What Are You Being Asked to Learn Next?

September has always felt a little like New Year to me.

Perhaps it is all those years of school and university timetables still embedded somewhere in my system. Or perhaps it is simply what happens when, all around us, people are beginning again.

This September, it feels particularly close to home.

Our youngest has just started 6th year, the Leaving Cert, that final year of secondary school with all the anticipation of endings and decisions ahead. Our younger son starts first year at university this week, a very different beginning with its own mixture of excitement, independence and uncertainty. And our eldest has just moved from Hamburg to France in the last couple of days.

Like households all over Ireland, we are adjusting again to new timetables, new rhythms and that familiar September feeling that something has shifted.

Yet I have been noticing something else.  Very few beginnings are completely new. They carry what came before.

What are we bringing with us?

At the weekend, I had the joy of celebrating the marriage of one of my pharmacy clients, alongside his pharmacy team, his new wife and their families.

We have worked together for eight years, and I first met them both seven years ago. Across those years, I have had the privilege of witnessing many seasons in the life of a leader, a family, a team and a business. This weekend marked a very personal milestone, and another beginning within a journey that continues.

At LCI, we have also recently celebrated an intact organisational team completing the Certificate in Coaching for Leaders together.

There was plenty worth celebrating. Yet receiving their certificates was far more of a new beginning than an end.

Because now comes the part that fascinates me most:

What happens to learning after the course ends?

Do the ideas remain in a workbook? Do the frameworks get remembered when things are calm, but disappear when the pressure is on? Or does something begin to change in how we listen, how we think, how we have conversations, how we make decisions and how we work together?

That is where learning starts becoming development.

When did you last learn something that actually changed how you lead?

For those of us in regulated professions, learning can easily become associated with CPD requirements, certificates, hours, points and portfolios. All of those have their place.  But I think there is another question worth asking:

What have I actually integrated?

Not simply, What do I know now? But:

What am I practising differently?

What can other people experience as different because of what I have learned?

Who am I becoming because of it?

That often matters far beyond formal education.

A conversation with a colleague can teach us something. So can feedback we were not expecting, a mistake, a child leaving home, a team member stepping into responsibility, a client challenging our assumptions, a professional setback or a success.

Sometimes development is about learning something new.  And sometimes it is about returning to something we already knew and finally learning to live it.

Try this

As September begins, you might take five minutes with these questions:

What have I learned during the first eight months of 2026?

What have I actually integrated into how I live, work or lead?

What do I know, but am not yet consistently practising?

What might I need to learn, unlearn or relearn in this next season?

And perhaps the most interesting question:

What is my team, organisation, profession or life telling me it needs me to learn next?

Celebrating what is already working

September also brings World Pharmacists Day on 25 September.  

This year’s theme, Empowering pharmacists for healthier futures, resonates strongly with me.  

There is plenty happening in pharmacy that needs attention. Anyone working in the profession hardly needs me to list the pressures.

But listening well does not only mean listening for problems. It also means noticing strengths, contribution and progress.

Pharmacists across Ireland are helping people access care, use medicines safely, prevent illness and navigate increasingly complex health needs every single day.

Before asking what our profession needs to become next, perhaps World Pharmacists Day gives us an opportunity to acknowledge how far we have already come and the value pharmacists already create.

And then, from that place of appreciation rather than deficit, we can ask:

What would enable pharmacists to contribute even more powerfully to healthier futures?

I think the same question applies to every profession, team and organisation represented amongst the people reading this newsletter.

What is already working?

What value are you already creating?

And what becomes possible when you build from there?

What I’m Hearing

In the last couple of months, I began the Pharmacy Leadership Listening Project because I wanted to spend more time listening before reaching conclusions about what pharmacists and pharmacy leaders actually need.  It is still very early. A relatively small number of people have contributed so far, so I would not dream of calling what I am hearing “findings”.  I think of them instead as the beginnings of a conversation.

Even at this early stage, a few reflections have stayed with me.

“You can only do so much yourself. By sharing learning and resources and collaborating, you can help shift culture and allow others to thrive.”

One respondent reflected on the importance of relationships and collaboration, not simply getting things right. For me, there is something important here about leadership moving beyond individual expertise towards creating the conditions in which other people can contribute, develop and lead too.

“Leadership is fluid. It takes courage. We don’t give out answers.”

Another response spoke to something I recognise deeply in coaching and leadership. Leadership does not always mean being the person with the answer. Sometimes it means creating enough space for better thinking, stronger ownership and the confidence of others to emerge.

“Other professions value pharmacists and want us to take a prominent role at the table. Get involved. You know a lot that others don’t, and they need you.”

This reflection particularly stayed with me. It raises an important question about how pharmacists see their own contribution, and whether there are opportunities for the profession to take a more visible and influential role in conversations beyond pharmacy itself.

These early responses cannot tell us what a profession thinks, and I would be very cautious about suggesting that they do.

But these pioneering voices can begin a conversation. A conversation about collaboration, courage, influence, how leadership develops in others, and perhaps whether pharmacists are fully recognising the contribution they can make within the wider healthcare system.

