Listening, Discernment, and the Backpack We Carry

Welcome.

Last month, we reflected on the backpack we carry. The responsibilities, expectations, decisions, roles, and stories that may once have served us, but may not all belong in the next part of the journey.

This month, our 2026 theme of Listening turns towards the wider system around us.

There are moments when a business appears to be moving well from the outside, but the leader senses something inside the system is asking for attention. The numbers may be steady. The work may be getting done. The team may still be functioning. The diary may still be full.

And yet, something keeps returning. A bottleneck. A repeated stress point. A decision that keeps being delayed. A team depending too heavily on one person. Growth that looks successful, but feels stretched. A quiet sense that the way things are working may not be the way they need to continue.

This month, I find myself returning to one question:

What is this organisation asking of me now?

The Business as a System

For pharmacy owners, superintendent pharmacists, healthcare leaders, coaches, and business owners, it can be natural to listen first to the visible measures: the figures, the rota, the workload, the waiting list, the accounts, the complaints, and the operational demands.

These measures matter. They give us useful information. But they are not the whole story.

A business is not only a collection of tasks. It is a living system of people, processes, relationships, values, habits, expectations, pressures, and patterns. It has places where energy moves well. It also has places where energy becomes stuck.

Sometimes the business speaks before the numbers do. It may speak through repeated friction, unclear ownership, too many decisions sitting with one person, or a team that is working hard but no longer flowing well. It may speak through misalignment that everyone can sense, but no one has yet named.

The question is whether we are available to listen.

When Growth Is a Signal

Growth can be encouraging. It can reflect trust, service, reputation, opportunity, and years of careful work. For pharmacy and healthcare leaders, growth can also be deeply meaningful because it often means more people are being served.

But growth also asks questions. Do we have the capacity to hold this well? Are our foundations ready for this next stage? Is this opportunity aligned with our values? Is the business becoming stronger, or simply busier? Are we saying yes because it is right, or because it is difficult to say no?

Growth can be a sign of readiness. It can also be a sign that the foundations need attention.

And sometimes, growth can become a distraction from the deeper work the leader already knows needs to be done.

This is where discernment matters. Not every opportunity belongs in the next season. Not every expansion is wise. Not every invitation is aligned.

A healthy business needs more than momentum.

It needs clarity.

Listening Beyond the Numbers

The numbers may tell us WHAT is happening. They do not always tell us WHY it keeps happening.

They may not show the superintendent pharmacist carrying too much alone. They may not show the quiet loss of trust in a team. They may not show where responsibility has become unclear, where values and behaviours have started to drift apart, or where the cost of unresolved conversations is being absorbed quietly.

Listening beyond the numbers means paying attention to the whole system. What keeps repeating? Where does energy become blocked? Where are people waiting for permission? Where is there unnecessary friction? Where has the leader become the answer to too many questions?

These are not always problems to fix quickly.

Often, they are invitations to listen more carefully.

What Is This Next Stage Asking of You?

In my work with leaders, I notice that the issue is rarely a lack of capability. Most leaders are highly capable.

The deeper question is whether the way they are leading now still matches the business they are leading.

The business that once needed your expertise may now need your capacity to build capability in others. The team that once needed your answers may now need clearer ownership. The organisation that once grew through your personal effort may now need structure, rhythm, and shared responsibility.

This is not failure. It is development.

It is the natural tension of leadership growth. The strengths that helped one stage succeed are not always the same strengths required for the next stage to become sustainable.

Pharmacy Leadership and Healthier Futures

This feels especially relevant as we look ahead to World Pharmacists Day on 25 September. The International Pharmaceutical Federation, FIP, has announced the 2026 theme: Empowering pharmacists for healthier futures.

Healthier futures depend on clinical knowledge, professional skill, and service delivery. They also depend on the health of the systems in which pharmacists work.

The health of the team. The health of the business. The health of professional relationships. The health of leadership decisions. The health of the leader’s own capacity.

A pharmacy cannot keep contributing to healthier futures if the system behind the service is becoming increasingly strained, unclear, or misaligned.

As September approaches, perhaps one meaningful way to honour the contribution of pharmacists is to listen more carefully to the systems that support them. What needs strengthening? What needs simplifying? What needs to be spoken? What needs to be released? What needs to be redesigned so that the work can remain safe, sustainable, and human?

You can learn more about FIP and World Pharmacists Day here:  https://www.fip.org/world-pharmacists-day

A Reflection for July

This month, I invite you to choose one part of your business, leadership role, or professional system and listen to it more carefully.

Not only through the numbers, but through the patterns, the stress points, the repeated conversations, the delayed decisions, the places where you feel most pulled, and what you already know, but may not yet have made space to address.

You may wish to sit with these questions:

What is this organisation asking of me now?

Where is the system under strain?

What keeps repeating, despite effort and good intention?

Where might growth be a signal, and where might it be a distraction?

Where has responsibility become unclear?

What would become possible if I listened beyond the numbers?

A Space to Think

For leaders who sense the system is speaking, but are not yet sure how to respond, a Strategic Thinking Session may offer a useful space to pause.

This is a confidential space to step back from the daily demands and look more clearly at what is happening across the system.

It may support you if your business is growing, but not feeling easier; if repeated stress points are asking for attention; if you are carrying too many decisions alone; if you sense misalignment, but have not yet named it; or if you are beginning to wonder what the next stage of leadership is asking of you.

The purpose is not to rush towards a quick answer. It is to listen, discern, and identify the next wise step.

For leaders who sense the system is speaking, but are not sure how to respond, this may be a useful place to begin.

If this feels aligned, you are welcome to book a Strategic Thinking Session here.

Lead With Coaching

If you are ready to strengthen how you lead through and with others, you may also wish to explore our Lead With Coaching courses.

These multi-disciplinary leadership development programmes support leaders to listen more deeply, ask better questions, build ownership, and develop a coaching style of leadership that supports healthier teams and more sustainable systems.

You can explore the Lead With Coaching courses here:  https://www.leadwithcoaching.org/courses 

Our next cohort dates for LCI Certificate (Foundation) are 

• 21, 22 | 28, 29 September
• 23 September & 7 October Virtual Practicums (Half-Day Mentoring, online)

In-person Sessions Venue: Barberstown Castle Hotel, Co Kildare, Ireland

Closing Reflection

A business will often tell us what it needs before it reaches breaking point.

The question is whether we are listening. Not only to what is urgent. Not only to what is measurable. Not only to what is loud. But to the quieter signals that reveal where attention is needed.

As you move through July, I invite you to carry one question with you:

What is this organisation asking of me now?

And perhaps also:

What kind of leadership is this next season asking me to practise?

With warmth and appreciation,

Rachel Dungan
The Pharmacist Coach
MPSI | ICF-MCC | ACTC | NBC-HWC | EMCC-SP
Director of Education, Lead With Coaching Institute
Founder, 4Front Pharmacy Solutions

P.S. If this newsletter has highlighted something important you would like space to think through, reply to me at rachel@racheldungan.com and tell me what you are carrying. I will point you towards the most appropriate next step, whether that is a Strategic Thinking Session, 1:1 Coaching, the LCI Certificate, or simply a useful resource.