Culture Isn't a Perk, It's a Performance Driver

In this episode, our panelists unpack the leadership behaviors that can quietly erode trust, even when intentions are good, from inconsistency in communication and accountability to the impact of favoritism and the importance of leaders admitting their own mistakes.

They also share practical, repeatable ways leaders can build stronger, higher-performing teams every single week — including creating space for honest conversations before problems escalate, following through on the small things, and making time for genuine human connection.

If you’re looking to strengthen trust, improve team culture, and become a more intentional leader, this quick consult is packed with insights you can put into practice right away.

Resources mentioned:

• Book - Nine Minutes On Monday

Host = Brenda Tassava Medina, CVPM, CVJ

Panelists:

• Shannon Lovley, CVPM, Senior Consultant at Vet Positive
• Carol Hurst, LVT, CVPM, CVJ, CCFP, Consultant at Encore Veterinary Consulting

Thanks for listening!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome aboard. You're listening to Flight Plan Quick Consults, your go-to podcast for veterinary insights that are fast, focused, and designed to elevate your practice. I'm your host, Brenda Tasva Medina from Encore Veterinary Consulting. Whether you're between appointments or heading into a strategy session, we've got takeoff ready tips, tools, and takeaways to keep your team soaring. So buckle up as we set a course today. For culture isn't a perk, it's a performance driver. Today's panel includes Carol Hurst and Shannon Lovely. Carol, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Sure. Thanks, Brenda. My name is Carol Hearst, and I started out as a credential technician straight out of high school. This is pretty much all I've ever known. And I quickly was thrust into a leadership position with only a couple of years of uh, you know, LBT experience under my belt, which I know we all can relate to. Um, and I loved it. And I've been in leadership ever since, for better or for worse. Um, and I got my CBPM in 2016. Um, so turned into practice manager, managed a four-doctor practice, um, and then uh dabbled into some consulting before joining with you at Vet Support as a full-time consultant. And now here I am.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

And we're glad you're here.

unknown 1:37

We do.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

And we have the very lovely Shannon Lovely.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Thank you so much. Hi, everyone. I'm Shannon Lovely. I am also a uh C VPM and I've been in VetNet Med now for about 30 plus years. Um, I have the pleasure of working with my team at VetPositive as a veterinary consultant and helping practices with all things leadership development, operations, team communication, uh workflow efficiencies. But I am super excited to be here today and I'm looking forward to this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Awesome. All right, we will dive right in. I've got two burning questions today that our listeners want to hear our discussion around. And the first one, um, Carol, I'll throw it to you. Um, what's one leadership behavior that quietly erodes trust on a team, even when leaders have good intentions?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Oh, there's like at least half a dozen that come to mind. But the one that just really stands out is one that's hard, I think, for all of us, but is especially important for our leaders, and it's admitting mistakes. And, you know, it really sucks that the magnifying glass, as soon as you're put into that leadership position, is pointed directly at you, right? The the team sees everything, they hear everything. Um, and you know, that doesn't mean that they're expecting perfection. You know, I don't think that that's um what what any of us expect. But when and it's hard, it's you know, I can I can feel my own discomfort because I went through this full period where you know, I thought being a leader meant you didn't make mistakes, right? I know all the answers, you come to me and I'm I'm ready. And if I admit a mistake or make a mistake, it means I'm not good or I'm not good enough. And my practice owner, even he would get to the point because uh I didn't make a lot of mistakes, but I definitely made some. And he would he would go, Oh, there's a chink in your armor. And I'm like, oh, like that, it just kills me because um, you know, the expectation around it is that we don't make mistakes, but we we need to make the mistakes to learn and to grow. We have to admit the mistakes, right? Because if we're expecting our teams to do the same thing, it's gonna be really hard when um we don't match that expectation.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah, I think that that is an excellent one to bring up because you know, I think that you know, hearing you tell that story, it's like, yeah, I can see employees really hesitating to own up to mistakes if if they see you make mistakes, but you're you're just moving on and you know, just not owning it the way that we need to, then then it's like, you know, I think it becomes a I I'm gonna cover this up because you know, I can't make this mistake, or they're not comfortable, we're not keeping it psychologically safe for them to learn from mistakes that they make themselves. It's a really good point. What about you, Shannon? What's what's the one leadership behavior on your mind that quietly erodes trust?

