10 Behaviours of Success – a course now on offer to all members of the veterinary profession.

WHILE SUCCESS MEANS different things to different people, it’s fair to say we all want our fair share. For most, professional success brings a sense of satisfaction and achievement that can enhance overall wellbeing and help to make life at home, work and play fulfilling and rewarding.

As many are aware, veterinary professionals have a unique set of onthe-job challenges, and pressures in the wider world are affecting all practices and their people. It could be for some that survival, rather than success, is a more realistic goal in 2020.

But according to author, academic and consultant David Keane, striving for and achieving success at work can help professionals in any industry to enjoy a better sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction overall. As someone who has studied the attributes of successful people for more than three decades, he should know. “How you define success is critically important. It determines how you approach life professionally and personally, how you make decisions, and ultimately the results you get in your life,” he says. His definition of success is one that can be applied to everyone seeking success.

It’s about being on a pathway to achieving ‘worthwhile dreams’, whatever these happen to be for someone.

“Each person can define success as it relates to themselves and each of us can be uniquely successful,” says David. “Success is about living life in a way that is purposeful. A person can look at the different aspects of their life and check if they are ‘on purpose’ or not.”

Personal success does not have to come at the expense of professional success, he says. “A person can ask if they are ‘on purpose’ with their professional and personal lives. If the answer is ‘no’, they should look at what ‘worthwhile dreams’ mean in professional and personal senses. If there are tensions between the two, it’s a good idea to find a way for them to co-exist.”

David says the key to achieving success, regardless of how we define it, begins with our behaviours. “Over time, we develop certain patterns and behaviours that get ingrained in the way we think and act. These affect how we make decisions and how we go about our work. They also have a big influence on our lives outside work, how we manage relationships and stress, and how we achieve a balance between work and our personal lives,” he says.

David’s original PhD research looked at the behaviours of successful leaders. Since then he has broadened his research to study successful people in all walks of life, and discovered they exhibit certain behaviours every day. “I’ve always been fascinated by successful people and the behaviours of people who achieve great things. It’s always struck me that if you want to get good at something, the first place to look is at those people who have already achieved what you are interested in.”

Growing up, David was inspired by stories of people who had overcome challenges to achieve success.

“I loved reading autobiographies and the life stories of people who had lived interesting lives. The people who inspire me are not necessarily famous. They are everyday people who wake up most mornings and know that what they

“HOW YOU DEFINE SUCCESS IS CRITICALLY

IMPORTANT. IT DETERMINES HOW YOU APPROACH LIFE PROFESSIONALLY AND PERSONALLY, HOW YOU MAKE DECISIONS, AND ULTIMATELY THE RESULTS YOU GET IN YOUR LIFE.”

are going to do today aligns with their purpose. They are successful on their terms. There is a big difference between being famous and being successful.”

After more than 30 years of ongoing research, which was also informed by his work as a management consultant, David wrote the best-selling business book, The Art of Deliberate Success: The 10 Behaviours of Successful People, to help more people achieve success in every aspect of life. The book was the foundation for a professional development seminar series, which in conjunction with the NZVA has been tailored to the unique needs of busy veterinary professionals in 2020.

David says the seminar series – called The 10 Behaviours of Success – will provide each participant with a ‘success toolbox’ that they can use daily. “With practice, you can use the tools to be your best self and fully reach your potential,” he says. There is also an app, which is key to the learning experience, David explains. It contains audio versions of the 12 chapters from the book, and participants listen to various chapters to prepare for weekly seminars.

“We elevate the quality of the learning experience because our weekly sessions build on our reading.” The app includes a quiz of 100 questions for profiling success behaviours in participants’ professional and personal lives. It helps in identifying areas for improvement and provides tools to help them succeed.

Participants will come away with ways to reduce unwanted stress, balance the personal and professional aspects of their lives, be better team players and improve productivity – which in turn can lead to less burnout, a work culture that’s more open to new ideas, and improved staff retention in a workplace that is more attractive to potential future employees, David says.

This can be a win for both employees and employers – a kind of virtuous circle. “When you are your best self, your employer gets a better you, which in turn contributes to business success.”

