As a manager or pharmacist in a community pharmacy, the pressure you face today is more than ever before. Reduced funding, increased public expectations, new competitors and changing stakeholders all add up and really take their toll. Managing a community pharmacy now is a very different challenge to what it was even 10 years ago.

While you are managing patients and motivating your team, who is looking out for you and ensuring that you have enough reserve in your tank to get through those particularly challenging days when nothing seems to go right? Do you feel strong enough to cope with it all?

A lot has been written about how developing resilience can help managers, teams and organisations maintain a competitive edge. Being resilient means being able to sustain energy, positivity, health and effort in the face of challenges and uncertainty.

First of all, it’s important to appreciate that personal resilience isn’t a fixed trait reserved for superheroes, former army cadets or those who’ve had a demanding background in their earlier life. It can be developed and nurtured by focusing on four key areas, namely:

• Confidence to build realistic, positive beliefs and attitudes about yourself and your ability to influence things for the better
• Adaptability to develop your ability to flex your approach and generate new ideas and solutions
• Clarity to build a clear sense of purpose and values, working out what really matters to you now and in the future
• A network of support to build relationships, and learning to seek help when you need it.

Let’s have a look at each one of these in turn and see how each can be developed within the context of community pharmacy.