The second opinion: the art of changing your pharmacy-boss mind

First principle to accept: A good pharmacy leader does not have all the right answers.

Is this how your mind works?

We should work further ahead in blister pack production. We should have everyone sign for ‘owings’. We should stop selling over-the-counter codeine. We should give out free clean needles. We should do another round of Covid shots. We should waive anything less than two dollars.  A pharmacy team has plenty of opinions.…

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?

While a traditional view of the boss is a dictator who has all the answers, this is hardly correct. If this were true, we would still think smoking was not harmful or that seatbelts were unnecessary. Where would the world be today if the leaders of those times could not – or would not – change their minds?

Why is changing our minds hard?

We see flipping our stance as an admission of being wrong. If we develop a view on something that is opposite to a previous version we once held, it means we were wrong in the past. Instead, the best leaders understand that a new view is a separate decision required in light of new data from a learned experience, building a culture where seeking second opinions is not only safe but also encouraged. Changing our mind is the key to making the right decisions in a dynamic pharmacy world.

Three ways pharmacists can master the second opinion

First, talk openly about ego. Explain you that you see the leader as not having all the right answers. Describe your role as one that must pivot when new information is obtained. Explain that you are open to opinions and encourage ideas that make the pharmacy one per cent better each day. Talk about not being committed to today’s ideas tomorrow and admitting when current solutions are weaker than potential new ones. Describe this as a superpower of your pharmacy, instead of an admission of previous wrongdoing.

Second, depersonalize your opinions. Think of the products and results the team creates as belongings of the pharmacy, instead of to you. Once we label the good and bad as belonging to the pharmacy, we dissociate ourselves personally from problems and our character is no longer under attack. This allows us to unemotionally solve problems, instead of emotionally solve people.

Third, drop the need to prove yourself right. If caring for patients, taking care of a staff and running a business were all about being right, then pharmacy school admission interviews would look for Jeopardy winners instead of open-minded, well-rounded, empathetic communication experts. Only when we put ego aside, can we remove ourselves from the picture and focus on doing right instead of being right.

The next time you face a decision that is counter to an earlier opinion, ask yourself: is it time to have a second opinion?

Are you brave enough to change your mind?

Want a second opinion? 

Sign up for a VIP DAY with Jason here and walk away with a tangible staffing game plan. Tap into Jason’s decade plus of experience managing pharmacy staff to test your plan against the opinion of a neutral third-party colleague. What would another pharmacist do in your shoes? Find out in Game Plan.