For any veterinary environment, effective mentorship begins with mentors and mentees working together to define the program’s goals. These goals should align with the overall mission and values of your practice (see Chapter 4), ensuring that both parties are genuinely invested in the mentorship’s success.
Start by collaboratively setting larger goals that reflect what the mentee wants to achieve and how these align with the practice’s objectives. These might include improving clinical skills, promoting professional development, increasing employee retention, or building a supportive workplace culture. When developing these goals, consider not only what the goal is but also when you want to accomplish it, potential obstacles that may need to be addressed, and resources you might need to achieve the goal. Once these broader goals are established, work together to break them down into specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. This collaborative approach ensures that the goals are tailored to the mentee’s aspirations while remaining aligned with the practice’s needs.
Clear, jointly defined SMART goals provide direction and focus, making it easier to track progress and adjust as needed. Further, writing these goals down ensures that both mentor and mentee have a shared understanding of the expectations and can consistently work towards them (see Resources below).
For more information about identifying mentorship goals, associations like the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) and Veterinary Hospital Managers Association (VHMA) may offer extra insight, helping ensure success (see Resources below.
