On a recent early morning walk, I encountered a deer, a turtle, and a woodpecker. These chance meetings coincided with my contemplation of the focus of this column – leadership. I began to consider how these early risers, perhaps leaders in their respective kingdoms, differed in their approaches to the tasks they were undertaking. The deer came flying by me at lightning speed, darting in and out of trees and jumping over obstacles in search of an open path to a nearby river. This visual aligns with the symbolism often associated with deer – tenderness tempered with strength, intuition, agility, and speed. Moments later, I saw the turtle crossing a patch of grass toward a small stream, making slow and steady progress. Turtles, having been around for more than 200 million years, represent wisdom, longevity, calmness, and self-confidence. Near the end of the walk, I first heard and then saw a beautiful red-headed woodpecker in a tree next to the path, hammering away in search of insects and other sources of food. Hard work, perseverance, strength, and determination are the traits of the woodpecker.
Each of these creatures has distinct strengths and approaches to achieving its goals. We humans, like the deer, the turtle, and the woodpecker, also have unique skills, perspectives, and approaches to pursuing opportunities and addressing challenges. Whether your strength is the intuition of the deer, the calmness of the turtle, or the perseverance of the woodpecker, it serves as a valuable foundation on which leadership abilities can be developed. Similarly, one’s leadership approach can be fast and agile like that of the deer, slow and calm like that of the turtle, or consistent and determined like that of the woodpecker and can be adapted as needed to address particular circumstances.
Strong and diverse leadership in our profession has never been more important, and we can all contribute to advancing the profession by sharpening our own leadership abilities and providing leadership development opportunities for others. ACCP is committed to fostering the development of leaders to advance clinical pharmacy’s future. This is outlined in the ACCP strategic plan, and I would like to share recent ACCP leadership development activities and new initiatives that are moving us toward this goal.
In April, the ACCP presidential officers, the ACCP Foundation Board of Trustees chair, the PPI Board of Directors chair, and the ACCP staff who work closely with these leaders attended the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Symposium in Chicago, which focused on building solid partnerships between staff executives and elected officers. The symposium’s sessions provided different perspectives on leadership, addressed roles and responsibilities of leaders, assessed leadership and board culture, and discussed critical issues for today’s leaders, including member engagement, intraorganizational connections, and approaches to leading change. This provided opportunities for networking and rich discussion on the future of ACCP, the ACCP Foundation, and PPI.
In addition to participating in special leadership development opportunities such as the ASAE symposium, the ACCP Board of Regents allocates time at each quarterly meeting for board development. Most recently, this has focused on the “flywheel effect,” introduced in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. Collins outlines the foundation of the flywheel concept by first describing the four stages of the framework for building a great organization: stage 1 (disciplined people), stage 2 (disciplined thought), stage 3 (disciplined action), and stage 4 (building to last). The flywheel effect proposes that the transformation of organizations from “good” to “great” doesn’t result from any single, defining action but from a process that resembles turning a giant flywheel where consistently pushing, turn after turn, builds momentum to the point of breakthrough. This typically becomes evident between stages 2 and 3 as an organization learns how to leverage disciplined thought to create disciplined action. The Board of Regents has been exploring the architecture of ACCP’s flywheel and how our organizational mission and core values drive the flywheel’s rotation. This development effort not only expands individual board member approaches to leading the organization but also helps formulate a collective board view of how the College can continue to contribute to the future success of clinical pharmacy.
New initiatives are also under way to foster leadership development for ACCP members. Since 2009, ACCP has offered a Leadership and Management Certificate Program with core modules, elective programming, and one-on-one mentoring. Building on this experience, the College recently launched a Professional Leadership Program that involves a year-long experience designed to prepare “leaders of tomorrow” within ACCP as well as the profession. The first cohort, expected to comprise about 10 ACCP associate or full members, will introduce the program this fall at the 2022 ACCP Global Conference in San Francisco. The program’s curriculum is robust with individual leadership development through interactive virtual sessions, team-building exercises, and a capstone project. We are grateful to Dr. Miranda Andrus for her willingness to serve as the program’s founding director. Applications for participation in the 2022 program are being accepted through June 1. I encourage you to read more about the ACCP Professional Leadership Program and forward this information to colleagues who may be interested in this opportunity.
We envision a future of health care delivery and pharmacy practice in which pharmacists care for patients by fully using their professional education, training, and experience. With practice transformation already under way, pharmacists’ front-line response to the public health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the valued contributions of our profession. Effective leadership is required to move forward practice initiatives that position pharmacists to achieve medication optimization – and this will continue to be important in the years ahead. Engaging the future workforce and providing opportunities for developing leadership abilities among student pharmacists is an important first step. I am fortunate at my institution to work with students in both didactic and experiential courses focused on leadership development and have witnessed firsthand the passion that so many student pharmacists have for leadership in our profession. ACCP provides opportunities for student engagement through local ACCP student chapters, which serve as an excellent way to familiarize students with clinical pharmacy careers and opportunities, teach them how to advocate for the role of clinical pharmacists in providing direct patient care, and provide mechanisms to facilitate participation in ACCP at the national level. ACCP has approved applications for 100 student chapters since the chapter approval process began in 2013, including 9 chapters added since the pandemic began. I encourage you to explore opportunities to further expand our reach with student pharmacists and engage with our student chapters.
Another meaningful way for students, residents, and fellows to become more involved in ACCP, while developing leadership skills, is through service on the ACCP National Student Network Advisory Committee or the ACCP Resident Advisory Committee. Members of these committees play integral roles in developing new programs and services for students and trainees while expanding their own professional networks. Members-at-large and leadership positions are appointed by the ACCP president-elect, and the 2023 application submission deadline for both committees is June 15, 2022.
April also marked the end of the pilot phase for ACCP’s newly implemented Professional Leadership Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE), a unique approach to fostering the development of tomorrow’s leaders. Three students participated in the 2021–2022 pilot and five APPE students were selected from a large applicant pool for the program’s official launch in the 2022–2023 academic year. In this program, students meet with clinical pharmacy leaders, complete leadership development activities, and learn about the development and implementation of the College’s strategic plan. This is an extraordinary opportunity for students, and I encourage you to learn more about the ACCP APPE and share this information with students.
The presidential theme for this year is “advocacy to advance the profession.” Advocacy and leadership go hand in hand – effective advocacy requires strong leadership; effective leadership requires strong advocacy. ACCP is fortunate to have a passionate cadre of leaders at every level within the organization. Each brings a unique perspective and skill set to this effort – be it that of an agile deer, a steady turtle, or a persistent woodpecker. I encourage each of you, formally or informally, to engage in leadership development and seek opportunities to lead within ACCP and our profession. Leadership has never been more important as we work together to develop, advance, and position clinical pharmacists for the future and advocate for our profession. I am honored to serve alongside each of you in these efforts to provide the leadership necessary to continue to drive our profession forward into the future!