What would you add?

If you are a pharmacist or pharmacy leader, I would genuinely value hearing your perspective. The survey takes less than 10 minutes, and every response helps us listen more carefully to the realities of pharmacy leadership before deciding what support may be needed next.

COMPLETE THE PHARMACY LEADERSHIP LISTENING PROJECT

If this is your season to learn differently...

There is one other reason September matters at the Lead With Coaching Institute.

For leaders who want to complete the full internationally ICF-accredited LCI Diploma in Coaching for Leaders during 2026, September is the final opportunity to begin Part 1 before our annual Practitioner programme, Part 2, takes place in November.

Our next LCI Foundation Certificate in Coaching for Leaders begins on 21st Sept at Barberstown Castle.

The programme is not designed primarily to turn leaders into professional coaches. It is about something much more immediately useful in the workplace: becoming a leader who does not have to provide every answer.

It may be particularly valuable if you find yourself solving problems that others could increasingly learn to solve, having conversations that do not create the ownership or accountability you hoped for, or carrying too much of the thinking, responsibility or emotional load yourself.

You may also be looking for better ways to develop people without simply telling them what to do, or wondering how to build greater trust, capability and shared leadership across your team.

At its heart, the programme invites leaders to think differently about how they lead conversations, develop others and create the conditions for people to take greater ownership of their work.

For pharmacists, it also offers a substantial opportunity for professional development at a time when CPD is becoming increasingly visible and intentional within our profession.

For leaders in any sector, the question is much the same:

What might become possible if the people around you became more capable of thinking well, taking ownership and navigating complexity together?

LCI Foundation Certificate in Coaching for Leaders

• 21, 22, 28 & 29 September Barberstown Castle, Co. Kildare
• Virtual practicums: 23 September & 7 October (Half-Day Mentoring, online)

Part 2, the Practitioner programme, follows in November. Participants who complete the full pathway will have the opportunity to complete the LCI Diploma in Coaching for Leaders during 2026.

There are still a couple of places available.

If learning how to lead with coaching is a good fit for you, but Sept dates don't fit your schedule, be sure to protect the following dates in your diary for Feb 2027

• 8, 9 | 22, 23 February 2027  In-person Location TBD, Ireland
  
• Virtual Practicums: 11 & 25 February (Half-Day Mentoring, online)

Rather than asking you to decide from an email whether the programme is right for you, we would much rather give you the opportunity to ask questions, explore what you are looking for and decide whether this is the right next step.

EXPLORE WHETHER LCI IS RIGHT FOR YOU

You are welcome to contact me directly on 086 602 5584, or contact my colleague James Martin at james@leadwithcoaching.org or 086 850 2159.

For the coaches in this community

September carries another significance for those of you considering an ICF credential application, renewal or upgrade before the end of 2026.

Where mentor coaching forms part of your pathway, the required 10 hours must take place over a minimum period of three months. That makes September an important point in the calendar for coaches who are hoping to submit an application before year end.

I was also delighted recently to be awarded the new ICF Mentor Coach Specialisation at all three credential levels: ACC, PCC and MCC.

I have been mentoring coaches towards their credentials and renewals since 2018, so it was lovely to have this aspect of my work formally recognised. It has also prompted me to reflect again on what makes mentor coaching genuinely developmental rather than simply another requirement to complete.

For me, good mentor coaching is not only about demonstrating competencies or preparing for an evaluation. It is an opportunity to slow the practice down, notice what is happening in the coaching conversation, explore the choices being made and become more intentional about how we work.

That kind of reflection can be valuable whether you are preparing for ACC, PCC or MCC, renewing an existing credential, or simply wanting to deepen the quality and maturity of your coaching practice.

If credential development is part of your next season and you would like to explore whether mentor coaching with me might be useful, you are very welcome to schedule a conversation.

SCHEDULE A CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTOR COACHING

One question for you

I would love to experiment with making this newsletter a little less of me writing to you and a little more of us thinking together.

So this month I have one very simple question:

What is one thing you are choosing to learn, or relearn, this September?

Just hit Reply and tell me in one sentence.

I read every response.

Pass it on

And one final invitation.  Around 3,000 people now receive these newsletters, and many of you have been part of my professional world for years. I am grateful for the conversations, connections and relationships that have grown around this community.

I would love to see it widen gradually in the same way: through people rather than algorithms.

So, if someone came to mind while you were reading this, perhaps a pharmacist, coach, leader, colleague or simply someone who may value a little more space to think, I would be delighted if you forwarded this newsletter to them.

And if this newsletter was forwarded to you, you are very welcome to join us and receive future reflections directly.

JOIN THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

As this new season begins, perhaps the question is not simply:

What do I need to know next?

Perhaps it is something quieter and more demanding:

What is life, work or leadership asking me to learn next, and how will I live what I learn?

Sometimes we already know more than we think.

The work may be in becoming willing to listen to it.

Warm regards,

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.