Sep 2023
28 Sep
Hiring pharmacy staff without actual experience
Like many pharmacy manager-owners, I have conducted a few interviews in my time. Some were highly collaborative and resulted in all-stars still working strongly with us today. Other résumés turned into napkins or scrap paper.
26 Sep
Are you a jaded pharmacist?
The problem with pharmacy is that it is all practice. It is training without race day. The daily grind offers much of the same training as it did the day before. After a short time, we become jaded.
19 Sep
Negotiating 101 for pharmacists
Important negotiations are about relationships, something pharmacists know a ton about. Each day we make friends with strangers needing health advice and tools to pair them with.
12 Sep
A pharmacist’s journal: writing to find answers in pharmacy
In writing about the anecdotes and lessons offered by managing people, the business and the profession, I found seven recurrent themes, which I called the seven dimensions of the ideal pharmacy leader.
05 Sep
The new pharmacy sweet spot
In an era when pharmacy scope of practice is changing rapidly and we venture out into new practice models, we may feel insecure at first.
Aug 2023
29 Aug
Pharmacists have teleprompters for brains (revisited)
All pharmacists have at least one thing in common: we passed a few multiple-choice exams. Remember when your classmate said he would know the answer when he saw it listed in the options? He was right.
22 Aug
What if you hire the wrong people in your pharmacy?
Once we invest (or waste) time doing (or not doing) something, we do not get it back. Staffing your pharmacy is much the same, since time spent recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, training and support a new employee will never be given back.
15 Aug
The unfortunate truth: every pharmacy staff member is replaceable
This sounds harsh, but it often goes unrecognized so here it is straight: no matter what your pharmacy role is, you are replaceable. While you may not imagine that someone else is capable of taking over your job, there is.
08 Aug
Accepting bad news in your pharmacy
Bad news is confrontational. We hesitate to disrupt homeostasis because we are afraid of the negative emotions it will cause others and ourselves. The imagined response in anticipation of our inflammatory reaction makes others procrastinate.
01 Aug
Is your pharmacy staff high maintenance?
Do you have a friend with repeated car problems or perhaps own a car like this yourself? That car ends up costing you time and money repeatedly and the frustration has you thinking about a new vehicle. That car is high maintenance.
July 2023
25 Jul
The second opinion: the art of changing your pharmacy-boss mind
It is the boss’s job to filter the conversations of the workplace and make informed decisions. The hardest part of being the pharmacy decision-maker comes in the times we are wrong. When that happens, do you have the guts to change your mind?
18 Jul
What Goldilocks teaches us about difficult pharmacy work
You know the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Remember the porridge that was just the right temperature and the bed that was just the right softness?
04 Jul
Thick skin: how not to take patient feedback personally
As part of the duties of being a pharmacist, our job involves helping people when they are not at their best.
June 2023
20 Jun
3 reasons pharmacists are lonely
There seems no reprieve to the pharmacist’s daily battles, let alone carrying the weight of nurturing a high-volume prescription count, staff that need plenty of attention and keeping an eye on a business that depends on a ton of moving parts.
20 Jun
Letting the phone ring can be good customer service in pharmacy
While a pharmacist is counselling a patient in-person, would it be appropriate for them to stop to answer the phone? Would we expect this of a surgeon or a plumber?
13 Jun
Pharmacists, firefighters and architects: which one are you?
Some urgent moments of pharmacy involve getting prescriptions filled, managing wait times and dealing with due dates like order cut-off times, answering phones and patient line-ups.
06 Jun
Solving the pharmacy hiring drought, Part 2
People are any workplace’s most valuable asset. They are what make it all tick. To run a great pharmacy, we need great people. To find great people, we need to interview like a champion.
May 2023
30 May
Solving the pharmacy hiring drought, Part 1
Gone are the days where your next hire would walk in, shake your hand and a conversation led to finding your next all-star. The fact that this may have even worked in the past is mind-blowing.
23 May
What do you do when all your pharmacy staff quit?
Workplace exit happens organically when new philosophies and overarching reassessments happen inside a team.
16 May
Do you want every patient as a patient in your pharmacy? Discharging the incompatible ones
The patient-healthcare provider bond is an alliance of honesty, understanding and trust. In our best attempts to provide patient care, we sometimes fail to establish the required relationship based on the way a patient treats us or the staff.
09 May
Are pharmacists too nice to get paid?
The pharmacist personality is commonly a confrontation-avoider. We will often put ourselves out for the sake of others. People are used to getting our attention whenever they want it, no matter how small their query.
02 May
Can you selectively diversify your pharmacy day job?
For the past five years my work portfolio has been a mix of corporate and independent pharmacy work.
Apr 2023
25 Apr
Is your mental chatter about pharmacy your worst enemy?
If anyone wrote down the negative thoughts that go through the minds of pharmacy people, it would alarm you (and a psychiatrist). Trust me.
18 Apr
How to deal with the mental aftermath of confrontation
Leaders must be prepared to put their bulletproof vest on and own it. To process the time-waster’s feedback, remember that the issue is not a reflection on you, but a reflection on a set of circumstances that you were a part in building.
08 Apr
Update: Pharmacists and minor ailments. Howzit going?
At the stroke of 2023, Ontario pharmacists were capable of initiating prescription medications without patients seeing a prescriber beforehand. It is a major solution to a major ailment plaguing a complex and congested healthcare system.
04 Apr
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.
Mar 2023
21 Mar
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?
14 Mar
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.
07 Mar
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.
Feb 2023
28 Feb
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.
21 Feb
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.
14 Feb
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.
06 Feb
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.
Jan 2023
31 Jan
3 steps to solving your hiring puzzle
Solving hiring in pharmacy will first mean finding more candidates without a sizeable investment of our time.
24 Jan
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.
18 Jan
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.
10 Jan
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.
Dec 2022
13 Dec
Where's the green light for predictable pharmacy?
Your job is to create the systems and structures paired with people and resources that shift the balance of your Rx count as far to the predictable side as possible.
06 Dec
Your non-lame pharmacy succession plan
The right succession plan isolates your strengths and weaknesses, or depth, while putting you in control of your destiny.
Nov 2022
29 Nov
Isolating your pharmacy leader identity
We love superheroes and villains because they are unique in their clear identity. We understand their strengths, their weaknesses and what makes them special. Why should you be any different?
22 Nov
No longer invisible: shifting from do-er to thinker as a pharmacist
In any given hour the always accessible, no-appointment needed, world’s number one trusted health care provider has phones ringing, patients in the aisles looking for recommendations, patients waiting in the counselling room for vaccines, deliveries
15 Nov
Pharmacists are like camels but they can't 'hold it' forever
Yes, without genuine washroom breaks it’s true that pharmacists can hold water like camels, but there is a more important similarity: they can both carry significant loads on their backs.
08 Nov
Why wearing a labcoat doesn't make you a pharmacy leader
From the first day I became a pharmacy manager 15 years ago now, I wondered what the difference was in flipping my nametag from Pharmacist yesterday to Pharmacy Manager today.
01 Nov
6 things a pharmacy manager should measure (but usually doesn’t)
Your boss might not make these metrics mandatory but that doesn’t mean they don’t provide insightful data into your store-level operation. Just like individual practitioners, pharmacies themselves have identities. What's yours?
Oct 2022
25 Oct
4 top U-turn decisions pivotal to your pharmacy practice
A U-turn is a manoeuvre to completely change direction. For most decisions in life, changing direction goes without much notice or consequence. Most of life’s day-to-day decisions don’t carry much consequence if we get them wrong.
18 Oct
Five top sleep habits for pharmacists and how to win with them
Pharmacists don’t always take their own advice. We counsel on sleep hygiene and appropriate sedative use, then go home and turn on the TV or burn 35 minutes on our phones.
11 Oct
Pharmacy leaders resemble triathletes in at least 7 ways
The make-up of a triathlete is not all that different from that of a pharmacist.
Years of triathlon training and racing have taught me many translatable skills and qualities that have translated into my becoming a better pharmacy leader.
04 Oct
Sleep on it! Turning it on and off in your pharmacy
Sleep permits the brain to process the day, wipe away the emotional fragility of our interactions and wipe the slate clean. That’s the reason we say ‘sleep on it’ since you will be fresh-minded in the morning to decide.
Sep 2022
27 Sep
Stop setting goals for your pharmacy. Do this instead
We were pushed to set goals as kids. What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you think you can achieve on the exam? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? So, what's the problem with goal-setting?
20 Sep
Succession planning: Delayed gratification sucks (but it’s so worth it in your pharmacy planning)
As a pharmacy leader your goal should be to have the team deliver greater results after you are gone, demonstrating the power of your leadership in building teams, systems and culture.
13 Sep
How does a pharmacy rebound from criticism?
When pharmacy staff get angry words from patients, what the pharmacy manager says next means something. Something potentially very important to how the interaction carries on.
06 Sep
Your pharmacy staff: generalists or specialists?
Like doctors, in pharmacy we have specialists and generalists. I am referring to each of your registered and unregistered staff. The specialists are bone-deep great at a few skills that they have honed over years of experience.
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