How to Shield Our Teams From Forced Culture

[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

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For all my fellow Pharmacy Managers out there and anyone with two cents to share:

How do you inspire your teams when all you hear from upper management are numbers and metrics?

It's part of our job code to account for dollars and cents, but this does little to engage or inspire our teams.

I feel that the drastic shortage of happy pharmacists in retail pharmacy is largely due to poor leadership.

I'm fortunate that my boss shields me from the "forced culture" from above.

However, many of my peers face intense micromanagement and total disregard for clinical purpose on a daily basis.

What are some strategies you use to protect your teams, boost morale, and still drive the bottom-line simultaneously?

 

[ornithoptor]

Two approaches: for different areas of practice.

At hospital, there are annual employee satisfaction surveys and engagement surveys. Any unit with below average rating have to develop action plans to improve employee satisfaction. Pizza lunch, technician day, employee day, donuts...... there are budget for this kind of things. Sometimes hospitals allow sales rep to bring fancy food.

For management, Crucial Conversation, Kaisen, management seminar, Just Culture, few get to go to ASHP leadership classes.
For department, there are lean sessions, rapid improvement plans......

Hospital believe employee engagement and believe engaged employees are productive and caring employees who will go above and beyond. It is in the interests of hospitals to keep employees happy.

As for retail, there are a few considerations. From stock holder prospective, dividends is the only thing that matters which is also the corporate goal. Ask yourself what can you do to align these goals. How can you convince your superior that happier employees could lead happy customers who will spend more or reduce mistakes.

If your peers are under pressure from district but not you. That simply means that you are delivering results but not them. As long as you deliver, you and your team will be fine.

Last, ask yourself what leverage do you have. If there isn’t any, then you have no power to bargain and you are at the mercy of your corporate agendas, even if you have the best ideas or best intention.

What is left for you to do is come early, leave late, buy occasional food, gifts from your own pocket for your team to keep the morale up.


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[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

Two approaches: for different areas of practice.

At hospital, there are annual employee satisfaction surveys and engagement surveys. Any unit with below average rating have to develop action plans to improve employee satisfaction. Pizza lunch, technician day, employee day, donuts...... there are budget for this kind of things. Sometimes hospitals allow sales rep to bring fancy food.

For management, Crucial Conversation, Kaisen, management seminar, Just Culture, few get to go to ASHP leadership classes.
For department, there are lean sessions, rapid improvement plans......

Hospital believe employee engagement and believe engaged employees are productive and caring employees who will go above and beyond. It is in the interests of hospitals to keep employees happy.

As for retail, there are a few considerations. From stock holder prospective, dividends is the only thing that matters which is also the corporate goal. Ask yourself what can you do to align these goals. How can you convince your superior that happier employees could lead happy customers who will spend more or reduce mistakes.

If your peers are under pressure from district but not you. That simply means that you are delivering results but not them. As long as you deliver, you and your team will be fine.

Last, ask yourself what leverage do you have. If there isn’t any, then you have no power to bargain and you are at the mercy of your corporate agendas, even if you have the best ideas or best intention.

What is left for you to do is come early, leave late, buy occasional food, gifts from your own pocket for your team to keep the morale up.


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Crucial Conversations was a great read and very applicable to the sometimes heated discussions upper management can have with PM's.

Lean Thinking, QA, and Six Sigma would be an interesting perspective to use for pharmacy. I am currently reading The Toyota Way, and there are a ton of great principles to apply to most businesses.

You're right about needing leverage, though. And that's what I strive to build every day with results.

I had an Area Director come visit my pharmacy once, boss me around, look at the P&L secretly in the corner, only to throw it away in front of me when I asked what he was looking at.

After that, I vowed to own my business so hard, no one could ever own me like that again.

I truly believe engaged employees deliver the highest results, and that's my biggest focus as a manager.

But that's because I hired them all myself, and am committed to their development. I spend 1 hour each week on 1v1 development.

What about those who inherit jaded, cynical, and unmotivated technicians and staff pharmacists? They certainly could care less about huddles and corporate initiatives.

Having to convert intangibles like morale and productivity to dollars and cents is hard enough for new grads to explain. Not to mention adjusting to the new role of clinician. Now they have to step up and motivate others.

What things can they implement to get both short and long term results with their technicians without succumbing to micromanagement? If our DM cracks the whip every day, it's hard not to let some of that trickle down to our teams.

 

[ornithoptor]

What about those who inherit jaded, cynical, and unmotivated technicians and staff pharmacists? They certainly could care less about huddles and corporate initiatives.

Having to convert intangibles like morale and productivity to dollars and cents is hard enough for new grads to explain. Not to mention adjusting to the new role of clinician. Now they have to step up and motivate others.

What things can they implement to get both short and long term results with their technicians without succumbing to micromanagement? If our DM cracks the whip every day, it's hard not to let some of that trickle down to our teams.

First, all the jaded employees must either be be moved up or moved out. Doesn’t matter how hard you put a team together, one bad apple will change the dynamic and destroy the morale.

We recently hired a employee whose mother also work for the department, turned out to a irresponsible millennial who refuse go do anything more than his job descriptions. He openly refused to help colleague in need. It took a while and with political damage, he finally was let go.

In the retail world with a new PIC who graduates recently in his or her twenty’s; it could still work if there is a good support network, and mentorship are being provided.

However, in most of the big chain retail, there is no luxury of time for proper growth, and most are burned out with a few who made it with sweat, tear and blood. Some part of soul are also exchanged. It leaves permanent scars......

I remember watching a video from Walgreens on my first day: Walgreens pay you be here, do it’s biddings.

Nothing wrong with the statement above, you always have the choice to leave. Period. If you get a lousy DM, you are dealt with a bad hand, not much you can do. You could mitigate the impacts to make the life more bearable for your team with periodic food, gifts, and pep talks. Ultimately, these only goes so far. Rescue yourself, sometimes we are not in position to rescue everyone else. It is not your cross to bare. Now you understand why I am on my 7th job with upward trend.

It is rather moving to see a caring manager. Bottomline, we are in control of our own destiny!


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