Effective Communication and
Leadership: Knowing Yourself,
Learning From Your Mistakes,
and Maximizing Your Potential
Scott Knoer, M.S., Pharm.D.
Director of Pharmacy
University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview
BIG L…. Little L
(Formal & Every Pharmacist)
Courtesy of Sara White
Why are we doing this anyway?
I’m successful because I know
more ways how NOT to do things
than anyone else
- Thomas Edison
Establishing Credibility and Trust
• Customers - Peers
 Find loudest critics and get them to the table
 Establish Nursing-Pharmacy Committee
 Establish relationships based upon trust and
mutual respect – e.g.; Pyxis® rollout example
 Work toward common goals
 Be seen as collaborative, not just Pharmacy
Kingdom based
 Do the right thing for the patient
 Deliver (integrity)
Credibility – Your Boss
• Deliver
• Don’t shy away from tough issues
 When placed in command - take charge
Norman Schwarzkopf
• Follow-through on everything
 Even if answer is no, circle back yourself
• Communicate pro-actively
 If it is bad news, it comes from you first. Bosses don’t like to be
caught off guard
• “It’s my job to make my boss look good and to give
the credit to my staff”
- Steve Rough
Credibility – Your Boss
• Fix the things your boss cares about




Hit the numbers
Deal with complaints
Be proactive
Always deliver when you ask for resources
 If you ask for FTEs for Med Rec, you better do
med rec better than nursing could have
• Always say yes to your boss: “Can-do”
action orientation
 May have to say yes, but…
 Make sure you have the resources to be successful
 Don’t commit and fail
Credibility – Your Staff (Team)
• Deliver (see the trend?)
• Advocate for them
 New space or remodels
 Increased staffing
 Gallup question: “I have the materials and equipment
I need to do my job”
 Just buy the computer, or book, or file cabinet… If
you have a $32,000,000 drug budget, you
shouldn’t get too worked up over spending $100 to
make their life easier
Credibility – Your Staff (Team)
• Set the tone for respectful communication in
the department
 Don’t tolerate inappropriate behavior
 It’s not OK to yell at staff meetings
 Zero tolerance for the big three
 Race
 Sex
 Violence / intimidation – physical or verbal
 Document all disciplinary conversations
 Don’t tolerate people outside of your department
treating your staff inappropriately
Credibility – Your Staff (Team)
• Know them
 Meet with everyone who reports to you when you
start
 Meet with all new employees when they start
 Discuss the Vision on day one
 Walk through the department every day (MBWA) and
address every employee by name
 Regular staff meetings
• MBWA
 Be accessible
 They can bring an issue to your attention
 They should have a potential solution when they
do
Credibility – Your Staff (Team)
• Set a vision
 This department will once again be a nationally recognized
leader in Pharmacy Practice
 You should be proud to work here, the expectations are high
 “We win National Championships at Oklahoma, that’s what
we do” Bob Stoops, Head Coach Oklahoma Sooners
 We did the first Open Heart Surgery and the first Bone
Marrow Transplant. We are a world leader in transplantation.
• Set accountabilities
 For yourself
 For your staff
 Address tough issues head on
 Inappropriate communication
 Tardies
 Sick Calls
 Dress Code
Credibility – Your Management Team
• Take care of those who take care of you!
• Know their goals (Do they want to be a
Director of Pharmacy?)




Prepare them for their desired role
Give them authority to make decisions
Give them face time with Sr. Administration
Praise them in front of your boss when they do a
good job
 Give them the credit for their successes
 Be an advocate for their careers – Catapult program
Credibility – Your Management Team
• Pay them well
 Don’t get hung up with what you make if there is a tight range
 Although it’s not all about the money, make sure money is
not an issue
• Go to bat for them
 UMMC ADs are in the 95th percentile for Academic Medical
Centers
• Establish a Leadership Pipeline
• A good manager is a man who isn't worried about
his own career but rather the careers of those who
work for him. My advice: Don't worry about yourself.
Take care of those who work for you and you'll float
to greatness on their achievements.
