My top 3 leadership lessons to get started

Full disclosure: I am not now, nor was I ever, a pharmacist.But as they say: ‘some of my best friends are pharmacists’ and I sure got to know hundreds – thousands? – of pharmacists and their teams over my 27 years in pharmacy. I was proud and privileged to be entrusted with the leadership of an independent community retail pharmacy brand. During my time as CEO of Pharmasave, our little company grew from its initial 17 locations in Ontario to over 550 (and still growing) pharmacies across Ontario and the Atlantic provinces when I retired. Among the first, and perhaps the single most important lesson I learned after joining Pharmasave, is that pharmacy is both, and fully intertwined, a healthcare profession and a business. I learned many lessons over my years supporting pharmacy owners and their teams, and critically, how to get the most out of my own team. In these columns I’ll be sharing not just lessons learned, but how you can enhance your own managerial leadership skillset and both deliver stronger results for your organization while increasing the personal and professional development of those you lead and yourself.Leadership lesson #1: WHAT you do is important; HOW you do what you do is critical.Meaning just what exactly? There are many elements to leading a successful business, but the key element is that everything – literally, everything – related to your ‘people practices’ will determine success. A sound business model and strategy are, of course, the foundation for your pharmacy, but they are meaningless without even stronger people practices.Leadership lesson #2: Programs and systems don’t operate a business, PEOPLE do.Leading people is an art, not a science; the good news is that anyone can be a leader…that is, assuming they value not just results, but how results are achieved. In other words, if you’re an ‘ends justify the means’ kind of person, well, you can skip the rest of this column! If you’re like most people (one would hope!), read on for some thoughts on why leaders who focus on remarkable people practices – the HOW things get done in your organization – have sustainable success by delivering better business results within a healthy work environment. These are not mutually exclusive; they are interconnected.When you undertake any leadership role, you transition from being ‘responsible for getting the job done’ to being ‘responsible for the people who are getting the job done.’ And people who feel better about themselves, and each other, are more effective in how they perform what gets done. Assuming your business model is sound, that’s when the effectiveness of leadership is put to the test: once/if your people know WHAT to do, sustainable achievement is the result of HOW the WHAT gets done. HOW they treat your patients, each other, your suppliers – literally everyone – establishes the operating culture of your team. Leadership lesson #3: True leaders need to make tough decisions to achieve results.No one can be an effective leader unless they genuinely care about the success and well-being of EVERY person on their team. A ‘team’ isn’t defined because people work together; a ‘team’ is a ‘team’ because people respect, trust and care for each other. And, yes, this includes making tough decisions along the way: nothing will destroy a great employee faster than watching you tolerate an under-performing one. I look forward to sharing further thoughts and strategies to help you enhance your leadership skillset. In upcoming columns I’ll outline some of my more impactful leadership beliefs and practices, including my ‘Leadership Code’, the ‘9 Fs of Leadership,’ ‘Trust,’ what it means to be a ‘Servant Leader’ - and why that leadership model works best - and how to establish and maintain a high functioning culture which values performance excellence within a compassionate culture.Let me leave you with the wisdom of Maya Angelou, something all of us can never be reminded of too often: ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’Leadership advisor and public speaker Doug Sherman is the former CEO of Pharmasave East. Reach him at dh.sherman@outlook.com.

My top 3 leadership lessons to get started

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