Pharmacy leadership and the fainting goat

Let me start out this blog by taking a moment to say “Thank you” to you, the reader of this column. I appreciate you for taking a few minutes of your time to consider the thoughts that I share with you here. 

This week is more of the same. I want to share with you a thought that was shared with me and consider how we may be able to apply this to our leadership.

We are likely all familiar, at least in some minimal way, with the concept of fight or flight from a psychological perspective. This concept essentially states that when something, particularly an animal, is faced with a threat, it will respond one of two ways. It will fight back (the “fight” in fight or flight), or it will run away (the “flight” in fight or flight). Chances are we have all taken an exam somewhere in our schooling that assessed us on this concept.

So, is that true? Or perhaps more specifically, is that true all the time?

I do not think it is true. Full transparency, I reserve the right to be wrong about this and I welcome other points of view as I try to improve my understanding. So, if you have another perspective, I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn and share your thoughts.

The reason I say "no" can be found in a specific animal in nature: the fainting goat. This peculiar animal when faced with a threat will faint and fall over as if it were dead for a brief period of time. To me, this at least suggests that there is a third option to add to fight or flight: the option of doing nothing.

This idea was presented to me a few weeks ago. Is it true that people may be faced with a threat, but then essentially do nothing about it? For all intents and purposes, they faint. I think there are a lot of people out there like that.

Many years ago, I was building out a network of pharmacists to serve as “MTM specialists.” These pharmacists were being used to address a specific group of patients whose problems were going to be very challenging. As I was going through this process, I had the opportunity to speak with the district manager of one of these MTM specialists. During that conversation, the he said that he saw a lot of pharmacists become like turtles. They weren't slow, but when challenges arose, many would retreat into their shell. This behaviour reminds me of what a fainting goat does.

How does that impact our leadership?

A few important lessons come to mind. Come back next week to learn more....

Until next time –

Jesse McCullough, PharmD

Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn