Pharmacy U news

You have one job as a pharmacy manager or owner. In my recent article Why Hiring is Pharmacy's Biggest Problem and What to do About it I described having an automated hiring process to preserve the decision maker's time, while still allocating tangible energy to finding more of the right people. Now it's time to discuss what happens after you do hire.

Wealth tends to sneak up on you as you pay off your first pharmacy mortgage and the surpluses start. Learning how to live with wealth is in fact, a new skill that needs to be learned, just like you learned your professional skills. It takes time, but the time is well worth it especially in family-run pharmacy operations.

You are the average of the 5 people you hang around with most. But what does that mean for a pharmacy dispensary if people are too hard to come by? We have a few problems in the mix right now. Pharmacy is a tough, grinding job. Minimum wage continues to grow, putting all local entry-level jobs on the same scale. A pandemic conditioned society to work from home or in hybrid models. Society expects to be paid top dollar with social media job titles, right away.

Leaders must be effective communicators. There is no doubt about it. You show me a leader who struggles to communicate, and I will show you a team that is struggling to perform. A significant event in my career happened when I walked into a pharmacy in South Carolina to talk about this pharmacy’s performance on cholesterol medications and the pharmacist said to me, “I don’t know what to say to my patients.”

The difference between elites in any category is less than one per cent. The best of the best out-perform their colleagues across many measures of success, but in the end, what separates the greatest from the good pile lies in the fine details.

Last time we met, I encouraged you to consider conferences as a great place to find new ideas. Writing that post got me to reflect on the various conferences I have attended throughout my career. I thought I would share a story with you today.

Family-owned businesses possess many strengths, such as their ability to look at the long-term development of their operation and align interests between management and owner. This is especially true of “owner-operator” structures often seen with independent pharmacy operators.

Not outdriving your headlights means understanding what you can control and having the discipline to mentally stay there. Leaders capable of doing this make decisions within their comfort zone, without worrying about what is beyond sight.