 H.S.M. Burns – 1988 President Shell Oil Company
Integrity
• Do the right thing
 Don’t make “special arrangements”
 They will always come back to bite you in the butt
 Don’t bow to pressure if it compromises integrity
 Example - Dept Head, Dean and CEO phone call
for special hiring treatment
Knowing Yourself
“Those who ignore the past are doomed to
repeat it”
“If you keep doing the same thing, don’t expect
different results”
“If things go wrong, look in the mirror for
answers”
Knowing Yourself
• Tools
 Myers-Briggs
 ENTJ
 Insights
 Color wheel
 Red, Green, Blue, Yellow
• Our greatest strengths are our greatest
weaknesses
 Strength: Passionate, goal oriented, driven
 Weakness: See above
Develop Your Management Style
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Participatory
Visionary
Coaching
Autocratic
Commanding
Controlling
Democratic
Delegating
Key is to be able to vary your style and
approach depending on the situation!!
Understand Senior
Leadership’s Perspective
• Pharmacy is a high cost expense in the
organization
• I hate surprises
• Pharmacy always wants more resources
when I want to reduce the budget
• When pharmacy talks quality, I have a difficult
time defining it
• Physicians sometimes tell me that pharmacy
won’t let them have drugs needed to care for
patients
What does the Hospital Administrator
Expect from the Pharmacy Director?
1.
2.
Safe medication use systems
Efficient and effective medication use systems

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
plans to maximize pharmacist time in patient care activities
Partnering with physicians to maintain a cost-effective,
evidence-based formulary system
Leadership in planning and execution of regulatory and
quality changes
Accurate and rational drug budgeting and forecasting
Managing expenses and productivity to budget
Understand the impact of pharmacy resources on both
the revenue and expense sides of the hospital income
statement
What does the Hospital Administrator
Expect from the Pharmacy Director?
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Annual goals for improving quality, lowering expense
and improving margin
Information to present to the board of directors
Be simple and clear in defining what you mean
Provide leadership in all areas of the organization
(don’t get trapped in a silo)
Get business plans and ROIs for new programs visible
long before decisions are made
Satisfied employees and low turnover
Establishing Credibility with
Senior Leadership
• Set aggressive cost reduction targets and
achieve them
 be proactive with expense controls
 implement innovative drug policy initiatives
 request that savings be used to fund new services
and quality initiatives
• Expand pharmacy business opportunities
 add to the hospital’s bottom line
• Constantly educate them on what we are
doing to improve the bottom line
Establishing Credibility with
Senior Leadership
• Become “Actively Engaged”
 be visible with senior leaders and the board
 use every opportunity to educate leadership on what
you do
 engage physicians in your decisions
 build strong relationships, trust and influence
 get on the steering committee
• Be willing to work outside of pharmacy to
engage and lead others
• Be the consummate team player
Establishing Credibility with
Senior Leadership
• Technology and clinical IT leadership for
improved efficiency and patient safety
• Resource utilization management and
technology assessment leadership
• Assure external quality indicator compliance
• Stay on top of future/pipeline of
pharmaceuticals
• Supply chain management
 80/20 rule. Need the people to manage the drug
budget
Establishing Credibility with
Senior Leadership
• Help them define quality when you
demonstrate it for them
 be simple, be clear in educating
• Show pharmacy as a value driver, not a cost
center
 always sell the patient care role of the pharmacist
 provide frequent evidence of the value of your
programs
• Know the healthcare literature and learn to
use it effectively
 quality literature, leadership literature
 forward articles – push news, Healthleaders.com
Looking Forward
Mistakes are lessons of wisdom.
The past cannot be changed. The
future is yet in your power.
– Hugh White
Managing Your Boss
• Establish expectations
 communication and feedback (good and bad)
 what do we both need to perform at our best
 how to disagree
• Understand their goals and how you can help
• Always make your boss look good
• Stay flexible
 includes being open to constructive criticism
• Always follow through on what you say you
will do
• Know what make’s your boss tick
Managing Your Boss
• Be visible and audible
 don’t be afraid to speak up
 know when to shut up
• Be a leader





add value to others
always be positive, and creative
have a vision and communicate it
give the credit away
get your best people “on stage” throughout the
organization
• Stay connected and network
• Build a reputation for success
Managing People
• Communication




listen carefully to what your employees think
seek employee advice
actively share information and ask for input/ideas
learn to say “let me think about it”
• Make expectations clear and expect results (and
then hopefully get out of the way)
 provide frequent and consistent feedback, mostly positive
• Follow through on commitments in a timely manner
• Treat everyone with respect
 maintain good relationships
 resolve differences constructively
Managing People
• Give managers the freedom to make
decisions about their areas of responsibility
 and allow people impacted by decisions to have input
• Have high expectations, expect results and
exceptional execution
 link with situational leadership
 hold managers accountable
 provide support without removing responsibility
• There is not absolute right and wrong, only
differences of opinion
• Always try to improve everything
Managing People
• Never blame people
 focus on the system and the problem
 assume there was a communication breakdown
• Be a team player
 learn to manage without command and control
 your success depends on the team following a
common goal
• Give the credit away – always
 your success depends on other people
• Make good use of your time – set the
example for your mangers
Managing People
• Recognize the best people are motivated by:





recognition
responsibility
advancement
challenging and interesting work
achievement
• Your employees are your customers
 respect them, listen carefully to them
 let them know they are doing a great job every day
3 Classic Aspects of Leading People
• Set demanding goals (about the team)
 so people know what is expected of them
• Monitoring behavior
 watching what people do rather than isolating yourself
from them
• Recognition
 letting people know when they’ve done a great job
What My Managers Need from Me
• Clarity
 clear communication of goals, expectations, results
• Help with prioritization and managing barriers
 help when overwhelmed
• Confidence, encouragement, and recognition
 find them doing things well and recognize this
• Latitude to make decisions
• Opportunities to learn and grow
 focus on strengths, and where they “can” change
It’s All About Relationships
• Be Honest




with others
with yourself
when giving difficult news
always
• Listen
 good, active listening should make you tired, it’s hard
work
Relationships
You can accomplish anything in life,
provided you do not mind who gets
the credit.
-Harry Truman
Developing New (Young) Managers
into Leaders
• “Grey zone” decision making responsibility
 position with broader responsibility than some would expect
 offer help and advice, but don’t solve their problems
 but not too much authority too fast - emotional competency
• Keep them busy
• Have them staff on the schedule
• Mentoring relationship
 at some point, ability to influence and persuade outweigh raw
talent and determined ambition
• Get them out in front, and support their decisions
• Broaden responsibilities over time, with sustained
mentoring through all positions
• Professional organization “involvement”
Leadership
Never tell people how to do things.
Tell them what to do and they will
surprise you with their ingenuity.
-George Patton
Leadership Skills Young
Managers Should Attain
•
•
•
•
Strategic and creative thinking
Systems thinking
Big picture thinking and attitude
Results orientation and drive for high
performance
• Commitment
• Persistence
• How to develop future leaders
- Adopted from Tom Thielke’s 2004 Leadership Conference slides on Mentoring
Managing Your Budget
• Know your budget inside and out
• Know what administration expects
 prudent budgeting, ability to explain variances
• Delegate day to day budget management details
 assign managers different expense classes and/or cost centers
 expect managers to explain all variances
 hire a budget coordinator
• Use monthly variance reports as a means to brag
about department accomplishments as well
• Ability to balance fiscal with patient care issues
 see issues from both perspectives
 know the literature on value of pharmacy services...and use it
• Work with physicians to set targets and guidelines
Managing Your Programs
• Surround yourself with talent
 don’t compromise on hiring the best people (people
with determination and a passion for pharmacy)
 provide challenging work
• Learn to elicit teamwork and good
relationships
• Commitment to professionalism and
organizations
• Be creative, innovative and results oriented
 market your vision
Managing Your Programs
• Learn to prioritize and make good use of your
time
 be patient
 focus efforts on primary goals (need a 5 year plan)
 keep a “future project” file
• Project management skills
 gantt charts, clear responsibilities and timelines
• Always make decisions based on what’s best
for the patient
 expect this from everyone
Create a Teaching and Learning
Environment
• Commitment to the future of our profession
 leadership crisis
 Sara J. White: Will there be a pharmacy leadership crisis? An
ASHP Foundation Scholar-in-Residence report
Am. J. Health Syst. Pharm., Apr 2005; 62: 845 - 855
• Surround yourself with residents and students
 start a residency
 start an administrative clerkship experience and market it
• Teaching and Learning




part of a ‘High-Performance Pharmacy’
attracts motivated and talented people
provides an opportunity to recruit them
opportunities for growth and learning are essential for retention
Overcoming Resistance to Change
•
•
•
•
Provide background about the change
Indicate how the change will affect individuals
Discuss questions, concerns, and ideas
Agree on solutions, resources and support
needed
• Decide on actions to be taken and follow-up
dates
• Summarize and express appreciation
Decision Making
• Is this the best use of my department’s
resources right now?
