Interview Story - Biggest Weakness

Early in my career, as a young energetic pharmacy manager of a major retailer, I was driven to become the best I could be in order to move up that corporate ladder. It resulted in me saying “yes” lots of times when I should have been saying “no”. As the manager, I would feel compelled to stay late (already working 10-12 hour-shifts) and come in on days off. With a husband and toddler, it was stressful.

I had to find a way to restore balance in my life and to be sure I was producing work I was proud of.

I found myself complaining to a friend. He told me that “I” was the problem. I didn’t understand at first, but then he elaborated: I thought in order for things to get done, I had to be the one to do them. Once I evaluated the statement, I had to acknowledge that he was right. I had taken a “must do-it-myself” approach. Frankly, it was counterproductive.

To turn the situation around, I needed to delegate more work to my team and trust their abilities to perform.

I read up on how to “empower employees” – Kenneth Murrell. Once I realized that I had a team of competent people around me, that was just as capable of handling any situation, I began to let go, trust, and empower my staff. I began to delegate tasks and mentor students and fellow pharmacists.

When there were more than 3 customers in line and it was time for my shift to end, I learned to sign off and go home, knowing that my staff would provide the service needed. When there was an insurance issue when processing a claim, although I was the most knowledgeable, I didn’t take over and solve the issue. I allowed teammates to go through the process and learn from their experiences as I had.

I no longer felt the need to come in on my days off to “handle problems”. I learned that I could get it done on my next scheduled shift or assign others to handle it. My staff began to step up in ways that I had never seen. They would volunteer for extra shifts due to unforeseeable absences; they took initiative to complete daily reports that had previously been designated as “not their job”. I could see the growth and more importantly, they recognized it as well.

This was a defining moment in my career. It taught me the significance of empowering team members and creating leaders. That’s what makes a leader a “great” leader. As a result, this is a quality I continue to nurture in myself and has proven to be one of my greatest strengths in leadership roles today.