The “nice personality” of pharmacy leadership

Oh, the joy it brings me to sit down and take a few minutes to write to you, my friends!  We have an important topic to touch on today, but as is typical of my writing style, I first like to come up with the headline. 

As we continue our overview of the four principles of leadership growth, I will readily admit that most people may expect or want something much more glamourous than what I bring you today.

As I was thinking about it, I imagined a situation we all probably have some experience with or exposure to. It’s that situation as a teenager or young adult where someone is trying to fix you up on a blind date with someone they know. The mental picture that comes to mind would be of an opinionated aunt who says something along the lines of, “You should really go out with my friend Gertrude’s niece.” As a young person, one of the first responses to this aunt would be to ask for a description, or even a picture, of Gertrude’s niece. And then the response that everyone dreads: “She has a very nice personality.” 

We are all familiar with the situation, am I right? It is a trope used in television and film, typically for some good laughs. It is intended to offset the lack of beauty or glamour with this very nice personality. I don’t know if any of us would be overjoyed that the first thing that comes to mind when other people describe us is that we have a “nice personality.”

Yet, on the other hand, we certainly don’t look forward to connecting with people who have a bad personality, do we?

I believe I have shared in this column before that I am basketball fan. I am not the biggest fan, and I certainly am not the smallest fan. I have a couple teams that I like to follow. One of those teams is the San Antonio Spurs. I started following the Spurs way back in 1989 when David Robinson came to town. About a decade later, a superstar by the name of Tim Duncan joined the team and they started winning championships.   Duncan is widely considered to be one of the best big men to ever play the game. He wasn’t the flashiest player on the court, but part of his charm was that he was consistent. He showed up and contributed at a high level every day.

Perhaps consistent is the “nice personality” version of leadership. Maybe consistent isn’t on your top 10 list of attributes you look for in a leader. If it isn’t, though, it should be.

You see, consistency is the third principle of leadership growth. 

Come back next week to learn why....

Until next time

Jesse McCullough, PharmD

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