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Join Strategic Leaders Today and Become
the Leader Your Team Deserves
Strategic Leaders is our flagship training program for veterinary
professionals who are seeking the skills to fix staff drama, overcome
overwhelm and propel their practice to the next level with a crystal clear
vision supported by the right team.
Learn and develop the tools to build an
awesome culture in your veterinary practice
Grow the skills needed to run a successful and
profitable veterinary practice
Join our growing Veterinary Leadership
Community
Strategic Leaders
Build your remarkable vet practice, one that delivers emotional, financial and clinical success with our flagship course, coached by veterinary leadership expert Dr Dave Nicol.
What will you get?
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30+ hours of on-demand CE
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Weekly group coaching by Dr. Dave Nicol
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Actionable toolkits, resources, and bonus content to ensure your success
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Networking via our growing Veterinary Leadership Academy community forum.
What will you learn?
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How to create and implement your vision of practice success
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The skills and frameworks you need to lead your team and manage your business
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How to build a team that supports your vision and how to identify and attract the key hires who will help you achieve success
Questions? Contact support
Course Curriculum
As a Strategic Leaders community member, Dr. Dave Nicol will take you through the 4 critical areas needed for you to create an efficient and happy team: Vision & Strategy, Performance Management, Hiring and Leadership.
These on-demand video resources, combined with the toolkits and weekly coaching sessions provide everything a modern veterinary leader needs to build a flourishing veterinary practice.
Vision & Strategy
Creating Your Vision Statement
Every well-led business has a clearly articulated vision. This is job one for every Leader yet very few practices have this in place. In this module, you’ll learn how to craft a vision statement that works.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
3 Hours
Vision & Strategy
Execution: Turning Your Vision Into Reality
Vision without execution is called hallucination. In this session, you’ll learn how to bring your vision to life and weave it through the fabric of your business.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
1 Hour
Performance Management
Values & Behavior Statements
Successful practices understand values and how they drive behaviour. They can articulate these and use them to drive good behaviors and outcomes. You’ll learn how and create your own in this module.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
1 Hour
Performance Management
Triple Loop Leadership and Feedback
Based on clear communication, regular check-in and good feedback, this system takes all the stress out of performance management.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
1 Hour
Performance Management
Objectives & Measures
Most individuals do not have a clear expectation of what work they are expected to complete and to what standard. This is remedied by having clear written objectives for each position.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
1 Hour
Performance Management
Handling Difficult Employees
Understanding human needs and communication preferences is essential for all leaders. Once we understand more about how people work, managing them (even the difficult ones) gets easier.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
1 Hour
Hiring
The Personal Profile (AKA Avatar)
Mistake number one is not creating the avatar of your perfect team member for each role. We’ll talk about how to build your avatars then use the details to inform the rest of the hiring process.
Module Length:
1 Hour
Study Time:
1 Hour
Hiring
The Selection Process
Using testing is a smart way to rule candidates in or out fairly. And most people have no idea how to perform an effective interview. In this session, you’ll learn how to create selection test processes and perform highly effective interviews.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
1 Hour
Hiring
Writing And Using Job Adverts That Get Responses
How do you write a good job advert that gets results? We answer this question during this session and will have you writing job ads that help attract the right applicant while putting off all the others.
Module Length:
2 Hours
Study Time:
2 Hours
Hiring
Onboarding For Success
When you hire someone, the job is not done. In fact, it’s just getting started because you still have to get them up to speed fast. In this session, we focus on onboarding new team members, so they become effective fast.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
1 Hour
Leadership
Ten Principles For Leadership Success
Leaders need a toolkit for success. In this presentation, we’ll focus on the fundamental principles of how to be a good leader and how you should use them.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
2 Hours
Leadership
The Generational Divide
Generational shift is occurring and it’s causing problems in the workforce. Understanding & overcoming these issues is essential for anyone building a team.
Module Length:
1 Hour
Study Time:
1 Hour
Leadership
Time Management Mastery
Time management is something we all struggle with. In this eye-opening session, you’ll learn how to create 500 quality hours extra each year with some minimal habit changes.
Module Length:
1.5 Hours
Study Time:
45 Minutes
Leadership
Positivity, Beating F.E.A.R & Avoiding Burnout
How do we toughen our minds so we can show up as the best version of ourselves each day? We’ll formulate your mental toughness plan in this session.
Module Length:
1 Hour
Study Time:
1 Hour
What You'll Walk Away With
This isn't just about becoming a better leader (though you will). This is about regaining control over how your practice functions and how your team performs.
After 12 months in Strategic Leaders, you'll have:
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A crystal-clear vision for your practice, one that's written down, shared with your team, and actually guides your decisions
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The confidence to lead your practice strategically instead of endlessly reacting to problems
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A performance management process that prevents conflicts before they explode and gets the best out of your people.
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A hiring system that reliably brings in the right people, and keeps the wrong ones out.
