What Life Is Teaching Me This Month

Over the past few weeks I've found myself sitting in some very different audiences.

One evening I was listening to the extraordinary musicians of the Waterford Chamber Music concert. Four wind instruments: French horn, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, accompanied by piano, creating ninety minutes of beautiful music.

A few days later, like so many people across Ireland, despite myself (not being a huge GAA person & not being from either Mayo or Kerry), I found myself captivated by the historic All-Ireland Football Final. Seventy minutes of relentless intensity, teamwork, courage and composure, culminating in Mayo's first All-Ireland title in seventy-five years.

Earlier in the summer I had the privilege of attending performances at the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, the Immrama Festival of Travel Writing, the Munster Fleadh, and watching the continued restoration of Lismore's former Bank of Ireland building into a community hostel.

As I drove or walked home after each event, I found myself feeling deeply grateful.

Grateful not only for the performances themselves, but for the countless people whose dedicated leadership had made them possible. Volunteers. Committees. Musicians. Writers. Craftspeople. Sponsors. Hospitality teams. Families. Communities.

Each event celebrated something different, yet they all left me reflecting on the same thing...

Then, earlier this month, I spent six days immersed in my yoga teacher training.

This term's focus sounds deceptively simple:

Synchronising breath with precise, aligned movement.

In yoga, this is called vinyasa.

Simple to understand.

Much harder to practise.

It asks us to remain fully present, continually paying attention to two things at once: the quality of our breath and the quality of our movement. Particularly when the postures become demanding, it's remarkably easy to focus on one and forget the other.

Every breath influences the movement.

Every movement influences the breath.

Neither works as well in isolation.

As I reflected on the concerts, the football final, the festivals, our business retreat and my yoga practice, I realised they were all pointing me towards the same insight.

Perhaps healthy organisations breathe too.

Looking Beyond the Performance

When we attend a concert or a sporting event, we naturally focus on what happens on stage or on the field.

But leadership invites us to look beyond the performance.

Behind every concert are countless volunteers, organisers, funders, technicians, hospitality teams, artists, trustees and administrators.

Behind every sporting achievement are coaches, families, physiotherapists, committees, sponsors, groundskeepers and supporters.

Behind every thriving community are people quietly contributing their time, energy, expertise and resources, often with little recognition.

Leadership lives and breathes through communities every bit as much as it does through boardrooms.

This summer has reminded me just how much invisible leadership surrounds us every day.

And how much listening makes it possible.

Listening to one another.

Listening to changing needs.

Listening to opportunities.

Listening to finances.

Listening to volunteers.

Listening to what the organisation itself is quietly telling us.

Our Own Time to Listen

James and I recently spent a week together for our annual Lead With Coaching Institute business retreat.

There were no workshops.

No presentations.

No rushing from meeting to meeting.

Instead, we deliberately created space each day to walk, talk, think and listen.

Not just to one another.

To our organisation.

Without really planning it, we found ourselves practising our own organisational version of vinyasa. We were trying to bring vision, alignment and execution back into rhythm with one another.

We weren't simply reviewing spreadsheets or making plans. We were paying attention to the quality of our thinking, the flow of our conversations and the health of the system we were leading.

• Where is energy flowing?
• Where is it becoming constricted?
• Where are we creating value?
• Where are we unintentionally creating complexity?
• What needs our attention?
• What needs our trust?
• What no longer needs to be carried?

One of the greatest gifts of building strategic thinking time into our business wasn't that we found all the answers.

It was that we finally created enough space to hear the questions.

Breath, Flow and Leadership

Breath is easy to overlook because, when it's healthy, it feels almost invisible.

We usually only notice it when we're out of breath.

Perhaps organisations are the same.

Healthy organisations have a natural rhythm.

Ideas flow.

Information flows.

Money flows.

Trust flows.

Learning flows.

Leadership flows.

When something becomes constricted, the first symptoms often appear somewhere else. We notice declining engagement, strained relationships, cashflow pressures, burnout or slower decision-making.

Those symptoms matter. But like shallow breathing, they often point to something deeper asking for our attention.

Leadership isn't simply about solving symptoms.

It's about noticing where the flow has become restricted and helping the system breathe again.

