Personal Note from Rachel

Listening Beyond the Words August 2025 Edition | From Rachel Dungan – The Pharmacist Coach

Welcome

This month’s theme, Active Listening, was inspired by a simple, powerful moment with a pharmacist leader in a coaching conversation and the follow up CPD cycle I developed for my upcoming ePortfolio Review. 

A Moment That Stopped Me

She was describing a recent patient encounter when I noticed a shift. Her voice softened. She paused longer than usual. I said nothing—just stayed present.

Then she shared something unexpected: “I think I was more focused on getting it right than really hearing what the patient was trying to say.”

That moment stayed with her—and with me.

It reminded me that listening is not a passive act. It is presence, curiosity, and connection in motion. It is the courage to slow down and hear not just the words, but the meaning, the need, and sometimes, the pain behind them.

Core Coaching Competency of the Month: Listens Actively (ICF)

Focuses on what the client is and is not saying to fully understand what is being communicated within the context of the client’s systems and to support the client's self-expression.

Active listening isn’t just a coaching skill—it’s a life skill. It means tuning in across multiple layers:

👂 Context matters – Who’s speaking? What shapes their story?

💬 Reflect and summarise – Help them hear themselves.

👀 Notice what’s unsaid – What’s beneath the words?

⚡ Tune into signals – Posture, tone, silence—they all communicate.

🧠 Listen with full presence – Body, mind, heart.

🔍 Track themes – What patterns keep returning?

Where Might Active Listening Show Up in Healthcare Consultations?

Pain rarely introduces itself clearly. It may appear as a grumble about poor sleep… or show up as irritability, fatigue, or withdrawal.

When we listen actively, we don’t just hear symptoms—we hear what lies beneath.

A patient might say: “It’s just a bit sore.” But you notice a limp, a grimace, a clenched fist. They describe “nagging,” “throbbing,” or “tight” discomfort.

Try asking:

• “On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the worst pain imaginable, what number would you give your discomfort right now?”

• “How bad was it before your medication? What’s the number now?”

• “What activities or movements tend to make the pain better or worse?”

This isn’t just about pain management—it’s about helping people feel seen, heard, and understood.

✨ Lead with Clarity and Confidence
Coaching is not about adding more to your list. It is about creating space to think, grow and purposefully listen to yourself and others.

🎯 Ready to elevate your leadership?
Start your 1:1 Executive and Healthcare Coaching Sprint today. 👉 Enrol now

Where Might Active Listening Show Up in Business Leadership?

In fast-paced workplaces, leaders often carry an unspoken expectation: to have the answers, to move quickly, to fix things. But what if the most powerful thing a leader can do is to slow down and truly listen?

I remember coaching a senior executive who led a large, high-performing team. He began our session with a confession.

"I thought I was listening," he said. "But I realised I was only listening for the moment I could jump in with a solution."

That insight changed everything.

Instead of rushing to respond, he started practising the pause. He gave his team space to finish their thoughts. He noticed tone, hesitations, and what wasn’t being said. And over time, something shifted.

His team began to open up. Conversations grew deeper. People felt safer being honest about what was working and what wasn’t. Decisions became more collaborative, and his team’s performance improved—not because he gave more answers, but because he created more space for others to think aloud and be heard.

Active listening in leadership is not about doing more; it's about doing it right. It is about being more present. It creates an environment where people feel seen, respected, and empowered to contribute their best.

When leaders listen well, teams do not just work harder—they work better, together.

✨ Lead with Clarity and Confidence
Coaching is not about adding more to your list. It is about learning to prioritise space to think, cultivate space for growth and lead with purpose.

🎯 Ready to elevate your leadership?
Start your 1:1 Executive and Healthcare Coaching Sprint today. 👉 Enrol now

Where Might Active Listening Show Up for 1:1 and Team Leader Coaches?

Coaching is not just about hearing words. It’s about noticing what’s beneath them.

During a team coaching session, I saw a subtle shift in a leader’s posture. I paused and asked, “Would you be willing to share what’s happening for you right now?”

That single question opened up a conversation the team didn’t know they needed. It changed the tone in the room—from surface-level updates to a real connection.

That’s the power of active listening. In 1:1 coaching, it creates space for leaders to reflect, untangle what feels complex, and access their best thinking.

Leadership is not just about speaking clearly. It’s about listening deeply. Coaching makes that possible.

✅ ICF Mentor Coaching

Preparing for your ICF credential? Receive personalised, competency-based feedback to refine your skills and grow your confidence.

🎯 Whether you're pursuing ACC, PCC, or MCC, now is the time to strengthen your coaching with expert support.
👉 Start your Mentor Coaching journey today

🧭 Coaching Supervision for Multi-Role Leaders

Feeling pulled in many directions? Coaching Supervision provides a reflective space to restore clarity, ethical presence, and resilience in complex roles.