• How does this further the mission of my
department and my institution?
• Is the timing right?
• What are the effects on:
 patients?
 the staff?
 other departments?
Attitude
Anytime you stop trying to get better,
you get worse.
- Pat Riley
David Zilz on Leadership
Leadership is influence,
nothing more, nothing less.
John C. Maxwell, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
Bottom Line on Influence
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Exceed expectations
Develop your emotional intelligence
Understand and accentuate your strengths
Minimize your weaknesses
Become the subject matter expert
Don’t burn any bridges
Understand and relate your actions to the big
picture
• Constantly build your network
• Align your action with organizational goals
Being a Leader
• Vision
• Passion
• Listen – find out what
other people think
• Trust
• Honesty
• Positive attitude
• Encourage problem talk
• Act swiftly in moment of
crisis
• Set small goals and hit
them
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Take risks
Define success broadly
Always contribute
Act unselfishly
Find what is broken and
strive to fix it
Demand diversity
Honor differences
Perpetual optimism
Let people know it’s all
about achievement
Leadership
Leaders are not born, they are
made.
- Vince Lombardi
The New Pharmacy Director:
Lessons from the Trenches
Team Building,
Leadership Development
and Succession Planning
Team Building
• Shaping Your Team – Bruce E. Scott 2005
ASHP Leadership Conference
If we get the right people on the bus, the
right people in the right seats, and the wrong
people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how
to take it someplace great.
- Jim Collins, Good to Great
Team Building
• Identify and select the right people
 Diverse personalities, competencies and goals
 Still ‘fit’ - Maintain ability to communicate and work
together
• Know and use strengths of your team
members
 Ask them what work they enjoy and why and listen to
their answers
 Pay particular attention to their ‘wins’ and ‘losses’
 Use evaluation tools
 Now, Discover Your Strengths
 Identifies ‘talents’ and advice on how to manage
Team Building
• Get the ‘wrong people off the bus’
 Don’t wait! “Hope is not a strategy”
 When you are working harder on their success than
they are….it’s time
 Make a plan with the help of Human Resources
• Ongoing maintenance




Quarterly development meetings
Identify new roles and responsibilities
Create opportunities for growth and learning
Encourage (insist) on new experiences, taking risks
With Others in the Organization
• Importance of partnering with….
 Nursing
 Finance
 Departmental peers, e.g., Lab, Radiology, etc.
• Nursing
 Primary customers
 Nurses perception of pharmacists as patient care
‘peers’ – not drug jockeys
 Powerful ally
With Others in the Organization
• Finance
 Pharmacy is a primary cost center
 Strong relationship with finance staff = strong
relationship with CFO
 CPAs are like RPhs…anal retentive
 pay attention to details
 follow their rules
 understand, use and appreciate their expertise
• Departmental Peers
 Face similar issues
 Source of assistance, influence
 Camaraderie
Identify and Develop Future Leaders
• Identify Leaders
 Do peers look to them for guidance?
