Anyone who has had a prescription filled in the past twenty-years is probably used to dealing with a pharmacy-tech. Most, if not all of a customer’s interaction is with the tech. Most of the entire process of filling the prescription is now done by the tech.
That wasn’t always the case. There was a time when a pharmacist performed the entire process (except perhaps ringing up the transaction). There are many reasons for the change (cost, efficiency) but underlying those reasons was a common root cause – capacity. A typical pharmacist could only fill so many prescriptions per hour. Even the best pharmacists working at peak performance could only deliver marginal performance increases (in relative terms compared to today’s model). The problem was that pharmacists were constrained by their own capacity. At some point, an individual pharmacist couldn’t produce more.
The pharmacy-tech position addresses this problem. The pharmacist’s expertise isn’t needed in every step in filling a prescription. Off-loading the steps that didn’t require that level of expertise allows the pharmacist to better leverage his or her skills. This model allowed the pharmacist to make a greater overall contribution. His or her production capacity is now a function of the number of techs. In other words, if there are three techs, for every hour worked the pharmacist gets three times (or more) production than his or her own capacity. This is where the cost savings comes in since it’s cheaper to hire three techs than two additional pharmacists.
I often see new leaders fall into the capacity trap. Prior to becoming a leader these people’s success was often driven by their individual contribution and production. When they become a leader, they continue to try to do a lot of the work themselves. The leader might not trust the new team to get the work done. Other times, they feel they can do it faster than their people. Often, they are frustrated that the people around them aren’t “getting it” and don’t want to waste their time bringing those people up to speed. Sometimes, it’s just easier. Whatever the reason, as soon as this happens, the leader is caught in the capacity trap.
Leaders need to understand that their value doesn’t come from their individual contribution. Those days are over (see my earlier post, Experts Don’t Always Make the Best Leaders). The real value of a leader comes from an ability to maximize the contributions of those around him or her. The leader’s contribution is in his or her vision and direction, not in the execution of that vision. That’s the role of the team.
No leader, no matter how good, can outperform six or seven teams of people. One great leader leveraged through six or seven teams can outperform an entire department.
If you think that you can get more done by executing on your own, think again. You might get each individual project done faster and perhaps a little better. When you line them all up end to end, you’ll find that it takes much longer to deliver than if you were doing them in parallel through your people.
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Brad Kolar is the President of Kolar Associates, a leadership consulting and workforce productivity consulting firm. He can be reached at brad.kolar@kolarassociates.com.
