An Interview with 'The Pharmacist Coach'

Recently, I was interviewed for one of my alma maters, the Institute of Health Sciences.  

Rachel, how did you end up as ‘The Pharmacist Coach?’

Since owning my first flock of pet lambs at the age of 7, entrepreneurship, leadership, health, wellbeing and mental fitness has always been at the heart of who I am and what I do. 

My approach has been informed by my experience growing up on a farm, travelling and working with a variety of people in six continents, working in acute and mental health hospital settings, running a community pharmacy business and training and coaching businesses for the past decade, while being Mum to three children (now teenagers). 

As a registered pharmacist since 1996, I have seen and faced a variety of challenges.  But 2011-2013 presented challenges of a different magnitude for my family and I.  My grandparents (with whom I had spent every summer from the age of 5) died.  My husband’s parents both ended up in different hospitals and my Dad was diagnosed with cancer.  Both our family business and the pharmacy business I was employed by simultaneously experienced major financial challenges as a result of the economic crash.  All this while working full time and having three children in primary school and managing a community pharmacy which was struggling to survive.  Personally, professionally and financially – it felt like a perfect storm. 

What inspired you to study Diet, Health and Wellness Coaching with the Institute of Health Sciences?

At that point, I realised my support system was as overwhelmed as I was.  I knew I had to find other ways to resource myself, and if I didn’t, I would not be able to support my team, my patients, my children, my husband, my parents, my work colleagues or our businesses to navigate the challenges we faced. Read more here.

Navigating Change - The Need for Internal Transitions

If we want to thrive in the midst of change we cannot hurry through the change we are experiencing and ignore our internal needs.

Change is an event.  It is when something happens— a pandemic, a change in a contract, an employee leaves or joins, an acquisition, a bankruptcy, a new boss, a move, etc.   Change is essentially something external.  We all can relate to hearing people refer to change as something that has happened to them.  It is physical.  We can typically see it or touch it.

Change may happen suddenly on the surface, but the process of moving through change is called ‘transition.’  This is what happens to us internally.  The event of external change inevitably brings about the experience of internal transition. Transition, unlike change, is an experience, not an event.    This internal transition is a natural process of disorientation and reorientation that feels uncomfortable, but leads to growth. 

Change is both an external event and an internal response. We must recognise that the internal transition usually doesn’t match the speed of the external change that has occurred.  Therefore, for a healthy and productive change, we need to allow our internal response to catch up with the external change.

You can lead yourself and others to more speedily and smoothly transition through the stages of change by learning how to recognise fear-based Saboteur voices (which cling to the status quo), deepen the ability to intercept them and switch to love-based Sage voices of acceptance of the new reality.  

Register for our Next Cohort which starts November 7

If you are interested in learning an evidence-based methodology to lead yourself and others more quickly and smoothly through the stages of change, The Positive Intelligence Program® could be a great fit for you (and your team).

The programme grows your three core mental fitness muscles within six weeks, installing the foundational mental fitness operating system, on which mastery can be built.  The Breakthrough app delivers neuroscience based, personalised daily practices that result in powerful new habits for a positive mind.

Intentional on-going focus on building your three Core Mental Fitness Muscles allows you to prioritise mastering your mindset as a fundamental, lifelong leadership practice.  You develop the neural pathways to consciously discern between Saboteur Resistance to change and Sage Acceptance and Embracing of Reality - to the point of building anti-fragile confidence of knowing that Obstacles Make You Stronger.  Mastery occurs DAILY, not in a day.  

To equip you to optimise the benefits from your initial six- week intensive mental fitness training, the 4Front Positive Leadership Programme facilitated by Rachel Dungan, Certified PQ Coach® includes an additional four months of support to engrain your PQ practice so that you sustain your momentum, assume a steady, sustainable pace going forward so that you (and those with whom you interact) reap the rewards of your ever strengthening mental fitness muscles.   

Rachel's next cohort starts on November 7, 2022.

Curious to find out more about the unique ways your Saboteurs resist change? 

