Pharmacy Manager Interview: Leadership and Management Skills

Introduction and Interview Overview

Since my field of study is in pharmacy, I decided to interview a pharmacy manager at a 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 technician. 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 summarizes the interview results and reflects on what was learned from the conversation.

Daily Responsibilities and Leadership Approach

Harry first described his typical day at work as responding to a number of emails and messages from upper management and then holding a meeting with employees about goals that have been set and how to achieve them. As the manager of a retail pharmacy, Harry occupies a position between two poles: on one hand, he is dealing with employees, technicians, and customers; on the other, he is accountable to upper management and is responsible for performance, productivity, and customer satisfaction. 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 composure in order to satisfy the various demands that arise day in and day out.

Throughout the course of a day, he engages with workers, answers questions, interacts with customers, fills prescriptions, monitors output, reports to upper management, gives advice about medication, and offers helpful suggestions to clients who want alternative solutions to their prescriptions. Each day is very busy and presents 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 what kept customers satisfied as well. This aligns with what Seppala (2016) has noted about managers who 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 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 that he was doing something meaningful and had achieved something notable. It was clear that leading others gives him a feeling of satisfaction — knowing that others will look to him for guidance and answers, and that he is routinely able to offer comfort and assistance while maintaining order and productivity. He identified stress as the only aspect of managing he did not like, but said he was willing to accept the good with the bad in order to do the job. He took pride and pleasure in motivating his team, and gave the example of encouraging his team members to be both relationship-focused and pragmatic when dealing with customers — being helpful and attentive while also remaining mindful that many others are waiting with their own needs. 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.

Motivation, Communication, and Emotional Intelligence

Another recommended method is for team leaders to get their followers aligned with their own goals, so that everyone wants 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 was exactly this insight 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. One way he accomplished this was through incentives. He discovered that incentives helped to motivate his team members considerably. For example, if they reached the productivity goals set by upper management, the team was rewarded with a gift card to their favorite restaurant. As Gerhart and Fang (2015) show, a bonus of this kind is an external incentive that can be used to motivate employees to perform at high levels.

Other important skills Harry identified as essential to effective management were communication skills and social and emotional intelligence. He explained that all of these were particularly useful when employees were having bad days or when customers had difficulty explaining their needs. Being able to assess when someone was in an emotional state and responding with calm, soothing tones could help to defuse the situation, he said. As Goleman and Boyatzis (2017) point out, there are four domains of emotional and social intelligence: (1) self-awareness, (2) self-management, (3) social awareness, and (4) relationship management. They note that "in order to excel, leaders need to develop a balance of strengths across the suite of EI competencies. When they do that, excellent business results follow." This was precisely what Harry experienced in his role as manager. Thanks to his communication skills and use of emotional and social intelligence, he has twice been recognized with awards for managerial excellence.

References

De Vries, M. F. K. (1998). Charisma in action: The transformational abilities of Virgin's Richard Branson and ABB's Percy Barnevik. Organizational Dynamics, 26(3), 7–21.

Gerhart, B., & Fang, M. (2015). Pay, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, performance, and creativity in the workplace: Revisiting long-held beliefs. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 2, 489–521.

Goleman, D., & Boyatzis, R. (2017). Emotional intelligence has 12 elements. Which do you need to work on? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://www.proveritas.com.au/downloads/Emotional-Intelligence-12-Elements.PDF

Griffin, R., Phillips, J., & Gully, S. (2016). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations (12th ed.). South-Western/Cengage.

Keller, S. (2012). Increase your team's motivation five-fold. Harvard Business Review.

Seppala, E. (2016). To motivate employees, do three things well. Harvard Business Management.

Winsborough, D., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2017). Great teams are about personalities, not just skills. Harvard Business Review, 25.