- 12/16/2024
Leading through change means inspiring, listening, and securing buy-in from your team. It’s about painting a vision that energizes and equips people to move forward, even when the road is rough.
- 12/9/2024
How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m just a pharmacist,” or “I’m just a technician”? When we define ourselves by limitations, we fail to see the options that could move us forward. It’s almost as if staying stuck feels safer than exploring the unknown.
- 12/2/2024
One critical leadership lesson I’ve learned is this: if you want others to confidently follow, you must show them how your vision connects to their success. By addressing concerns, painting a vivid picture of the benefits, and actively listening, I helped my team see the value—and ultimately, say yes. As a result, the profession of pharmacy is better off, and importantly, so is patient care.
- 11/25/2024
As pharmacy leaders and professionals, adding value should be at the heart of every interaction in our lives, both working and non-working. It’s what makes you meaningful—far beyond your title or physical (or virtual) business card.
- 11/18/2024
I remember working on a medication adherence program with colleagues who, while supportive of the idea, raised concerns about the required effort. I left those meetings feeling frustrated. I wanted things to be better for our pharmacy teams and the patients we serve, but I couldn’t make that change alone.
- 11/11/2024
In my career I’ve been able to witness value creation firsthand. A powerful example of it came when we, in the pharmacy where I was working, were scaling our immunization program and discovered a significant gap in our training. Reports indicated that our CPR training—a vital skill for pharmacists—was highly inconsistent.
- 11/5/2024
One of the earliest lessons I learned in pharmacy school was that pharmacy is always changing. My experience over my own career has certainly proven this to be true. However, while we were told to expect change, what I wasn't prepared for was how to embrace it, let alone lead others through it.
- 10/28/2024
In honour of the recent Pharmacy Technician Day, I want to take a moment to recognize and express my deepest gratitude to all the pharmacy technicians out there. In the fast-paced world of pharmacy, it’s easy to get caught up in the tasks, deadlines, and the endless flow of patients needing care. But behind every successful pharmacy and every patient served is a dedicated team of technicians who keep everything running smoothly.
- 10/22/2024
Too often, we “recruit” for our teams and processes. We fill gaps with what's available, sometimes settling for what works “for now.” Maybe we hire a support staff member because we urgently need help, and once the position is filled, we stop thinking about what could be better.
- 10/15/2024
Over the years, it has become increasingly obvious to me that the heart of so many of our struggles as pharmacists comes from a lack of good leadership skills. This is not surprising. There was minimal emphasis on leadership skills during my formal education.
- 10/8/2024
In 2007, I found myself accepting a promotion to help develop clinical programs for pharmacists across multiple states. But what started as excitement soon turned to concern as it hit me like a ton of bricks that I would now be finding myself in some of the largest cities in North America.
- 10/1/2024
In the world of medications, we want patients to take their appropriately prescribed medications regularly to obtain the intended benefit. Is this done through compliance or adherence? The intent of the two terms is the same, but the spirit is entirely different. And it’s the spirit that counts in the end when leading patients to take their medications.