Click Here! to gain access to the Saboteur Assessment to identify how YOUR Saboteurs resist change. You can also discover your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ Score) and more! Click Here! The resources include links to assessments and videos:

• Learn more about how Positive Intelligence mental fitness can improve productive conversations by watching the Positive Intelligence TED Talk
• Discover the saboteurs that are negatively affecting your impact and influence by taking the Saboteur Assessment.  Remember - conflict is not only about conflict with others.  We also experience inner conflict between our Sage Self and our Saboteur Selves! 
• Discover your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ Score)
• And more! Click Here.
• If you are curious about potentially offering a Positive Intelligence Programme company-wide, click the image below for more details about Positive Intelligence in Healthcare in Ireland. 

World-Class Professional Practice Requires World-Class CPD. 

For Leadership Coaches, WBECS by  coaching.com is a leading CPD resource.

I am proud to share that I have been selected as an Implementation Mastery Facilitator at this year's World Business and Executive Coach Summit (WBECS).  For your inspiration, I share the topics and speakers of the Implementation Mastery sessions I am facilitating in October. 

I choose to participate fully in the WBECS Summit as one of the CPD activities I prioritise, as it enables me to intentionally create opportunities for me to deepen my ability to empower my clients to navigate change.  It helps me stay at the cutting edge of best practice and the latest trends across a wide range of disciplines, critical to success as a pharmacist, as a coach and as a leader.  

The WBECS Summit features global thought leaders across a range of disciplines related to leadership and organisational development, peak performance, productivity, neuroscience, psychology, wellbeing at work, team dynamics and business and technology trends.

As an Implementation Mastery Facilitator, I get to host deep-dive discussions, learning with and from business and executive coaches from around the globe.  We share insights and explore ways to apply insights gained from the expert session into their professional practice.  We often discuss how to support ourselves and our clients to address the gap between best practice and existing practice.  In lively discussion, we share experiences, challenges and successes we have discovered work in practice to empower our clients to successfully lead in a world of exponential change.  Given our global community, you can imagine perspectives, cultures and experiences differ.  We get to discern pros and cons of different points of view.  This creates a learning experience that expands perspectives and exposes previously unconscious biases.  By doing so, the quality of decision making improves. 

In pharmacy, in coaching, in leadership and in life, being able to elegantly navigate change is an increasingly more critical and valuable skill.  How do YOU continually create intentional CPD opportunities for you to deepen your ability to navigate change in ever more complex contexts?  

Register for Free to access top rated sessions at this year's Summit including Shirzad Chamine's Session 'Positive Intelligence - From Self-Sabotage to Self-Mastery': https://mbsy.co/6fNFPt

This month's 25hr Yoga Teacher Training is 'Trauma Informed Yoga.'  And next month's will be 'Yoga for Conflict'.  

As these two topics infer, yoga is an 8-limbed system for personal leadership in all areas of life, not just in the realm of physical fitness.  It can be one of the support systems we can use to help us to handle stresses, cultivate calm in the presence of conflict and calm a dysregulated autonomic nervous system. 

In order to bring out the best in others, you must be able to clearly and empathically receive what others communicate to you and also communicate clearly and empathically to others.  This is why the S, T and E parts of 4Front Pharmacy's STEPS Consultation Framework include Seek to Understand, Then be Understood and Empathise. To show up and lead people through change, we need to be 'trauma informed' so that we minimise the chances of inadvertently triggering others.  

I have found that incorporating yoga teacher training and personal practice in my Pharmacy and Coaching CPD plan continues to be a powerful way to nurture my Sage's physical energy, mental focus, emotional bandwidth and purposeful living.  In doing so, I continually deepen my professional capacity to embody

• personal skills (such as leadership, communication & informed decision making), 
• professional practice (such as adapting to change and innovation),
• organisation and management skills (including managing self, others, risks and quality),
• public health (including personally living a healthy life and advocating public wellbeing)
• client care (including education and coaching for personal and relational wellbeing) 

If you feel inspired to learn about how my yoga teachers approach 'trauma informed yoga,' CLICK HERE to join Happy Jack's Trauma Informed Yoga Course. It includes a variety of transferrable leadership skills, including inclusive language, neuroscience, and skills to foster a safe space for authentic expression as you navigate change in any environment, online and in-person.  

Tech Tools|Where does your attention go?

