When is the best time to "plant trees" in pharmacy?

When is the best time to plant a tree? According to the proverb, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. After all, if the tree was planted 20 years ago, you would be able to gain some benefit from it. It could provide shade. If it was a fruit tree, you would be getting a nice harvest in season after 20 years. But what if you didn’t plant that tree 20 years ago? What should you do then? According to the proverb, the second-best time to plant a tree is today!

This proverb has applications in other areas of our lives as well. When was the best time to eat better and get into shape? Years ago. What if you didn’t? Start today. 

When was the best time to learn how to play the piano? Years ago. What if you didn’t?  Start today.

The same holds for developing our pharmacy leadership. When was the best time to develop your leadership skills? Years ago. What if you didn’t? Start today.

Pharmacists face leadership challenges from every angle. Staff, customers, prescribers, vendors, and you cannot overlook family. Pharmacists are challenged to lead all these groups (and others) and they all have different requirements. Two and half years ago, a twist was added, with a global pandemic making things even more complicated. Even today there are some who expect things to return to the way they used to be. I welcome the opportunity to be corrected on this, but I cannot recall any time in history where that happened. Things will continue to change. There will be new complexities. While this could be frustrating to some, there is also opportunity if you choose to look for it.

This is where leadership timing becomes so important. As we move our teams forward, we must be aware of how timing factors in for everyone.

When it comes to timing, there are essentially 3 options: early, late and on time.

Being late could be catastrophic. To use an absurd example, this would be like deciding to use a fax machine to send communications back and forth to our customers. Twenty-five years ago, there might have been an opportunity to work something out with a fax machine, but most likely not today. This would be the equivalent of arriving at a party 25 years late – it just won’t cut it. 

Being on time is always the best choice, but let’s face it, it's very difficult to do. 

What we should consider leading towards is being a little bit early. This will come with some resistance as the earlier you are, the more resistance you get. 

Think about this: as the pandemic hit, those businesses that were already moving forward with more customer friendly services found themselves well positioned to gain customers. For example, the pharmacies that already had an online presence were able to supplement sales more easily than the pharmacies that did not. They still faced challenges, but because they were already moving forward, they had a distinct advantage.

Challenges and corresponding opportunities will continue to come at us. You probably have a decent idea of what some of those challenges look like. So, what are doing about it?

If you foresee challenges in the global supply chain, what are you doing about it? 

If you foresee challenges with support staff in your pharmacy, what are you doing about it?

If you are seeing a shortage of health workers in your community, what are you doing about it? 

There are likely other much more relevant questions for you to ask yourself, but the follow-up question remains: what are you doing about it?

We started off today by saying the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. And the second-best time is today. If you don’t have that head start, I encourage you to take a step today. It's not too late.

After all, you are a leader who leads people well.

Until next time –

Jesse McCullough, PharmD

Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn