by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc. ®
“Why is it every time I ask for a ‘pair of hands,’ they come with a brain attached?” Henry Ford
Pretty much every time this writer visits a pharmacy, wherever that may be, he comes away with a similar feeling: ‘The staff don’t seem particularly friendly or happy.’ They appear to be just going through the motions rather than connect with their customers. Beyond dealing with staff members, you might just catch a glimpse of their pharmacist who is intently focused on filling prescriptions. In fact, on many instances it’s hard to observe any special rapport between the pharmacist and their staff. Is this the way they are trained or is this the nature of the beast?
As a leadership advisor, this writer is still amazed that people are still stuck with the age-old supervisory-management thinking that you don’t fraternize or act particularly friendly toward your staff. Forget that we’re now in the 21st century. There’s a distinct difference between fraternizing and being respectfully friendly and empathizing – not sympathizing – with one’s team members anyway. Is there a better way to go?
Suppose instead pharmacists were encouraged to be team leaders. Imagine them meeting with their team at least once or twice a week for 10-15 minutes before opening time for a cup of coffee. They could then chat about what was going on and invite staff members to raise any questions or suggestions: exceptional team leaders might even meet every day. Imagine also that the team would also meet once a week for half-an-hour for a snack lunch to chat about technical or customer issues. Members of the team could take turns at handling customers that arrived for help during that period. Also imagine pharmacists meeting with each team member once a month to chat about their work contributions, fresh ideas and team efforts: done with a mindset focused more upon “what’s going right” rather than “what’s going wrong.”
Right now one gets the distinct feeling this is not the world of pharmacists and their staff. They appear like production shops run by supervisors and managers, where people are still treated somewhat like they were 100 years ago – just deemed as “pairs of hands.” Do pharmacists feel so much under pressure that they have little time or interest in their staff? If pharmacists are indifferent toward their staff, then it’s hardly surprising that their staff is likely to be indifferent toward their customers.
Supervision or management is so often a world of pursuing goals, planning schedules, organizing routines, directing those around you, and controlling your workers. They all seem like something from a by-gone age. It’s often a mechanical world of processes and systems, so that no one has to think and everything works like clockwork.
Imagine, also the alternative, where once a quarter lead-pharmacists would corral an opportunity for the team to meet and consider all those things the team would like to accomplish over the next quarter. Consider how a quarter can be rather a lengthy time period for most staff members. Where new suggestions or intentions surface, they would then “pair-up” to figure out and take care of what’s needed rather than expect their pharmacist to take care of it. “Pairing” empowers team members and is generally more productive and collaborative over time than solo-production.
Because team leaders are generally much more interested in their people and progress, compared with supervisors who are inclined to fixate on systems and process; they are more likely to choose team members who have pleasant and helpful personalities. In a retail environment, personality is clearly a more important asset than how much they know. With the right attitude and pharmacy environment, less knowledgeable ‘newbies’ will quickly pick-up all the extra know-how requirements. You can always add know-how, but you cannot add personality.
So the question is: ‘Do drug store chains develop pharmacists as supervisors or team leaders?’ As we can see from this article, there’s a big difference between the two. It’s the same way as within our local townships, “Do we develop our cops as an occupying or community force?” Drug store chains have to make this key distinction between supervisors or team leaders – start by dumping the word supervisor and instead change to team leader to begin with – and then recruit and train pharmacists accordingly. Interested and friendly pharmacy staff can become a potent competitive agent, since it encourages repeat business. That repeat business increases purchases in other parts of the drug store, too.
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