SPEAKER_02 4:51

You know, it's funny that you say that, Carol, because I used to get that comment sometimes, oh, you are human. You actually do make mistakes, right? Um and it's so true. And and to sort of build on that a little bit more, you said something, Brenda, that was like psychological safety. Um, one of the biggest things that I see um in the leaders that I help to train and and mentor is inconsistency, um, inconsistent communication, accountability, follow-through are the things that came to my mind. Um, they don't intend initially to create distrust, right? That's not their first thing that they're they're trying to do. But in fact, many are trying to be compassionate and flexible. Um, the you know, the day or the stress level the leaders bring into the practice, people feel uncertain. So, you know, they're like, what are my actual expectations? What do you want from me? Are you going to address this fairly? Do you have your favorites? And uncertainty creates anxiety, resentment, and event eventually you'll see disengagement. And, you know, that's not the thing we want to see. But if expectations are unclear, accountability feels personal instead of professional. Um, a strong culture means being doesn't mean being rigid or harsh. It means it goes back to my three from the last time we talked clear, concise, and consistent. So I apply those. What's expected of me? Where do I stand? And that leadership will respond fairly and predictably.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah, I I see this all the time too. It's the inconsistency with communication, especially. That's where I see a lot of remarks from employees, you know, that they they feel in the dark or uncertain because that communication ebbs and flows, and they're not quite sure where things stand. And and that's really hard to build trust on.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

It is the favoritism, the favoritism thing stood out, Tom Shannon. Because, you know, I don't know that any manager rolls out of bed and says, I'm just gonna favor these employees, right? But it's so much more nuanced than that, right? It's it is you know, the ones that maybe you were friends with when you got put into that leadership position. So you have that connection already, and you may not intend for it, but it just kind of happens where you know you've got a better rapport. Um that just that just stands out to me. It's that favoritism.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

It does, and it's you know, you gotta know where that line is, you know, and making sure that we're not seeming like we're picking our favorite employee every time for things and making sure we have that uh consistent communication with every single employee. And that kind of comes into my next uh answer for the next burning question. All right.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

So let's let's hear it with what is one simple, repeatable action leaders can take weekly to build a high trust, high performance team? Shannon.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

When we create space for conversation before the problem escalates, they feel seen, they feel supported. That psychological safety that you were referring to, that changes performance dramatically. And I think leaders underestimate how much trust is built through small moments of follow-through. So when I walk up to people, I'll say, you know what, I heard you, I see you, and here's what I'm doing about it. And then actually doing those things and having that follow through, that creates that trust. And then they feel respected, supported. It's not just where you build that during a pizza party, it's a weekly thing. So when people feel valued and they understand the why behind your expectations, the accountability becomes collaborative instead of combative. And uh I see that in high-performing um teams where there's a high level of trust. I give you a job, I send you on your way, I check in with you halfway through when I expect that to be done because I've been consistent in telling you what I expect and when I expect it by.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Awesome. Thank you for that. Carol, what about you? Simple, repeatable action leaders can take weekly.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

