Shared Leadership: A realistic option for healthcare organizations?

     It's hard to view leadership as a collaborative process with others that you work with.  Many leadership theories involve a hierarchy of members that come to a head where one true leader of the group resides.  The idea of shared leadership is different in the fact that leadership responsibilities are shared by a group of individuals.  This is a unique style that looks to succeed by progressing towards a common goal.  As with all forms of leadership, there are strengths and weaknesses to this theory.

   
     If common leadership styles aren't working for an organization, then this is a great avenue to try.  There have been multiple studies that have observed in healthcare organizations and school systems that have adopted this form of leadership to improve outcomes.  It is important that we can relate a certain leadership theory to the profession of pharmacy which means I will be exploring the studies seen in healthcare.  A study done by Dr. T. Steinert that was published in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing showed that a shared leadership model involving physicians, nurses and other medical team members was an overall beneficial process.  It resulted in improved communication between healthcare personnel, higher levels of trust, decreased misunderstanding between members, and better ways to resolve conflict.

     As we have learned in LEADERs track, there are many different types of leaders.  That being said, it is in the organization's best interest to be able to highlight different leaders' strengths.  It opens a pathway that allows for a more diverse decision making process.  It can also reduce the stress load on leaders by allowing them to share responsibilities instead of taking it on by themselves.  With healthcare evolving constantly, it is important to be open to different leadership processes that can increase patient health outcomes which this theory shows potential for doing that.    

     There are some criticisms that can accompany this theory of leadership. Like I mentioned earlier in the blog, this is a unique form of leadership that differs from leadership norms that have been ingrained in societies for centuries.  It is difficult for current leaders to be open to sharing responsibilities when they have been in a position of power for most of their career.  This resistance to change seems to be the biggest limitation to this form of leadership.  Longer decision making can be expected due to multiple leaders being responsible and not wanting to budge on their ideals.  This can be troublesome especially in healthcare when quick decisions are needed for patient care.

     Based on this information, I believe that shared leadership has potential to be a good option for hospitals where collaborative practice is an important aspect.  Shared leadership responsibilities can make for better teamwork between healthcare professionals which can result in better outcomes for patients.  The few criticisms that are involved can be overcome by practice and being open-minded to change.    

Coaching Versus Mentoring; A Pharmacy Student's Perspective

When I think of coaching, I think of my younger years when I was involved in several sports teams where my different coaches would always push me to be the best that I could be.  Mentoring is similar to this because they want to help you be the best that you can be in your respective field.  The tactics used by the two groups are different but both can be beneficial in their own right.  Coaches require you to be at a certain place at a certain time and they facilitate what will be the focus during your time together.  They have a plan of what will be happening and you have little to no say in what will happen.  Mentors, on the other hand, leave it to you to be the facilitator of the meetings.  What you will talk about in your meeting is completely up to you.  The mentee will get exactly what they put into the relationship.

Coach Tom Coughlin of the New York Giants

The act of coaching is a short term process and goals are looked to be achieved in a timely fashion.  Mentoring is a long term process where the relationship between the two people has to grow to a certain extent before both parties can get what they want out of it.  Coaching is one direction while mentoring can be a two-way street.  The mentor can get just as much and even more out of it than the mentee.  

Let's relate this to my job at Rite Aid.  There are two pharmacists that I work under.  I look to one as a coach and one as a mentor.  The coach will stress efficiency and not take the time to teach.  I get a lot of work done under their supervision in a very timely manor.  The mentor will sometimes take the time to teach me something that would be beneficial for me to know.  He will also tell me experiences from his career that he thinks that I would find useful and I also tell him different things that I am learning today in school as opposed to when he went to school a long time ago.  We both grow and learn after these interactions.

Now, let's relate this to school.  I was appointed to be an FYE mentor for this years pre-pharmacy students.  I can see how crucial it is for the mentee to be an active participant after going through this process.  I have tried my hardest to get them to ask me questions and see where their interests lie but it is much harder than I had imagined.  It really does come down to what you put in is what you get out of the relationship.


As you can see, coaching and mentoring is fairly similar in their purpose but how they go about it is where the difference occurs.  Some people respond to coaching better than mentoring and vice versa.  I believe that I respond to coaching more at the moment but I think a mentoring relationship will be the most beneficial to me in the future.

How to Manage Stress Derived from Being a Leader

           In recent years, technology has changed the work environment drastically and has redefined how we communicate with one another.  Email has made it very difficult to separate a person’s job from their social life. Without much effort, a person could email you something work related and now you are expected to respond to them no matter where you are and what you are doing with your day.  Even if you do not decide to respond, there is still unfinished business to take care of during your next day on the job.  Smart phones now give you the ability to communicate through phone calls, email, text messages and social networking.  When work email is tied to the phone you are using, it is almost as if you have never left work and it is always a click away. 

Being in a leadership position on top of this makes it an even more difficult task to separate work from social life.  There can be many problems in the work day when you are working in retail pharmacy and when you are the one in charge, employees and customers look to you to resolve problems.  This is the job description and pharmacists need to be able to think on their feet and make quick yet accurate resolutions to these problems.  I am an intern at a community pharmacy which isn’t a leadership role per say, but I have been faced with being involved in unresolved problems during the workday.  It is hard to detach myself from the problem after I leave work.  Even though I have little ability to cultivate a resolution while I am not working, I still see myself endlessly thinking about it and worrying about the next day when I will have to deal with the same problem.  Managers will see this happen very frequently as they are responsible for the whole business and all of the employees’ welfare.  When a leader is not able to separate themselves from their work it results in stress which can have very negative effects on a person’s body such as increased risk of coronary heart disease and contracting a viral infection.  It is important to find ways to redefine the boundary between work and social life for this reason. 

               There are many ways that people can cope with stress and it is depends on the person’s preferences.  I would like to offer ways to control leadership-induced stress in the following blog.  First, I believe it is very important to build a support network.  This allows the leader to get a fresh perspective on an issue they have been faced with at work.  It is also healthy vent your frustrations to your family, friends or loved ones if you feel the need to.  Having bottled up emotions related to work will just make situations worse and you won’t be able to break free from work’s grasp.  It also gives them somewhere to fall back if they need emotional support that they can’t find anywhere else.  It can be beneficial to disengage from anything connecting you to work.  Turn off your pager, try not to talk to coworkers about work on off hours, log out of your office email, etc.  Finally and most importantly, make time for you.  Do what relaxes you and make the most of this time.  Personally, I find reading a book, exercising, listening to music, or just using time for reflection is productive for me and helps me move past the problems at work and focus on myself. 

Regarding time management, a leader should be using time at work as effectively as possible.  There would be no loose ends at the conclusion of the workday if they spent all their time on important matters that needed to be taken care of at work.  If there is counterproductive measures being taken at work, such as unneeded morning meetings, address them and allow for more time on matters that need to be tended to.  With stress from being a leader at work under control, it allows the leader to have a much higher chance of finding success and happiness in their job and social life.  

How to Overcome a Fear of Public Speaking

Many Americans have a fear of heights.  Another fear that is commonly thought of is creepy, crawly things.  Surprisingly, the highest accounted fear for Americans is public speaking.  I admit to not being as comfortable as I should be when I am supposed to speak in front of a crowd.  Being that public speaking is an issue for most, I thought it would be beneficial to explore ways of overcoming this common fear in this following blog.

 

               The old “picture the audience in underwear” cliché is a little old these days and it doesn't work for everyone when confronting one of their biggest fears.  People need to realize that public speaking doesn't just come naturally to some people, they have to work at it to get to a comfortable state.  Public speaking is like playing a sport where you practice and eventually it turns into muscle memory where you automatically do something without thinking about it.  Overcoming this fear is impossible without taking proper procedures to help improve your talking performance in front of a crowd.  It is important to take baby steps into the event by practicing by yourself then with a friend where they can give you constructive criticism.  Always have note cards which will help organize your ideas and talking points while also giving you a fall back if you need it during the presentation.  There is nothing worse than blanking on a certain aspect of you presentation and you are at a loss for words.  Another way to help you become more comfortable when speaking to an audience is picking a topic that interests you.  This way you will be more engaged and enthusiastic in your presentation which will ultimately improve you overall performance.  I know when I am assigned to present a topic that I have never heard of and that also doesn't spark my interest, I see myself finding it much harder to present these ideals to a group of people. 

               During the day of the presentation there are some crucial things that you need to make sure you address.  First, make sure you got enough sleep the night before the event.  The last thing you need is to be in front of people that you don’t know looking like you haven’t slept in days.  It will also increase your long-term memory which will benefit your speech.  Another important point is to arrive early to the lecture where you are presenting.  This will allow you to find comfort in the room where you will be speaking to an audience.  I find it helpful to know your audience as well.  Not personally, but more of a generic look at what all of the people have in common.  For example they could all be in the same profession as you which means that the topic of interest that you are presenting will most likely interest them as well. 

               Now for the most important part which is during the speech.  Make sure to be relaxed and not give off the notion that you are in any way nervous about the outcome of the presentation.  Be confident as well; you know your material and have prepared as well as you could so that means you are going to give a great presentation.  Feel free to have your index cards in hand as a safety net just in case.  Bringing a sense of humor to your presentation can only benefit it as a whole.  You know the audience in which you are presenting to so gear it into their demographic.  Whenever I present in front of others, I feel a sense of relief and accomplishment even when I get a chuckle out of the crowd.

               To bring this into a more practical perspective I will relate this to the field of pharmacy.  Being a pharmacist involves consulting with patients on a daily basis.  This is a form of public speaking which they will have to overcome to be a good fit for the job.  One thing that helps is that the consultation points are on subjects that they are well versed on and should also interest the pharmacist.  There are tricks that help people remember what talking points they should touch on during a consultation such as the QuEST SCHOLAR MAC method which determines if a patient should be allowed to self-treat their condition with OTC products.  Because a pharmacist will encounter this type of interaction every day, I see that there shouldn't be any issues past the first couple of consultations because there will be plenty of opportunities to practice to make them capable of overcoming their fear.  

Good Ways to Motivate and Engage Employees: A Pharmacy Student's Perspective

      When you are put in a position of power, whether you properly motivate your employees or not can be the difference between having a business that is successful and one that fails.  Employees are the face of your company and if you work in a retail setting where they are engaging with patients all day, then it is beneficial to have them know that their role is very important.  An employee that isn't appreciated will soon loose the drive to complete good quality work and just try to get through the day.  Setting up a rewards system is a great idea to let employees know that their work is appreciated.  Let's say you work at a retail pharmacy and an old woman gets a lot of items from the front store before purchasing her prescription.  One of your cashiers offers to carry the bags to her car which is above expected customer service.  This type of action needs to be pointed out and rewarded because it will let your employees know that customer service is at the helm of your business and is very important to go above and beyond in this area.

       Another area where rewards should be handed out regularly is when a employee does something out of the norm in a good way for another coworker.  We want to establish a work environment where coworkers respect and appreciate themselves which will increase workflow and efficiency.  An example of rewarding coworkers is the RAPTAR (recognition, appreciation, praise, treat associates with respect) system that Rite Aid implements which allows coworkers to reward other coworkers when they go above and beyond. Another way to motivate employees is to give them additional responsibilities.  Some will appreciate the opportunity to broaden their role at the office.  I know when I am taught to do something new at my place of work, it gives me pride knowing that they selected me for the task and I want to show them that they made the right decision in trusting me with the responsibility.  The last way to motivate employees that I will mention is as simple as listening to them.  Let them voice their opinions about their work-life situations and what their recent stresses are.  Knowing that they can trust their boss to help them through hard times by actively listening will increase employees respect for their manager.



      Properly engaging with employees is also an important realm in leadership that should be discussed.  A key point to make here is that there needs to be a fine line between being friendly and being too friendly with your employees.  Listening to them and carrying on conversations during the job is good up to a point but once it gets in the way of productivity then it needs to be addressed.  Being best friends with employees will lead to complications that are not easily overcome in the work place.  It is essential to have good relations with your employees as you want to maintain a healthy work environment while also having them respect you.

      You should not only engage with an employee when they do something wrong.  Although it is key to give out constructive criticism as it will help them improve, this will result in them feeling like a subordinate compared to you.  This isn't what any employee wants and it will negatively effect their quality of work and view on their position.  When engaging with an employee about a mistake, make sure to handle it in a professional and calm manor as you don't want this to disrupt work flow.  It is crucial to address accomplishments and good deeds by employees because this will show them that their work is appreciated which will improve their quality of work.  All in all, being a good leader involves properly engaging and motivating your employees so seek opportunities to improve these leadership skills in your work place.

Who am I?

     So I thought I would start my blogging career by first illustrating who I am and what I stand for.  I am a 21 year old pharmacy student at the University of Connecticut where I plan on getting my PharmD in 2017.  I was born in New Hampshire and I got my high school diploma in my hometown of Bow. Many people say I have a "New Hampshire Accent" which I beg to differ.  My parents still live in Bow and I have an older sister who lives in Portsmouth, Maine.  I have deep family values that I hold dear and I owe a lot to my family for where I have gotten today.  I have many friends that I made in my hometown but there is one that sticks out.  I can't make a blog about who I am without mentioning my girlfriend of almost seven years.  Her name is Cassandra and she has been a very influential person in my life because she has pushed me to be better than I had ever thought possible.

Cassandra and I

Aubree (my sister) and I

My mom (far left) and dad (far right)

You might ask how I got interested in the field of pharmacy as an option for a career.  Well funny you asked that because I was just about to get to this important point in my life.  It stems back to high school where I took a plethora of science and math courses.  A funny story about this is that I was one of three students that didn't receive an award at graduation that rewarded students for taking a certain amount of arts/humanities credits.  This was solely due to the fact that I didn't have space in my schedule to fit these courses in because I was more interested in taking classes that would interest me.  My mother is the pharmacy manager at a Rite Aid close to where we live.  She has been a huge inspiration in my life and I learned that I was interested in this field by visiting her at work many times and hearing about stories on the job.  I now work at a separate Rite Aid pharmacy as an intern which has been a great experience.



Another question you might ask is how did I get interested in leadership.  Well I'll say, you are quite the inquisitive thinker my friend!  I was exposed to many leadership positions at an early age.  I was captain of many sports teams leading into high school.  Then, I was awarded with being named captain of my football team and track team during my senior year.  I enjoyed being in a leadership position because it allowed me to not only gain experience on leadership that I couldn't get anywhere else, but it also allowed me to better my teammates which gave me a feeling of fulfillment.  I carried this interest in leadership into college where I have been captain of intramural teams and voted into leadership positions in the clubs that I am a part of.



Well that's a quick summation of my life so far.  I'll be blogging about leadership and how it pertains to pharmacy in the near future.  Thanks for stopping by San Diego!