Frustrations Communicating with Your Pharmacy Staff

Co-mmuni-cat-ion.  Com-munic-at-ion. I started having a good look at my own communication issues recently when I was feeling frustrated with things falling through the cracks in my pharmacist recruiting business.  Some things I envisioned being done a certain way ended up being done a different way.  Recently, an email I sent to a team member about a request was interpreted in a different way than I intended & it got us both extremely frustrated.  My communication challenges were driving me nuts.  There’s nothing I hate more than things impacting the level of service that pharmacists need attention to with their job search.

I was determined to figure out how to solve the challenges I was having. Looking into it, I noticed that sometimes, things I clearly stated one way were being interpreted in another.  Then there were times when things I unclearly said were unclearly getting interpreted (imagine that!).  If I got lucky, sometimes people read my mind just fine.

I tried to figure out how I could solve the problem, and while doing so, I stayed up all night reading about communication one night.  Here are some straight no BS tips I learned (and from my personal experiences) that you can use in your pharmacy/department:

1. Don’t be hard on yourself or on the other person when a communication breakdown happens and you’re frustrated. Realize that communication issues happen when the steps that contribute to communication are skipped.  Also, people interpret you from their own “world”, and even if you communicate clearly and they seem to understand exactly as you said, there is still a chance for miscommunication to happen.  Take a step back and evaluate what you may have contributed to the issue.

2. Communication = someone expressing themselves + someone interpreting that expression. Happiness for communicator= someone communicating + being understood the way they want.  Happiness for recipient= Receiving what was being said + having the info with as little judgment as possible +a way to respond and express their understanding.

3. No BS lessons/tips to make life easier:

• Ask for confirmation of what the receiving person heard. Or, if it doesn’t feel right to do that (because obviously it would be awkward to be asking someone to repeat or rephrase what you said every time you say something), then summarize yourself what you’ve communicated & ask for a commitment for the next action step you’re looking for by a certain time frame.
• Don’t judge what someone says to you. Instead, just receive the communication fully.  You can do this by reflecting back to them what they shared with you, but without agreeing or disagreeing.  People always want to be heard when they communicate. This is something that can be easier said than done.  A habit that can be developed over time is to agree or disagree with someone’s communication.
• When possible, especially with easily misunderstood things, communicate in person. The next best thing would be phone, & then email.  When you notice frustration happening, get on the phone to discuss.  I know someone who is a warm, effective communicator on the phone, but whose emails come across as abrupt and frequently annoyed.  But when you get on the phone with her, you don’t get that sense at all.
• Give feedback so someone realizes what you are thinking. Don’t let miscommunication continue to happen until one or both parties give up and decide not to communicate effectively with each other.
• When someone snaps at you, it’s not really about you. It’s about their interpretation of you (expressed from “their world”) & expectations of you that is showing up in a reaction.  Find out the cause of frustration, find common ground and the direction you want to go, and solve it together.

How much of a role does communication challenges play in the frustrations of your pharmacy staff or HR department?  And what no BS tip can you choose to have your staff reflect on for this week or this month?  Allow them to reflect, implement it, and come back during your next meeting to share their experience with it.

Reflect on one tip this week & come back here at end of the month to share what it does for your team.

For now, give advice on how to overcome pharmacy communication issues with your pharmacy colleagues below: