Since my field of study is in pharmacy, I decided to interview a pharmacy manager at the local pharmacy. For the purposes of anonymity, he will be referred to as Harry. Harry has been a manager at the pharmacy for three years and was promoted from within, having previously served as a pharmacy tech. In this interview, Harry was asked a variety of questions, such as what his typical day at work was like and what important skills he found most useful in his role. This paper will summarize the interview results and provide a summary of what I learned from the interview
Harry first described his typical day at work as responding to a number of emails and messages from upper management and then having a meeting with employees about goals that have been set and how to achieve them. As the manager of a retail pharmacy, Harry is in a position between two poles—on the one hand, he is dealing with employees, techs, and customers; on the other hand, he is dealing with upper management and is responsible for performance, productivity, customer satisfaction, and so on. It can be a very stressful job because of the high level of demand encountered from all sides and one has to keep one’s wits about oneself in order to satisfy the various demands that come day in and day out. Throughout the course of the day, he will engage with workers, answer questions, engage with customers, fill prescriptions, monitor output, report to upper management, give advice about medication and offer helpful suggestions to clients who want alternative solutions to prescriptions. Each and every day is very busy and offers its own unique challenges, but Harry noted that he always tried to make time for everybody no matter who it was because that, he found, was what made the workplace environment a happy one and that was what made customers happy as well. This aligns with what Seppala (2006) has noted about managers, who do give equal opportunity to one and all: “Bosses who show they are fair also inspire greater dedication, citizenship, and productivity.”

Harry stated that what he enjoyed most about his job was being in responsible for the pharmacy’s operations. Having a degree of autonomy while being accountable to someone higher up the chain of authority was gratifying to him; it signified to him at this point in his life that he was doing something meaningful—that he had achieved something, he noted. It was clear that leading others gives him a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that others will look to him for guidance, answers, and that he is routinely able to offer comfort and assistance while maintaining order and productivity within the pharmacy. He identified stress as the only thing about managing that he did not like, but that he was willing to accept the good with the bad in order to do this job. He felt that he played an active role in leading the team at the pharmacy and took pride and pleasure in motivating them to do their jobs well. An example he gave of this was that he tried to get his team members to be relationship-focused and pragmatic in dealing with customers, answering questions and being helpful but also being mindful that many others are waiting with their own needs as well. As Winsborough and Chamorro-Premuzic (2017) point out, this is one of the ways in which team managers can get teams to engage more effectively in the workplace.

Another method that is recommended is that team leaders should get their followers on the same page as they are on so that they all want the same thing: “if your team wants what you want them to want, you are five times more likely to get it” (Keller, 2012). Harry noted that one of the most important skills he had discovered that allowed him to be successful was exactly this bit of advice from Keller (2012): whenever there was a push from upper management to reach a productivity level, Harry would communicate a vision and ideal to his team members so that they wanted to reach the goal just as much as he did to help the pharmacy achieve its objectives. One way he did this was to incentivize them. He discovered that incentives helped to motivate his team members. For example, if they reached the productivity goals set by upper management for the pharmacy, the team was awarded with a gift card to their favorite restaurant. As Gerhart and Fang (2015) show, a bonus like this is an external incentive that can be used to motivate employees to perform at...…on both ends: one is responsible to the upper level management who oversees the region and one is responsible to one’s employees and customers as they rely on you for guidance and support. So the manager is constantly being pulled in two directions and has to maintain composure the whole time. A good way to do this is to maintain one’s stress levels. Harry recommended making sure you have a refreshing hobby to go home to at the end of the day. We also learned that it is best if you can leave your work at work and not bring it home to the family. And if necessary it is okay to take time away from things at work and go for a walk or take a fifteen minute break just to decompress. These are things that help to keep the workplace environment upbeat and productive.

Another thing we learned was that managers need to be mindful of the feelings of others and to use communication skills and social and emotional intelligence. Harry said that before this question he had not thought much about it but upon reflection he was convinced that social and emotional intelligence were two very essential tools that a manger needs to communicate effectively—the primary reason being that they both allow the manager to pick up on social and emotional cues, such as non-verbal gestures and body language, and know how to respond in an effective way. He says that these skills have helped him defuse many situations.

We also learned that one of the best things a manager can do is be prepared to listen to others and spend time simply hearing what other people have to say. Harry noted that bad managers are ones who do not care about others, either their employees or their customers. He said these types of managers do not last long: they alienate everyone and eventually sales and productivity suffer. We both agreed that by listening to others needs and even serving those needs in a servant leadership style, one can build rapport and establish good relationships with stakeholders so that the workplace culture becomes full of vitality and allows everyone to feel as though they are welcomed. It is also a great way to help motivate, as people love to be heard.