Things don’t just happen in your pharmacy….

Let me ask you a question: have you ever made a New Year’s resolution? We probably all have. If we follow the statistics, it is very likely that we did not keep that resolution either. A few years ago, I was introduced to a new concept for the new year. It was to select a word for the year. The idea was to create a lens to view the year through.  That way, whenever I would find myself drifting off in another direction, this word for the year would help to bring me back in the right direction and would also provide a learning opportunity for me as I reset. 

The first word I chose changed my life. Now I wish I could tell you that my life got so much better and so much easier with this word. Far from it. Things have become more challenging than ever, but my growth has risen to the challenge. In fact, I believe it is safe to say that if not for this word, you and I would not find ourselves connecting right here, right now. I have shared this word and this concept with many people, and for the ones who embrace this principle, they venture to step past success in their careers and move into the areas of significance. 

Think about that for just a moment. What would it be like to have people tell you that you made a significant impact on their lives? My experience has been that it is truly humbling experience.

I tell you all of this to set the stage for the second principle of leadership growth. Last time we looked at the principle of expansion. Quite briefly, expansion means we are getting better and expanding our capacity. As we increase our capacity, we are able to increase our impact. This is a truly powerful principle to embrace. However, if you want to really make the principle of expansion work, you must link it to the second principle of leadership growth. This second principle just so happens to be the word of the year I started off with several years ago. 

The second principle is the principle of intentionality.  

I get it. This is by no means a glamorous principle. But it is a principle that pays immediate dividends. 

You see, so many of us, myself included and perhaps at the top of the class, go through life waiting to encounter growth opportunities. I would call this accidental growth. This is growth that happens from being in the right place at the right time.  Some people may call this luck. The reality is that we are all presented with all sorts of learning opportunities every day. Far too often, we simply neglect to learn from these experiences. And you know what happens, we will be taught the lesson again at some time. Maybe, just maybe, we will learn the lesson then. If not, the lesson will be repeated with some regularity until we do learn it. 

What happens when we decide to become intentional?

Come back next week to find out.

Until next time

Jesse McCullough, PharmD

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