Making Yourself Indispensable

Many employees find themselves hitting a plateau in the workforce. They find they are no longer growing and moving up to more involved leadership roles. These employees may have plenty of experience and positive traits but they often find themselves being surpassed by other employees for new openings. This can be a frustrating and a trying time for many experienced employees.

Strength vs. Weakness Improvement
Naturally you look at your weaknesses and assess how you can do better. However, you should be looking at your strengths. Top level executives have a several outstanding strengths that outweight their weaknesses. Having a couple of outstanding strengths will allow you move up the ladder within an organization. It's more challenging to improve your strengths rather than weaknesses. How do you improve on something that you already do so well? In order to develop and improve your strengths you need to focus on complimentary skills. This is known as "non linear development." Improving a core strength by improving other related skills. There is a synergistic effect of combing two skills. When traits are combined they produce a significant improvement in leadership vs. either skill alone.

Cross-Training
Let's explain this concept another way. The idea of improving complementary skills is how athletes train. Football players can run drills and practice plays. But how do you improve as a player once you have all the plays down? Athletes perform other activities that improve their game. For example they lift weights and run. These skills will allow them to more efficiently execute their plays. Working on their strength and speed will complement their play making. Indirect training to improve an athletes core strength of executing plays.

Strength Building

There are several steps to take when improving your strengths. The first is to identify all your existing strengths. This can be done in several different ways. The best way to discover your strengths is to talk to your peers and co-workers. If possible you should seek a 360 degree evaluation which includes opinions from direct coworkers and other departments. A 360 degree evaluation provides a well rounded view of you leadership style. When you want to be an effective leader, outside opinion of your skills are more important than your own opinion.

Once you have a list of strengths, the next step is to choose one to build on. You need to choose a strength that will benefit your organization and you are passionate about. "A strength you have but isn't important to your organization is a hobby. A strength you have that you aren't passionate about but is important to the organization is a chore." (Harvard) Then you need to identify a complementary trait that is also important to your organization. By focusing on improving your complementary trait, there will be an indirect improvement of your main strength.

You should continue to work on your companion trait until you notice a difference upon completing another 360 evaluation. This change will take time and could even be as long as several years but with continued persistence you will grow as a leader. Once you have developed your companion trait, you can look to improve another companion trait. Once your main strength has seen growth, you can start to focus on another main strength and associated companion traits. Extraordinary leaders don't only have one strength.

Below is a chart of 16 Strengths that are related to success along with their complementary traits. 

Overkill?
After you master several strengths, begin to look at the 5 broader categories that the 16 main strengths fall into. Which strengths are underrepresented in the broader categories? Look to improve these ones next!

In Summary:
You may be a well liked person with no real flaws but without ordinary strengths you will not move up the organization ladder! The more outstanding strengths you have, the more indispensable you are. You will become irreplaceable because your strengths will always outweigh your weaknesses. Even starting with one extraordinary strength rather than being well rounded in several strengths will result in leadership development. Companion traits are the way to improve your already existing strengths. Instead of doing what you already do, you are engaging in new ways of skill development that will result in more effective behavior.

Zenger, John, Joseph Folkman, and Scott Edinger. "Making Yourself Indispensable."Harvard Business Review (2011). Print.

Service Learning in the Community Setting

Summer 2014 Service Learning

During the summer, I completed numerous service activities at the Unionville Walgreens. Eric Halpern (a young UConn Alum) was my pharmacy preceptor. The first activity I participated in was Medication Therapy Management. MTM is a preventative approach to prevent negative health outcomes. If a patient’s health and adherence issues can be caught early on, it saves money in the long run and improves patient outcomes.

While at Walgreens I utilized the computer system Mirixa to perform MTM services. Mirixa is a program that alerts the pharmacy to possible patient adherence and regimen issues. The pharmacist then can set up a meeting or make a phone call to the patient to address the alert. Insurance companies pay pharmacies a nominal fee for completing each patient case. Mirixa will raise a flag to any type of drug-drug interaction, inappropriate treatment, and adherence issues. The majority of the cases I worked on were adherence issues. For example, Mirixa would inform the pharmacy that a patient hadn’t refilled their medication on time. Meaning, the patient picked up a one month prescription and it is has been a month since that date without a refill. This would suggest that the patient isn’t taking their medication regularly or as prescribed. I would then call the patient and discuss their medication regimen. These phone calls were both educational and beneficial to the patients. Patients had a chance to learn what their medications were for and I had a chance to drive home the importance of adherence. There were frequent adherence alerts for blood pressure and cholesterol medications. The most important counseling point I made with these medications is that you don’t feel different while taking them. However, it is important to be taking your meds each day to ensure maximal benefits.

While volunteering at Walgreens, I worked with the pharmacist to come up with case solutions. I discussed ways to help patients remember to take their medications. Setting reminders in their phones and using weekly pillboxes were among various solutions discussed. Some cases were more complicated and I needed the pharmacist’s assistance. For example, there was a patient who was on transplant medications. Mirixa raised a drug interaction flag. The patient was on two immunosuppressant drugs, Mycophenolate and Tacrolimus. With the pharmacist, we looked into this interaction and it proved to be a minor interaction. Mycophenolates peak levels were slightly increased when on board with Tacrolimus. Both medications came from the same doctor’s office. I called the doctor’s office and spoke to them about our situation and the doctor assured me the patient was being monitored and that was the correct therapy. The patient had been on this regimen for several months and had yet to experience any issues.

While volunteering, Eric had me set up and run blood pressure clinics. I sat at the front of the store and asked patients if they wanted their blood pressure taken. I took any willing patients to a private screening room and measured their blood pressure using an electronic blood pressure monitor cuff. I discussed blood pressure goals/targets with these patients. Furthermore, I inquired about any medications there were currently taking and if their doctor was aware of their blood pressure. When working with these patients, I made sure they were aware of lifestyle changes that would positively affect their blood pressure. I did my best to empower my patients and give them the knowledge to make healthy life decisions.

Eric worked with me on several other projects. I answered patient inquires at the pharmacy. A patient asked when was the best time to get the influenza vaccine. The CDC recommends that the pharmacist start giving the flu vaccine as soon as the vaccine becomes readily available in their pharmacy. The patient’s concern was if they got the flu shot in July would the effects of the shot wear off before the end of the flu season. I called the CDC to ask about this question. I talked to a specialist who still recommended giving the flu shot as early as possible. He discussed that only children could receive two flu shots in one season to ensure they were protected.

During my time at Walgreens, I also participated in a medication reconciliation meeting with Eric and a patient. An elderly woman was overwhelmed by all of her medications and had questions for the pharmacist. One afternoon, Eric and I sat down with her and discussed what each of her meds was used for. We made recommendations for meds that could be consolidated to combination dosage forms. Finally we discussed OTC products she was taking and their efficacy. We helped the patient gain confidence and control of her therapy. Eric also had me go onto the floor with patients to answer their OTC medication questions. Several patients came up to the counter to ask about which pain medication to use and I assisted them with their decision. Eric quizzed me on OTC products and their active ingredients.  

I learned a lot from this experience. I was able to successfully complete MTM cases and work with patients to improve their adherence and health. I gained experience working with other health agencies. I learned on how to research drug related questions. I was beneficial to the pharmacy because I engaged their patient population. My volunteering allowed for certain tasks to be conducted that the pharmacist otherwise wouldn’t have been able to perform.

I would highly recommend Eric Halpern as a preceptor. He did his upmost best to ensure I wasn’t there to dispense and fill drugs. I didn’t count out one prescription the entire time I was with Walgreens. He is very compassionate about pharmacy and is very patient with his students.