 Do they outperform their peers?
 Are they smarter than me?
• Students = Residents = Future Leaders
• Pharmacists
 Offer new challenges or new roles
 Spend time with them
 Find them a mentor if it’s not you
Identify and Develop Future Leaders
• Treat every person…differently NOT the
same
 Every person is unique, why would you manage them
all the same way?
• Strengthen natural talents




The scorpion and the frog
Identify opportunities that are suited to their abilities
Encourage them to build on their strengths
Only address weaknesses so that they are not
detrimental
• Required reading
 First, Break All the Rules, Buckingham & Coffman
Succession Planning
• You can’t succession plan if you are insecure
 Your department should be able to run without you
 If you are scared to go on vacation you are not an
effective leader
 Let people make decisions
 If you tell people where to go, but not how to
get there, you will be amazed by the results,
George S. Patton
 You can accomplish great things in life
provided that you do not care who gets the
credit. Harry S Truman
 Listen and offer advice when asked
Succession Planning
• Having said that…
 Don’t be an absentee director
 Don’t forget where your paycheck comes from
 It’s not from ASHP, APhA, or ACCP
Succession Planning
• Create roles of increasing responsibility
 Be creative – challenging with flat management
structures today
 On line supervisors (with project days) FTE neutral
 Clinical team leaders
 Technician supervisors and managers
 Techs can manage the distribution process
 Project leads
 Push the day to day decisions down as far as you
can
Succession Planning
• Leadership Development*
 Being challenged (chance of failure)
 50 – 75% chance of being successful
 Experiential learning (developmental task in current
job or more challenging job)
 Role models (good and bad), coaches and mentors
 Courses and reading
 Personal learning
 Feedback
*Lombardo and Eichinger “The Leadership Machine”
The New Pharmacy Director:
Lessons from the Trenches
Gaining Resources:
New Programs, Technologies
and Services
Gaining resources
• 95 to 114 FTEs
• CPOE, Med Rec
 Requires resources
 Do your homework
 Most departments can’t pull together data like we
can
 Show why you need resources
Gaining resources
• Defensive
 Annual budget showdown – told to cut
 Go where the money is:
 $32,000,000 inpatient drug budget
 $10,000,000 salary budget
 Cut the salary budget, lose ability to control the
drug budget
 Tie cost savings to drug budget. Track savings and
show Sr. Leadership
 Benchmarking
 Use your peers (apples and apples)
 Span of control example with UW, IA, KS
Gaining resources
• Proactive
 Adding services (primarily labor cost)
 Proposal
 building a case for a service or product
 financial, safety, regulatory…
 Pro Forma (example on next slide)
 method of calculating financial results in order to
emphasize either current or projected figures
 show the return on investment (ROI)
 Capital (automation, etc…)
 competing with Lab and Radiology
 show hard and soft dollars
 hard – actual reduction in line item on general ledger
 soft – extrapolated numbers for ADE avoidance from the
literature, etc…
F-UM C (UNIVERSITY CAM PUS)
PHARM ACY SERVICES
5-YEAR CAPITAL PROFORM A
AUTOMATED DISPENSING
Released FTE Savings (6)
Nursing S&B's (1,12)
Pharmacy S&B's - Tech (2)
Pharmacy S&B's - RPh (1)
Trainer - Vendor Provided (0.25 fte)
Project Manager (0.25 fte)
Improved Drug Therapy Mgmt Savings (drug cost avoidance) (4,7)
Improved Drug Therapy Mgmt Savings (ADE cost avoidance) (5,7)
Drug Expense Reductions (3,4)
Consumables (Narcotic Forms) (2)
Capital Equipment (8,9,10,11)
Support Fees (13)
Vendor IS Interface Fee
Communication/Power/Renovation
Consumables (Paper, etc.) (2)
Training Expense
Nursing S&B's (12)
Pharmacy S&B's - Tech
Pharmacy S&B's - RPh
Robot Trade-In-Allowance
Robot Support Savings
Robot Repackaging Cost Savings (4)
TOTAL INVESTMENT
ACCOUNT
YEAR 0
6191-NSG-2045
6191-4171-2052
6191-4171-2015
YEAR 1
YEAR 2
YEAR 3
YEAR 4
YEAR 5
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
58,396
141,088
(24,742)
226,297
500,831
78,180
200
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
63,067
146,732
246,664
525,873
85,216
208
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
68,113
152,601
161,318
331,300
92,885
216
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
73,562
158,705
131,878
260,899
101,245
225
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
79,447
165,053
95,831
182,629
110,357
234
$
(62,032)
$
(51,682)
$
(51,682)
$
(51,682)
$
(51,682)
6191-4171-3701
$
(4,576)
$
(4,759)
$
(4,949)
$
(5,147)
$
(5,353)
6191-NSG-2045
6191-4171-2052
6191-4171-2015
$
$
$
(15,000)
(12,250)
(12,250)
$
$
52,000
47,020
$
$
52,000
51,252
$
$
52,000
55,864
$
$
52,000
60,892
$
$
52,000
66,373
$
973,161
$ 1,114,569
$
857,666
$
782,575
$
694,888
6191-4171-2000
6191-4171-3741
6191-4171-3741
6191-4171-3705
$ (1,532,001)
6191-4171-4121
$
$
$
(30,000)
(24,354)
125,000
6191-4171-4105
6191-4171-3741
$ (1,461,355)
IRR
ASSUMPTIONS
1. Annual inflation rate per year is calculated at 8.0%
2. Annual inflation rate per year is calculated at 4.0%
3. Pharmaceutical expense due to waste, drug loss, and pilferage will be reduced. Normal figures range from 3% to 5% of drug expense.
To calculate, the reported waste factor has been reduced to 1.5%
To calculate, the percent of the Annual Drug Expense used is 30.0%
4. Annual Pharmaceutical inflation expense per year is calculated at 9%
5. Annual Operating Expense inflation rate per year is calculated at 5% per Rob Redenbaugh
6. See attached Labor (FTE) Analysis Summary (pg 7)
7. See attached Improved Drug Management Savings (pg 10)
8. Includes enhanced safety functionality package
9. Includes extra Tower machines to accommodate IV's
10. If automation is not implemented, a new high speed repackaging machine will need to be purchased @ $100,000. These $$'s are not included in the proforma.
11. Capital $$'s include equipment for ancillary areas (Endoscopy, Heart Cath, Interventional Radiology, MRI, OR)
12. See attached Nursing Services Cost Savings Allocations for department/account distribution (pg 8)
13. Includes "Consultant" software.
14. Recent research indicates that redeployment of Pharmacy labor to Clinical Pharmacy practice can return as much as 16:1 for each hour invested.
A conservative return on investment of 1:1 yields $343,104. (see attached Labor (FTE) Analysis Summary (pg 7))
15. Proforma does not quantify potential additional charge capture.
59%
Gaining Resources
• Timing
 2002 Accreditation visit (before 797 was the rage)
 We did not meet ASHP Guidelines in Technical
Assistance Bulletin (which we had presented to Sr.
Administration previously)
 Toby Clark visited
 wrote us up for not meeting ASHP professional
standards
 received $1.5 Million worth of remodels for 3
pharmacies (and admin area)
• Sometimes you wait. Pick your battles. Strike
while the iron is hot.
Gaining Resources
• Proactive
 Understand national trends
 Example: Where is the rest of the world with
bar coding? Lay groundwork
 Use examples of what other institutions are doing
 Share literature with your CEO, VP, CFO
 Forward articles
 ASHP push news
 HealthLeaders.com
 Be realistic and be a team player. Sometimes what
you need is the highest priority, sometimes it is not.
Know when to push. Understand the financial,
political, and cultural trends.
It’s All About Relationships
• Demonstrate respect
• Listen and don’t interrupt
 and don’t get defensive
• Diplomatically seek (negotiate) win-win
solutions so everyone benefits
• Settle difference by sitting down “offline”
 try not to say “I disagree” in public
 develop a good poker face
It’s All About Relationships
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Manage your body language
Let others know they are important to you
Be open minded
Focus on commonalities and stay positive
Don’t be too forceful when speaking
Say “we”, not “I’
In times of confrontation, say “I really need
your help”
Top Career Blunders to Avoid
• Failure to effectively convey information
up/down the organization
• Tunnel vision for pharmacy
• Inflexibility – only your way will work
• Impatience – work so aggressively toward
your goal that you alienate others
• Failure to network
• Lack of CE and well-roundedness
Power of Positive Thinking
There are those who believe they can
and there are those who believe they
can’t. Usually both are right.
- Henry Ford
The New Pharmacy Director:
Lessons from the Trenches
Work/Life Balance
Work/Life Balance
“Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing
something completely pointless.” Hobbes
• Walk the talk
 Your team will follow your example of work-life balance
• Send your top performers home
 Sometimes the best don’t know when to give themselves a break
 First nice Friday in Spring
• Insert/plan a slowdown
 Not only celebrate after big projects, plan a ‘lull’
 “2006 is the year we do everything, we’re taking 2007 off.”
Work/Life Balance
• Develop and maintain your 5 year plan
 work, family, hobbies, personal goals
• Know what is most important to you
• Build these priorities into your calendar before
anything else
• Learn to effectively delegate
• Move from “control and command” to “influence”
• Lead by example
• Read the Covey books
• Leave briefcase at work at least one day per week
• Vacation – leave laptop and reading at home
Time Management
• Accept that you don’t have enough time for
everything
 make conscious choices about what you are going to do
 don’t feel guilty about everything else
• Exercise “powerful planning”
 plan based on what you want to accomplish by the end of the
year, and let that drive what you do each month
 what must be done this month determines daily activities
• Focus your efforts on strategic issues and only things
you can do, delegate other responsibilities
• System for managing each day, week and month
 meet with assistant first thing each Monday
 constantly re-assess your priorities
 ask “what is the most valuable use of my time right now?”
Time Management
• Save time (avoid wasting your time)
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•
•
•
•
•
always carry important reading materials
avoid incessant need to polish everything
avoid people who are habitually late
don’t answer your phone
return all calls (and emails) in a row, not throughout the day
keep note cards with you, write “thank you” notes in downtime
make standing appointments for personal needs (hair cuts, etc)
develop a great filing system
Use reminder system in e-calendar as a “tickler”
Block time to walk around
Block time for working on high priority goals
Have high expectations of your assistant
Be willing to close your door
Social Aspects of Job Satisfaction
• Essential, often overlooked, element of team
building
• It’s the ‘Life’ in Work/Life balance
• Opportunity to learn about each other
 families, hobbies
• People know you better
 honesty; the most admired trait in leaders
 people want to follow a ‘real’ person
David Zilz on Accomplishment
No one ever completes as much as
they think they can in a day, but
everyone accomplishes much more
in a decade than they would have
ever thought possible
…..so pace yourself
The New Pharmacy Director:
Lessons from the Trenches
New Director Pearls:
Results of ASHP Practice
Managers Listserv Survey
ASHP Practice Managers Listserv Survey
for Pharmacy Directors
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•
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•
What year did you first become a pharmacy director?
What was the greatest challenge you faced as a new director that
year, and what did you do to overcome that challenge?
What has been the greatest challenge you faced in your career as
a pharmacy director, and what did you do to overcome that
challenge?
What do you think is the greatest challenge facing pharmacy
directors today?
If you could give one piece of advice to a new pharmacy director,
what would it be?
If there were one course that you could send a new director to,
what is the title of that course?
Listserv Survey Results
General Themes
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•
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33 respondents
Year became director – 1970-2006
Relationships
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•
Transitions
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Senior team
Staff
Operational, technological
Philosophical, roles
Keeping it all going
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Resource acquisition
‘Keeping all the balls in the air’
Listserv Survey Results
What was the greatest challenge you faced
as a new director that year, and what did
you do to overcome that challenge?
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•
•
Personnel issues
Following a great director
Transitioning
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
Manager to Director
Old system to new system
Personnel Issues / Transitioning
Staff dissatisfaction with previous leadership and desire to
become represented by organized labor; I worked very hard
with staff the first 3 weeks of my position to improve 2-way
communication, listen to their concerns, post positions for
vacancies; (the vote was unanimously against
representation when it occurred exactly 3 weeks after my start
date--a fact that was noted across the campus)
-Marianne Ivey
Listserv Survey Results
What has been the greatest challenge you faced
in your career as a pharmacy director, and what
did you do to overcome that challenge?
•
Personnel issues, again
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•
Major medication errors
New ‘level’ of transition – “Culture”
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•
Layoffs, terminations
“Merging two departments”
Senior Management Relationships
Everything
To maintain, develop and refine leadership and
management skills to meet the current and future
needs of our patients. Today's skills aren't
necessarily those to meet tomorrows needs. Resting
on laurels is dangerous, relying on past successes
to meets current needs is dangerous
-Bill Gouveia
Listserv Survey Results
What do you think is the greatest challenge
facing pharmacy directors today?
•
#1 Leadership recruitment
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•
Staffing
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•
•
Managers, ‘motivated people’, ‘not 9-5ers’, etc.
Recruiting and retaining
Increasing demand and diminishing
resources
Regulatory compliance
Complexity of the Director role
Leadership
• Finding good managers
– Mike Sanborn
• Managing individuals who may not have the
same passion for pharmacy as those of us
did when we decided to move into leadership
role.
– Rita Shane
Complexity
• Dealing with the complexity of services and diversity of
position responsibilities--fiscal savvy, clinical practice
development and expansion, information technology,
automation development, and personnel management
and professional growth. All administrative and support
personnel must be on he same page.
- Harold Godwin
• To orchestrate the multiple components of an integrated
health-system pharmacy service, especially recruiting,
guiding, coaching capable individuals with the diversity
of skills needed to be a progressive and patient service
centric organization." I chose the word orchestrate because the most important is timing of everything in the
concert.
– Dave Zilz
Listserv Survey Results
If you could give one piece of advice to a
new pharmacy director, what would it be?
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•
Identify mentors & network
Build strong relationships with:
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Your team
Senior Management
Nursing, Physicians, other departments
Commit to being a director

Take risks, don’t give up, be passionate about what
you do
Solid Advice
Be patient, we have a great product to sell in
health-system pharmacy. You must believe in
it, be passionate about it but you can't do it all
at once. It takes time and moderately paced
plan is more effective.
-Tom Thielke
Identify a key mentor or two ... and develop
and maintain a network of colleagues to
assist you ... to assist each other.
-Dan Ashby
Listserv Survey Results
If there were one course that you could send a
new director to, what is the title of that course?
•
Listening, Negotiating, Building
Relationships
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Listening mentioned 3 times
“It’s All About Relationships”
Personality and strengths assessment
Political savvy
Ethics
Wharton Leadership Program
Listening
"The ear of the leader must ring with the voices
of the people."
— Woodrow Wilson
"Seek first to understand, then to be
understood."
— Stephen R. Covey
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Commitment
It’s not whether you get knocked
down, it’s whether you get back up.
- Vince Lombardi
References and Suggested
Readings
1.
2.
*Zilz DA, Woodward BW, Thielke TS, Shane RR, Scott B. Leadership
skills for a high-performance pharmacy practice. Am J Health-Syst
Pharm. 2004; 61:2562-74.
* Slides: Hunt M, Ashby DA, Scott BE The New Leader’s First 100
Days: Key Strategies for Success. 10th ASHP Annual Leadership
Conference. 2005.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Nold EG, Sander WT. Role of the director of pharmacy: the first six
months. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2004; 61:2297-2310.
Thielke TS. Searching for excellence in leadership transformation. Am J
Health-Syst Pharm. 2005; 62:1657-62.
First, Break All the Rules.
Now, Discover Your Strengths.
The One Minute Manager.
Leadership and The One Minute Manager.
Good to Great.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.