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A sustainable way of working that doesn't leave you or your team burned out, allowing you to enjoy the experience and reward of leadership.
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You’ll build your remarkable veterinary practice!
Plus, you'll be part of a community of veterinary leaders who get it: people you can bounce ideas off, work through challenges with, and celebrate wins alongside.
Meet Your Instructor
Dr Dave Nicol is a highly experienced veterinarian with more than 25 years experience in general practice. He is renowned for expertise in running successful and sustainable veterinary practices. He owns Roundwood Vets and Roundwood Pet Hospice & In-home Euthanasia. Both are values-led organisations where culture comes first.
Dr Dave is a prolific author who has written three books, including "So You're A Vet...Now What?"—an essential read for new graduate vets. He has also written hundreds of influential articles and blogs, most recently a chapter on leadership for the prestigious Veterinary Clinics of North America.
Dr Dave is one of the original podcasters of vet med, hosting both "Blunt Dissection" and "The Veterinary Leadership Success Show," which have been downloaded more than 300,000 times.
He was voted VMX's Practice Management Speaker of the Year in both 2019 and 2024.
Away from veterinary medicine, Dr Dave is a competitive triathlete and was selected to represent Great Britain in the Triathlon European Championships in 2024.
Dr. Dave Nicol
BVMS Cert Mgmt MRCVS
Here's What's Included:
Vision Clarity Call
After you complete the first module, we'll jump on a one-to-one coaching session to help you nail down your why, your what and your how and together articulate and draft out a clear and compelling vision for your remarkable practice.
Regular One-to-One Check-Ins
Monthly calls for your first three months to help you work through the early modules. After that, quarterly check-ins with our head of community to reflect, plan, and keep momentum. These give you space to think clearly and stay on track.
Weekly Group Coaching Calls
Live sessions with Dr. Dave Nicol and the community every week. Get input on your real challenges, learn from others going through the same struggles, and build your confidence as a leader.
On-Demand Course Platform
Practical modules covering vision, culture, hiring, performance, time management, personal leadership and more — all designed to be applied immediately in your practice.
Private Member Community
Connect with other veterinary leaders facing the same pressures and working toward the same kind of change. This is where you ask questions, share progress, and learn from each other.
Practical Tools and Templates
Hiring scorecards, values frameworks, check-in scripts, culture plans: everything you need to take action, not just think about it.
How It Actually Works
Strategic Leaders is a 12-month program because real change takes time. You can't fix years of chaos in a weekend workshop.
Most practices start seeing meaningful shifts in the first 2-3 months, but lasting transformation doesn’t happen with quick and sudden change. Instead you’ll work steadily and incrementally, in the right order, at a pace that doesn't break you or shock your team.
Over the year, you'll be coached through each stage with regular check-ins and structured support so you don't lose momentum or get stuck.
To track your progress, we’ll measure your team’s happiness before and after six months and share the data with you. It's based on the Net Promoter Score system, so you can actually measure how your team's experience improves as your leadership skill grows.
Questions? Contact our support team
The Four Pillars of a Remarkable Vet Practice
This program is built around four essential pillars that form the foundation of a remarkable veterinary practice, one where your team functions smoothly, your culture holds together, and your vision becomes reality.
A Clear & Compelling Vision
Before you can lead a team effectively, you need to know which direction you're headed. Most importantly, you have to be excited about this way forward. We’ll help you to do the creative and meaningful work of crafting a clear vision that gives you goosebumps and sets the direction for your team.
This vision is the most important task every leader has. It’s the foundation for everything else: your culture, your strategy, how you hire, how you lead, even how you market your practice. When your team knows what you stand for, they show up with purpose. So do your clients.
An Effective Performance Management System
Clarity of expectations are the name of the game, both when it comes to what work needs to get done, and how you’d like people to interact as they do it. To accomplish this you’ll need clear role objectives and some behavioural principles to help steer things in the right direction. You'll learn to set expectations, give feedback, and hold your team accountable in a way that's structured and fair, not stressful or reactive. Our triple-loop leadership model helps you spot issues early and create a high-performing, low-drama environment where people can do their best work.
A Reliable Talent Pipeline
Hiring well changes everything. You'll learn how to attract people who share your values, have the right skills and strengthen your culture instead of undermining it.
We'll show you how to define what you're really looking for, run interviews that actually work, and onboard new hires so they thrive from day one. Less turnover, better fit, a stronger team.
High Integrity Leadership
Leadership is about how you show up for your people. You'll learn what your management style is. Where your strengths and weaknesses are and how to manage them. You’ll learn the secrets to effective time management, communication and decision making. By the end, you’ll have confidence to lead with high care, presence and authenticity, even when things get tough.
Let's Build Your Remarkable Vet Practice
With guidance, accountability, and a community behind you, you won't be doing this alone. When you look back after 12 months, you might be surprised how far you've come. Start your journey today.
Questions? Contact our support team