PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
learning new skills? That's internal locus of control—
you're recognizing that you have a choice, even if you
choose not to leave.
Choosing change isn't always easy, but the more you
tell yourself you're fated to misery and unhappiness
and the world is conspiring against you, maybe—just
maybe—the more miserable and unhappy you feel.
When I read about "locus of control"—the extent to
which people think they have control over events in
their lives—in a dissertation recently, I was inspired.
The author, Deborah Stone, MBA, PhD, CVPM, theo-
rises that perhaps a stronger internal locus of control
is just what leaders need in order to rise in the profes-
sion.
Throughout the past few years, I've been reading all
of your cards in the Veterinary Confessionals Project.
Thanks to Stone's dissertation, I realised that many of
our problems could be solved with a more internal
locus of control. Maybe we used to have more inter-
nal locus of control and we gave it away in veterinary
school, internships, residencies, or even interactions
with clients and friends asking for free services.
Here are some ways I think you can increase your
self-esteem, boost your resilience and truly believe
you've got control over your life—or at least control
over yourself!
• Avoid negative self talk. This all starts with more
self-awareness—you have to know when it's hap-
pening to make a difference. Stop telling yourself
that fate controls your life, that you're fundamentally
unlucky in life, or that you're not capable of making
positive change in your life. Your inner critic is full of
it. Catch yourself when you say nasty things about
yourself to yourself. Slow down, pay attention and
talk back in those moments. Journal it out if it helps
get the mean words out of your head on the page
so you can face them and fight back.
• She asked 562 veterinarians in the United States ques-
tions from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the In-
ternal Control Index and the Authentic Leadership
Questionnaire. Stop giving away too many f***s. I read and loved
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Man-
son (Warning: The F-bomb gets dropped with wild
abandon on this website). You only have so much
energy and time to give to people, worries and
even patients. Better emotional boundaries won't
make you an emotionless psychopath. The truth is,
if you're giving away too much energy and time to
too many things, you'll become depleted, exhaust-
ed and no help to anyone. And that'll really crush
your self-esteem.
• Stone's study found that self-esteem and an internal
locus of control were significant predictors of char-
acteristics of "authentic leadership," indicating that the
higher the self-esteem and the higher the internal lo-
cus of control, the higher the scales associated with
authentic leadership. Join an improv class. You know what will convince
you you can think on your feet, be funny and have
fun when life throws you unexpected highs and
lows? Practicing thinking on your feet in the relative
safe space of an improv class.
• Get out of your comfort zone. Set yourself a new
challenge. Test yourself, work your brain cells and
remind yourself you can grow and learn.
• Connect with people who love you and support
you. Stick to them like glue. Ditch the people who
don't.
• Learn to be assertive. Set reasonable boundaries.
Ask people you trust what a reasonable boundary is
if yours is a little out of whack. And remind yourself
how to say "no"; this is a big one for our profession,
because we're often people pleasers.
"A study of the relationships between
self-esteem, locus of control, authentic
leadership, and veterinarians in the
United States"
Deborah Stone, MBA, PhD, CVPM, asks whether "au-
thentic leaders" (who build legitimacy through honest
relationships with followers that value followers' input
and are built on an ethical foundation) may be most
effective during these challenging times in the veteri-
nary profession.
Her study examines the relationship between self-es-
teem, locus of control and authentic leadership
among veterinarians in the United States. She con-
trolled for the effects of gender, practice ownership,
practice type, age, ethnicity, practice management
experience and education.
The concept of locus of control was first defined by
Julian Rotter, PhD, in 1954, but Stone puts a veteri-
nary spin on it in her research. It’s a sliding scale, she
writes, and where you fall on that scale will determine
which locus controls you more. If your locus of con-
trol is internal, you believe in your own internal ability
to control what happens to you in life. If your locus of
control is external, you believe most of what happens
to you is out of your control, and therefore in the con-
trol of others or fate or luck.
Start healing yourself today so you can keep practic-
ing medicine and help to heal—and lead—this whole
profession.
Issue 04 | AUGUST 2017 | 5