Good leadership can have a positive influence on morale, teamwork, productivity and staff turnover. Poor leadership can have the opposite effect.

As a leader, you will be thinking about the long term, inspiring people to follow your ideas and suggestions, and making sure that they feel a valued part of your team. You will be focused on their development, allowing them to learn from mistakes and use other development opportunities. You will also be looking for new ways to do things. And there will be times when you will need to use management skills, such as planning workload, setting budgets, organising staffing levels, developing and reviewing SOPs, and dealing with daily problems.

Leadership skills are important when creating a vision for the future for the team, communicating it and getting the team to embrace it and be committed to making it a success. There will be elements of being able to inspire and motivate those who work for you and maintain a level of energy. 

Leadership qualities certainly will be needed during times of change or uncertainty, as the team will look to their leaders for clarity and to provide direction. For more on this, take a look at the link in the references for this module to Kotter’s 8 Step Process for Leading Change, with updated insights on leading in a Covid-19 context. 

The most effective managers are also leaders, but not all good leaders will also be good managers. Organisations need a combination of good management and leadership to be successful.

As a leader, you will need to be able to create a vision of the future and successfully communicate it to the team. When setting a vision, you will need to think about what it is you want for your pharmacy and describe the difference between what is happening now and what the future looks like. When setting your vision, bear in mind the following questions:

• Can you clarify what the future looks like?
• Can you communicate that vision clearly?
• Does the vision relate to local population needs?
• Is it realistic?
• Is it ambitious?
• Can it be broken down into smaller, short-term objectives?
• Does it inspire you? Will it inspire your team?

Once created, revisit your vision regularly to make sure that it remains compelling, inspiring and reflective of any major changes in circumstances. Remember too that a vision that describes effectively a more positive future will be more inspiring to your team and sustain motivation.

When communicating your vision, consider:

• What to say
• Who to say it to
• How to say it
• When and where to say it
• How you are going to describe your vision. Is it inspiring?

Think about all team members, including part-time workers. Is yours a vision that is to be shared outside of the team? Are you going to have visual displays? Remember to consider your audience when thinking about the communication style and language, and convey your enthusiasm and passion. Don’t forget that a key component of effective communication is listening to others.