Focus Calm Uses Brain-Machine Interface Technology to Help Us Discern between when we are feeding the Sage Inspired Mindset and when our Saboteur's Fears are getting the Lion's Share of our attention!

I have been deeply diving into how to optimise human potential for over a decade.  I have learned, practiced (and in some cases mastered) a wealth of evidence-based tools to help my clients live their life consciously, fulfil their potential and inspire others to do the same.  Learn More.

• Imagine the confidence you would have if you learned how to operate primarily from a Sage Inspired Mindset?  
• Imagine the CPD you would be inspired to complete (rather than CPD you push yourself into doing) by cultivating a Sage Inspired Mindset?  
• Imagine the difference in the quality of your ability to lead through change when it is informed primarily by your Sage Mind and not limited by your Saboteur Driven Mind's Exaggerated Fears?

CLICK HERE if you are inspired to learn more about the FocusCalm Headband and how you could use it to to help you develop your Sage Inspired Mindset and intercept your Saboteur-Fueled worry, anxiety or negativity.  

If your Sage feels inspired to take transformative action to master your mindset, so that you reap benefits in multiple areas of your life, including professionally, our Positive Leadership Academy could be a perfect fit for you.  Our next cohort starts on November 7, 2022.

4FrontPharmacy Online offers all pharmacy staff OTC pharmacy specific training, in medical conditions, product knowledge and consultation skills.   4Front's STEPS™ Consultation Framework offers a proven strategy to host productive pharmacy consultations and reduce the risk of unproductive defensive, aggressive or passive consultations.  

Start your journey with 4Front Pharmacy Online for FREE and experience every course with four easy-to-follow steps:

• Step 1: Choose your course and review learning outcomes
• Step 2: Watch course video at your own pace
• Step 3: Review resources, references, and reading materials
• Step 4: Take the Course Assessment and get a certificate (Premium Membership required)

Once you are a registered member of 4FrontPharmacy Online, you can also enrol for 4Front's Positive Leadership Series - a free member benefit. 

The topic for our next LIVE Zoom Call is 'Stress Management in Uncertain Times.'  Click https://www.4frontpharmacy.ie/leadership-series to register to attend LIVE for free.   

 Called for CPD ePortfolio Review in Jan 2023?

We provide learning and development tools for individuals, professionals and for business leaders and their teams.  If you are a pharmacist called for ePortfolio Review in Jan 2023 and you would like support to avail of 4Front's CPD Mentoring Service, CLICK HERE.  In just 90 mins together, pharmacists say they:  'Gain confidence that I am meeting the standards' 'I now feel Ready, Prepared and Motivated to continue (rather than wanting to give up)' 'It feels so satisfying to get my CPD requirements OFF my intention list and onto the 'COMPLETED' list' 'The biggest thing for me is the peace-of-mind associated with being prepared and getting things done efficiently' 'Getting it done is just such a relief from the stress of having it hanging over me' 'I thought I wouldn't be able to write up any CPD because I have been on maternity/parental leave for nearly a year.  I was wrong!'  'It felt great to stop procrastinating, get out of my head and just get it done' 'I did not believe it would be possible to write up my CPD that quickly, but I was wrong.  It amazed me how productive Rachel and I were, with 100% focused attention and no interruptions!' 'Not only am I prepared for ePortfolio Review but I am so have a personal plan and purpose for my CPD going forward'

 Article Download: A Prosperous Future for Pharmacy

IPN’s Pharmacy Business Excellence Series is for community pharmacists committed to growing their professional and business knowledge and skills to overcome challenges and thrive as a community pharmacist.

4Front Pharmacy is proud to partner with the Irish Pharmacy News (IPN) to bring you the ‘IPN/4Front Pharmacy Business Excellence Series.’ In this series, you will learn how to apply 4Front’s 6P’s of Pharmacy Excellence to navigate the ‘Future of Pharmacy.’

4Front’s 6P’s of Pharmacy Excellence are
1. Personal Leadership
2. Professional Practice
3. People (Patients/Customers/Staff/Other Healthcare Professionals)
4. Products and Services
5. Promotion
6. Prosperity (Profit and Time)

This month's download focuses on 'A Prosperous Future for Pharmacy ' and includes an example of a CPD Cycle that you could write based on your engagement with this article.  

Click here to download the full article.