💬 Discover how supervision supports sustainable leadership and wellbeing.
👉 Enrol in Coaching Supervision

Listening to the System: Reflections on Sustainability and CPD

This month, I received an email from a research student in Trinity College Dublin inviting pharmacists to share insights on the barriers to environmental sustainability.

At first, I nearly skipped it. It felt distant from my daily work. But the more I reflected, the more I realised it speaks to the heart of everything we do. Sustainability is not just an environmental issue. It is a leadership issue, a health issue, and a systems issue.

Through the lens of 4Front's 6Ps of Positive Practice – Purpose, Personal, Professional, People, Products & Services, and Prosperity – I have explored human sustainability for years. But this was a prompt to expand the view and include the planet too.

When we listen systemically, we begin to notice how our everyday choices shape the future.

Systemic Listening Questions:

• What is the wider system trying to tell us?

• What ripple effects, positive or negative, are we part of?

• What would long-term thriving look like for people and the planet, and how might our practice evolve in that direction?

Whether it’s choosing more sustainable formulations, supporting local supply chains, or redesigning services with future generations in mind, it begins with listening.

💡 Called for ePortfolio Review this year?
If you're a pharmacist preparing your submission and want support to Get It Done with confidence and clarity, click here to take the next step.

Listening to Mothers – World Breastfeeding Week (1–7 August)

World Breastfeeding Week shines a light on the importance of breastfeeding for health, nutrition, and bonding. However, for many mothers, especially those returning to work, it also highlights the hidden struggles they face.

Balancing feeding schedules, workplace expectations, and personal wellbeing can feel overwhelming. Too often, these conversations are clouded by guilt, silent pressure, or fear of judgement.

This is where Active Listening becomes essential.

Real support begins when we listen without rushing to fix or compare, when we hold space for honest expression. When we ask, with curiosity:

• What would support look like for you right now?

• What would make this transition easier?

• What boundaries would help you feel respected?

Partners, colleagues, and leaders all have a role. By listening actively, we don’t just respond. We affirm. We create space for dignity and confidence to grow. The result? Win–win–wins for mothers, babies, and the workplaces that value them.

Professional Development Opportunities

Active listening is not just a skill, it is a mindset. Each of these offerings supports your ability to deepen presence, attune more fully to others, and create conversations that matter.

📅 Strategy Session (90 minutes) – A focused space to explore how your listening shows up in your leadership or practice. Together, we’ll identify blind spots, sharpen your self-awareness and build a strategy to listen with more intention and impact.

🤝 Executive Coaching – Through one-to-one coaching, you’ll experience the power of being deeply heard – and develop the capacity to offer that same quality of attention to others. It’s a space to practise emotional regulation, explore listening blocks and strengthen your relational presence.

🎓 Lead With Coaching Certificate & Diploma (Autumn Cohort) – This live, cohort-based programme is designed to embed coaching competencies in your leadership style. You'll practise listening for meaning, emotion and energy in real time, with supportive feedback and space to reflect on your impact.

📝 CPD Mentoring for Pharmacists – If, like me, you have been called for ePortfolio Review this year, you'll get support to reflect, complete, and align your CPD with your values and patient-centred care goals, as well as ensuring you meet the submission criteria. 

📋 Independent Pharmacy Assessment System Reviews for Irish Pharmacies   Create space to step back, gain perspective, and respond to your business with clear-headed insight and fresh energy. 

🎯 ICF Mentor Coaching for Coaches – For coaches pursuing or renewing an ICF credential at ACC, PCC or MCC level, this is a space to refine your presence, deepen your alignment with ICF competencies, and prepare with confidence.

🪞 Reflective Practice Super-Vision for 1:1 and Team Coaches – A spacious, non-judgemental environment to be present to yourself, your patterns, and your practice—so you can hold even deeper presence for your clients, teams, and systems.

📩 Not sure what support would help most right now? Email me at rachel@racheldungan.com, and we’ll figure it out together.

Final Reflection

To truly listen is to offer someone the safety to be seen, the space to be heard, and the courage to speak with clarity.

Whether in pharmacy, leadership, coaching or life, listening with presence and generosity is not passive. It is a choice, a powerful and quiet act of service that builds trust, deepens connection and invites transformation.

Next month, we will explore the ICF Core Competency Evokes Awareness, the insight that often emerges when we truly listen.

Until then:
Stay curious.
Stay kind.
And keep listening.

Warmest wishes,
Rachel
The Pharmacist Coach

📩 Ready to explore which path will help you listen more deeply and lead more powerfully? Email me at rachel@racheldungan.com and let’s start the conversation.