NZVA CEO Kevin Bryant decided to see for himself whether The 10 Behaviours of Success course lived up to its billing. He says he walked away with a few things to reflect on. His biggest takeaway was a “heightened awareness of behaviours I can work on” along with a better understanding of how his behaviour can affect others. It reinforced Kevin’s view that setting personal goals and being honest with himself about what he values most is the start of the journey.

Tim Montgomery, equine veterinarian and President of the NZVA’s Veterinary Business Branch, also took part. “The 10 Behaviours of Success is about not just business success but personal success through understanding of self and individual leadership. It facilitates critical thinking about one’s own perceptions and processes, and how to improve and implement [changes] core to positive outcomes,” he says.

“Soft skills are hugely important in veterinary practice, and indeed all of life. I see this as an area where the profession has, and many businesses and individuals have, room for improvement.”

Kevin agrees the seminar series hits the right notes for the wider veterinary profession. It encompasses ways to enhance wellbeing and self-realisation (which involves a deep understanding of your individual strengths and weaknesses)

FORGE YOUR OWN SUCCESS PATH

WHAT DOES THE 10 BEHAVIOURS OF SUCCESS COURSE INVOLVE?

» Three 75-minute seminars over Zoom, once a week, for three weeks.

Participants will be given important reading before each seminar.

WHAT YOU’LL GET

» A code for accessing the 10

Behaviours app.

A downloadable notebook for use during the seminar.

Other tools and resources to help you achieve success.

Up to 14 CPD activity hours.

WHAT DOES IT COST?

The course is $470 for the first registration of an NZVA member. Any additional staff registrations are $420. For non-members, the first registration is $940 and then $840 for any additional staff registrations.

WHEN IS IT?

Participants have the choice of two course dates. The first course starts 21 October: Preparation phase 7–21 October 2020 Seminars 21 October, 28 October and 4 November 2020 Register by 14 October 2020

The second course starts 18 November: Preparation phase 4–18 November 2020 Seminars 18 November, 25 November and 2 December 2020 Register by 11 November 2020

HOW DO I REGISTER?

To learn more, or to register, visit

www.nzva.org.nz/professionals/ edhub/business. PARTICIPANTS WILL COME AWAY WITH WAYS

TO REDUCE UNWANTED STRESS, BALANCE THE PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL... BE BETTER TEAM PLAYERS AND IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY.

that can increase self-confidence. He says there are also business sustainability benefits, with better teamwork and more effective communication contributing to increased staff retention, positivity, productivity and profitability.

A positive effect on clinic teams is something Tim believes could be a real boon. “My sense is that if practices enrolled personnel from different generations and areas (reception, administration, veterinary nursing, senior veterinarian and junior veterinarian) and they undertook the course with collegiality and honesty, practices would have a fantastic vehicle for facilitating understanding and moving towards a high-performance culture.”

David says everyone contributes to clinic success, including management and support staff. He encourages those from the same clinic or practice to attend the course together. “Because most of us work as part of a team, it’s critically important that we understand each other so we can be effective together. Between seminar sessions you can talk about what you’re learning and what you can do locally to assist each other on your success journeys,” he says.

David says that, ideally, at least two people who work together should attend at the same time, as this encourages discussions about the ideas covered in the course in the context of their work team. It makes sense to anyone who believes in the saying: ‘Teamwork makes the dream work’.

When it comes to his own success, David remembers it was a big day when he understood his life purpose. David agrees with the Mark Twain saying:

“There have been two important days in my life – the day I was born, and the day I discovered why.”

After working out his life purpose, David went on to carve out a career that was successful by any measure. He started out as a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and had a stint in academia, lecturing in management at the Victoria University of Wellington Business School, where he completed a PhD in management. He has also been a director of a global education software firm, a best-selling author and the dean of a business school in Europe.

His CV makes for impressive reading, but for David, as for most of us, there have been ups and downs. He says he is really glad to have had difficult times and situations to overcome in his life. “Those testing times were when I learned the most and developed some skills I had not had before.

“When I look back now, everything I’ve done has added to who I am today. As I’m getting older, I can see more clearly the connections between seemingly unrelated experiences and I’m so grateful.”

Today David runs his own education and training consultancy, through which he helps people and organisations to achieve greater success through seminars like the one being offered to NZVA members.

Every team needs a game-plan, according to David. With that in mind, a seminar series tailored to the needs of the profession today might just be the plan your team needs to survive and thrive in the challenging ‘game of life – 2020 edition’.