Pharmacy operates within an increasingly complex, increasing integrated and constantly changing healthcare environment. Getting the best out of your people and moulding them into a strong and motivated team has never been more important. This article has highlighted key models of motivation, explained the natural stages of maturity your pharmacy team will go through as you build it, and the important role you play as a leader. We have also provided a series of questions that you can use with your own team to help define their current stage of development and to help you define what you need to do next.

Do you have an effective team?

Consider how the following questions might apply to your team. Then, what do your answers tell you about the effectiveness of your team?

• How large is your team? Experience and research suggest that teams operate most effectively with eight to 15 members 
• Does your team consist of the right people with the right skills and competencies to do the job well? 
• Have you had a GPhC inspection recently? How well did your team members perform, or how confident are you that they could explain how your pharmacy meets the principles and standards? 
• What about in the future, with impending changes in professional regulation? 
• How does the team get feedback on its effectiveness? 
• What do your customers, patients and surgeries tell you? 
• Does the team have objectives €“ collectively and individually? 
• How is responsibility shared within the team? 
• To what extent do team members need to rely on each other to get the job done? 
• How do you know what to expect from one another €“ what is, and isn't, OK? 
• How is accountability shared within the team? 
• How do you know when you are doing a good job as a team ? 
• What are relationships like within the team?

The answers to these questions will help give you valuable insight into the stage of development of your team at present and the stage of Tuckman's team development model they are at.

Always remember that a key role for you as a manager is to help the team move through to performing as quickly as possible.

Further reading

1. Jay, Ros. How to Build a Great Team. The Institute of Management, Prentice Hall 2003
2. Eggert, Max A. The Motivation Pocketbook 2nd Edition, Management Pocketbook, 2013.
3. Royal College of Nursing. Developing and Sustaining Effective Teams. This can be downloaded as a pdf document from www.rcn.org.uk