Nurturing [correction of Nuturing] relationships: an essential ingredient of leadership

All pharmacists must develop the skills necessary to establish caring professional relationships with patients and colleagues. An absence of such relationships makes it difficult to compete for resources, motivate staff, or provide the best care to patients. Getting to know the people you spend so much of your life with is not only logical but enriching. Good leaders promote the growth of others and find--to their surprise--that they have grown along with them. Good leaders take pride in the accomplishments of staffers and residents who distinguish themselves in pharmacy, but they also smile at the pictures of their babies. Having recently turned 50, I begin to see the professional legacy I will leave behind, and it is my turn to embrace a sense of deep personal fulfillment. As leaders, we influence not only the lives of the people closest to us, but the lives of many we may never know. It must be an awesome realization for John Webb to know that, through his leadership and compassion, he has had a profound effect on pharmacy practiced by generations of pharmacists. Mr. Webb, it is for this reason and for the endearment you inspire in so many colleagues and friends that I am honored to be named this year's John Webb Visiting Professor in Hospital Pharmacy.