So I think I want to bounce off of that kind of idea of connection. Um, and you know, go to something that stems from this idea of the perception of perfection, right? And, you know, how when I was in my career, I connected that, you know, infallibility that you don't want to get too close to your team because then there's that perception of favoritism, there's that perception that there's not going to be fairness, um, and not really seeing the value of those informal connections, right? We talk a lot about performance reviews and coaching and how to coach, but I don't know that we give enough space for how to connect with the team, right? And just checking in with them on a weekly basis, not where are you at with this training or where are you with this goal, but how are you doing, right? You know, what did your weekend look like? And I know that sounds so simple, but I talk to a lot of leaders that that connection piece, just getting to know their team on um just that person-to-person level doesn't happen because of a lot of reasons, right? It's hard, it doesn't come naturally, we're more numbers focused, um, it's busy, right? But I think building in time, if there could be anything, just build in some time for a weekly connection with your team one-on-one.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, Carol, I actually wrote that down. And it's funny that you said that because the questions that I ask when I meet with people, one-on-one. And it's not like you said, it's not always about what project we're working on. It's how are you?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Where are you seeing friction in your day? How can I support you? And what's working well? What should we continue? Because you're the ones on the floor doing the work. So talk to me. Tell me what's working for you.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

This uh this conversation reminds me of a book that I read several years ago called Nine Minutes on Monday. And I picked up the book because um something on the title or something on the cover really called out with me. I'm I struggle with time management, and I always have as a manager. And so I thought, oh, this is gonna help me like with my week and just really, you know, plan out my week a little bit better. What it actually did was it it taught me how to schedule intentional time with my team. And you know, just taking nine minutes on Monday morning. I actually did it on Sundays because I could go in for three hours on Sunday while my daughter was at orchestra, but I would go and nobody was there, so I got so much done. But on Sunday, I would plan my week. And it was about, you know, elevating that level of consistency in terms of communication, but being so intentional about okay, Tuesday, I'm gonna spend 20 minutes talking to my inventory manager just one-on-one, out of, you know, and it's not out of the blue, but it's like I don't want to miss those moments because that does lead to those inconsistent communications that that we've talked about through this episode. Um, it also taught me, helped me see the other side of the coin, which was when we have maybe coaching conversations with our team members and we say, okay, you know, we're gonna follow up with this. And unless we actually put it on our calendar and hold ourselves as leaders accountable to actually sitting down and following up, those follow-ups oftentimes don't happen. And I think that that erodes trust as well. And so that book really helped me to see intentional scheduling of conversations, even if it's just for five or 10 minutes with my team members, could really help with um our connection and and the trust that we're building with one another. So, you know, for our listeners out there, I'd love to recommend that book. Um, it's it it really helped me through some of those those issues and and a little bit with my time management as well. So if you struggle with that, pick it up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

I love that nine minutes because you know, when you talk to leaders, everything feels overwhelming because every every task feels like it's gonna be this big task. But a lot of the changes that you can make, a lot of the improvements aren't hours and hours every week. It's the intentional 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there that you kind of protect and you make consistent. Like that's where you really see improvements.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

Yeah, I agree. I would on occasion on a Saturday go into work, you know, and when I was managing a practice, and I would sit at the front desk with the CSRs and I'd watch them. And one of the ladies, she was my lead, I said, Why are you doing that like that? She said, Because you told us to. I said, Well, why didn't you tell me that was stupid? That was that's just not that's not a good flow. And she said, I can, I can tell you that. And it was a real conversation to say, I too make mistakes, right? And you can tell me when it doesn't make any sense. I'm gonna come to you with a whole bunch of ideas, but you're the one doing the work. So tell me what what's best for you. And they see you're a real person, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yes, and that that's great vulnerability in the moment, you're right. And it does humanize you. So that that's an often awesome example of just about everything we've been talking about. It's I made a mistake. Why didn't you tell me about that? Right?

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, when you're you have a healthy culture in your practice, and I always tell people, culture is what happens when the leader's not in the room. If if the the practice if you built a good culture, things continue without you standing over people. And it's like it's the foundation that performance is built on. So if you have trust and good communication, everything improves. And in the end, patient care improves alongside everything else. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Well, thank you so much for being with us today. And thank you, our listeners, for flying with us on Flight Plan Quick Consults. If today's insights helped you climb to new heights, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with your crew. Until next time, keep your mission clear, your team aligned, and your practice soaring.