10 Tips for New Pharmacy Managers

1. Learn new skills. In your new role as manager you will learn a lot of your responsibilities on the fly. These may include reporting, scheduling, conference calls, annual reviews, inventories, audits, corrective actions, and much more. My advice is that you take each of these responsibilities as they come and begin to work them into a management routine.

2. Learn delegation. If I failed in one area early on in my pharmacy management career, it was this. I wanted to do it all myself. But delegation shows you trust your team, allows others to contribute, and is a useful way to determine who your star performers are. Be clear when you delegate, and follow up.

3. One on ones. Meet with your team. This can be very hard in certain pharmacy settings, like retail. Scheduling doesn’t typically provide much room for sit-down conversations. But I assure you that even brief, well-planned, regular one on ones with your team will prevent and solve more problems-and will also position you as a great leader.

4. Plan your week. Think about your work-week ahead of time and plan for the things that must get done. Once you step into the pharmacy, it will seem like work is flying at you out of control. You must plan your priorities in order to stay focused and get them done.

5. Measure your team’s success. The only way to determine the success of the team under your management is by measuring results. Some things, like employee or patient satisfaction, are less tangible than others. But most of the metrics that constitute a well-run pharmacy can be measured in some way. How many prescriptions were transferred out versus in this month? What was our average Rx volume? Determine the most critical performance indicators for your business and start to track them.

6. Compliance matters. Hopefully, you are managing in a location where compliance with Board of Pharmacy regulations, DEA rules, and store policy is expected. However, some pharmacy managers have found themselves in settings where pharmacy laws were looked at more like “suggestions.” Your job as manager is to keep your pharmacy running in a safe, lawful, and ethical manner. Don’t cut corners here. Sometimes you must be the enforcer.

7. Build great relationships. Management is about much more than getting certain things done. You are a leader. And leaders build great relationships both internally and externally. To be a truly great pharmacy manager, you should get to know the community you serve in, get to know key stakeholders within your company and in the area you work, visit local doctors and develop great opportunities for collaboration with them.

8. Inspire others to excel. Pharmacy can be a draining, exhausting, and sometimes frustrating profession. As a manager, people will look to you as the one who sets the emotional tone for the pharmacy. Are you constantly complaining, grumpy and angry? Expect the staff to be the same. But if you focus on the positive, give praise, aim high, and remind everyone that we are involved in an important work, then the mood of the pharmacy will improve. Positive attitudes tend to be more productive as well.

9. Read books. I’m a big fan of reading. And since pharmacy school typically does little to prepare you for real management issues (decision making, people management, setting goals, hiring and interviewing, etc.), you may find books to be a great resource to help you grow as a manager. Book recommendations are hard, because what has helped me may not help you. I like Peter Drucker’s The Practice of Management as well as Belker and Topchik’s The First Time Manager.