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Occupation of formal leadership roles in the veterinary professions has changed as the veterinary professions themselves have changed. What used to be the domain of older, mostly white, mostly male leaders at local, national, and global levels is changing. The increasingly female intake to veterinary schools, changes to practice ownership structures, sale of practices to consolidating organisations, the influence of ‘big business’ on the practice of veterinary clinical medicine, the retirement of practice owners who have had no incentive to develop their successors, a high dropout rate of veterinary professionals in the early years of their career, a low return‐to‐work rate and increasing reliance on self‐employed professionals with portfolio careers have all lead to a leadership crisis and, in clinical practice at least, a vacuum at the top and middle layers of practices. This in turn has, I believe, contributed to the vicious cycle whereby an absence of effective leadership and support has contributed to burn‐out, lack of confidence, motivation and ambition, and cynicism regarding leadership itself.

Recent years have shown a changing relationship with leaders and leadership in our wider societies too. In the 1990s and early 2000s there have been recurrent failures of top business and political leaders, regular economic, moral, and political scandals, financial failures on a global scale and an inability to face world‐threatening issues such as climate change. Alongside this, the massive changes in social structures, networks, and communication systems have made it much more challenging to control the message (although some have tried, and managed, depressingly effectively) and allowed some bad leadership to be exposed. Unfortunately, this has also undermined the importance of, and benefit from, good‐enough leadership, which is often forgotten, overlooked, or taken for granted.

Table 2.1 Eight possible archetypes of veterinary professionalism and their associated personal narratives.

Source: Adapted from Hafferty and Castellani (2010).

Professional Archetype	Narrative
Nostalgic	I exemplify the profession ‘as it used to be’. I set high standards of competence and will always go the extra distance for clients and patients.
Entrepreneurial	I am proud of delivering competent work and comfortable charging the client for good work, well done. Business growth is good for all.
Academic	I am driven by curiosity, motivated by the freedom to explore better ways of practicing and I enjoy sharing ideas and knowledge.
Lifestyle	I won't subsume my personal life for my professional life. I am willing to work hard but expect boundaries to be defined and maintained. I expect fair reward.
Empirical	I will use my knowledge and the evidence to deliver the best professional work I can in the service of their patients.
Unreflective	It works for me, and for my patients, so why do I need to change? And my clients think I am great.
Activist	The world is broken, and I need to fix it. I serve the greater good. I don't care about money or personal rewards.
Relational	The world is complex and ‘wicked’. I co‐create solutions with other stakeholders to promote good outcomes for my patients and custodians.