Layered Pharmacy Leadership
Blogs
- 4/4/2023
The important difference between two types of feedback in pharmacy and what to do with them
We get a call in the pharmacy asking if we have a drug. The busy pharmacy assistant checks our software that tells them we have what they are looking for. Two hours later, a patient enters with a prescription and we realize the software inventory is off and we don’t have any physical drug. - 3/21/2023
What is Layered Leadership (and why should you care as a pharmacist)?
Bold prediction: Pharmacists will grow in medical responsibility and clinical expertise. But while complexity (and exhaustion) increase, who will take care of the pharmacists? - 3/13/2023
Mature pharmacy teams know how to lose together
The simplest way to obtain buy-up is togetherness. A team matures when they are united and have each other to follow. During turmoil, if they win as a team no one overstays their welcome by taking too much glory. If they lose as a team, no steps out of line because they understand it was a collective loss. - 3/6/2023
Newbie to pro: are you good enough at something to need a coach?
Whether you like it or not, optically you are the expert. Your words and actions drive behaviour change and it is up to you to provide the feedback that allows staff to navigate their own individual mastery curves. - 2/28/2023
Why triathlon makes me a better pharmacist
To be a better pharmacist, unmask new success by committing to your obsessions and unleashing your inner badass. - 2/21/2023
Pinballs: Do your decisions as a pharmacy boss invite customer agony?
Decisions are like pinballs. They bring downstream side-effects in both predictable and unpredictable ways. Some pinballs change the internal (staff) environment while others change the external (customer) environment. Great leaders understand the difference and get ahead of them in the right places. - 2/13/2023
Are you the James Bond of pharmacy or just another average labcoat?
The ‘complete retail pharmacy experience’ has a way of bringing out the pharm-grumpies. But take heart, there is an antidote. Not a pill (or a suppository like you were thinking – yes, you were), but it does involve looking inside and doing a little pharmacist-introspection. - 2/6/2023
Pharmacy leaders build pipelines
Leaders build pipelines. They manage the future by thinking ahead while still managing the day. They forecast, they calculate, they design without allowing the anxiety of the unknown to take over. Always preparing for the next sequence greatly improves the chances of being ready to capitalize when that sequence happens. - 1/31/2023
3 steps to solving your hiring puzzle
Solving hiring in pharmacy will first mean finding more candidates without a sizeable investment of our time. We need to automate hiring into a process that isolates precisely what we need, finds more puzzle pieces and brings them through a consistent and well-practised screening-interviewing-placement pipeline. - 1/24/2023
Pharmacists have teleprompters for brains
Relative to the history of our profession, only more recently have pharmacists been pushed to invent from scratch through prescribing. This is a new mental model, where we use the same analysis but then move on to create the solution instead of select it from what is put in front of us. - 1/18/2023
5 steps to help pharmacists validate negative thoughts and turn them around
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is something pharmacists recommend. Scientific literature proves its place as a first-line therapy in mental health. The principle is that our thoughts influence our feelings, and our feelings influence our behaviours. - 1/9/2023
Plan your perfect morning before opening the pharmacy
As pharmacists we can’t live like students in an adult world. We need to invest in life structure because life as a pharmacist is longer than a four-year degree. In order to show up for our patients, staff and business while managing life and family, we need to last. We need to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others.