Listening to Prosperity

For many years I thought business prosperity was primarily about financial performance.

Of course financial stewardship matters.

Healthy organisations need healthy cashflow.

But increasingly I'm noticing that money is only one part of a much bigger picture.

Perhaps prosperity is better understood through four different forms of return.

• Return on Investment
• Return on Time
• Return on Energy
• Return on Leadership Capacity

Every decision we make affects all four.

A financially successful project that consistently drains energy may not be truly sustainable.

A project that develops people, strengthens relationships and creates future leadership capacity may generate value long before it generates revenue.

Perhaps that's what stewardship really is.

Not controlling every part of the system.

But creating the conditions where healthy flow can emerge.

Where vision, alignment and execution remain connected.

Where deposits consistently exceed withdrawals, not only financially, but in time, energy, trust, relationships and leadership capacity.

Like breath, prosperity is less about holding on and more about sustaining healthy flow.

Money Is Always Speaking

Across pharmacy, executive coaching and the Lead With Coaching Institute, I'm increasingly noticing a common pattern.

The numbers are rarely the problem.

The stories we attach to the numbers often are.

One crazy month becomes:

"I'm failing."

One investment becomes:

"I'm taking too much risk."

A pricing decision becomes:

"Maybe I'm not worth that."

A growing expense becomes:

"Everything is falling apart."

Money was never saying any of those things. We were.

The numbers were simply doing what numbers do. They were giving us information.

Money is always speaking.

The question is whether we're listening to what it's actually saying, or to the story we've attached to it.

Listening with curiosity rather than judgement creates space for wiser decisions.

Listening as an Organisation

This year's theme has been Listening.

We've explored listening to ourselves.

Listening in our relationships.

Now it feels like the right time to ask another question.

What would change if organisations listened more carefully too?

Not simply through employee surveys.

Not only through customer feedback.

But by genuinely listening to the people who make the organisation what it is.

The wisdom needed for the future often already exists within the community.

Sometimes it simply hasn't been invited into the conversation.

That realisation has inspired something new.

You're Invited to Help Shape the Conversation

This year's theme has been Listening.

Writing these newsletters each month has reminded me that listening shouldn't only be something we encourage as leaders.

It should be something we practise as organisations.

So over the coming year I'm beginning something new...

The Leadership Listening Project.

This quarter we're beginning where my own leadership journey began: pharmacy.

If you're a pharmacy leader, I'd love to invite you to add your voice by completing our short Listening to Pharmacy Leadership survey.

It's not simply market research.

It's an opportunity to contribute your experience, help identify emerging patterns and co-create future leadership resources that reflect the realities of practice today.

If you're not from a pharmacy background, I hope you'll enjoy following what emerges. Many of the themes will resonate far beyond healthcare, and in the months ahead we'll be inviting other leadership communities into the conversation too.

Because I believe healthier leaders create healthier teams.

Healthier teams create healthier organisations.

Healthier organisations strengthen healthier communities.

And it all begins with listening.

Add Your Voice

Your experience can help shape a more honest understanding of pharmacy leadership and inform the resources, conversations and support developed next.

The survey takes approximately five minutes, and your responses will be treated respectfully and confidentially.

Complete the Listening to Pharmacy Leadership Survey

A Question to Leave With You

As you think about your own organisation this month, perhaps take a moment to ask:

• What is our organisation quietly trying to tell us?
• Where is energy flowing well?
• Where does it feel constricted?
• What story have we attached to the numbers?
• Who haven't we really listened to yet?
• If our organisation could speak, what would it ask of us next?

Perhaps wise leadership isn't about having all the answers.

Perhaps it's about creating the conditions where the right voices can finally be heard.

Warmly,

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 you're a pharmacy leader, I'd be grateful if you would take five minutes to complete the Listening to Pharmacy Leadership Survey. Your experience will help us understand what pharmacy leadership requires today and shape future resources and conversations grounded in real practice.

Your responses will be treated respectfully and confidentially.

Add Your Voice: Complete the Listening to Pharmacy Leadership Survey

If you're from another profession and would like to contribute to a future Leadership Listening Conversation, simply reply to this email. I'd be delighted to hear from you.