Dispensing Leadership: Be Easy to Do Business With

In Dispensing Leadership, a podcast offering from Drug Topics® and RPhAlly, Shawn Bjorndal, PharmD, RPh, a visionary health care executive with over 16 years of experience and founder of PGxAlly, and Jesse McCullough, PharmD, a pharmacist-turned-entrepreneur with a passion for leadership development, discuss essential leadership skills for pharmacists, how to develop them, and, ultimately, how to advance the pharmacy profession.

In this episode, Shawn and Jesse continue their discussion about personal philosophy and talk about the principle of being easy to do business with. This principle, shared with Jesse by a mentor, resonates when considering how patients experience healthcare. Whether it's trying to check out at a crowded store or navigating complex prescription issues, barriers frustrate people—and pharmacies are no different.

From prior authorizations to insurance roadblocks, each decision a pharmacy makes can either ease or complicate that experience. When pharmacists actively look for solutions, like calling doctors for alternatives or offering flexible options, they show what it really means to serve. Keeping this mindset at the core of a personal philosophy can make all the difference.

“When [your] philosophy permeates the things you do, the decisions you make and how you treat yourself, your teammates, and all the people you serve in your community, things start to change,” Jesse said. “There is a lot of people who haven't taken the time to even consider [their philosophy]. They just go and what happens is you find yourself in a situation where I have my basic philosophies, you have your basic philosophies, we will assume that they're somewhat on the same page, we may even assume that they're identical, but the reality is they aren't. That's where we have all these different clashes that increase the challenges we face in the workplace.”

Be sure to tune in every month on Drug Topics for important conversations that will help you develop your skills to become an effective pharmacy leader. All episodes of Dispensing Leadership will be available in a video format via DrugTopics.com, with an audio version available through Spotify.