TURN Pharmacy Leadership - by Chantelle Turner

21/09/2026

Stepping back into community pharmacy in an 'on the tools' capacity has been interesting. Listening to the conversations and feeling the emotional currents has been enlightening and somewhat unsurprising all at once.

Talking to owners and managers (the ones that are on the tools), the questions they want answered are the ones that have been around for decades...

🥪How do I not end up feeling like the meat in the sandwich between some staff and others?
⛔I have grand plans, but never act, how do I change that?
🤹‍♀️The juggle is so exhausting...how do I make it easier?

If only there were a silver bullet! While I don't have one of those, I do have three suggestions to help bring some clarity and momentum this week...

https://info.turnpharmacy.com.au/what-managers-really-want-to-talk-about

09/09/2026

Recently, I've been doing some more locum shifts in pharmacy and it has made me realise how much I missed it.

The connection with people. The staff banter. Consulting with patients. Problem-solving. Even some of the mundane parts of pharmacy practice.

Yesterday, I caught myself feeling particularly content and stopped to reality-check why. I grabbed a scrap of paper and scribbled down what I was enjoying:
- Helping and educating (patients and staff)
- Empowering the people around me
- Problem-solving
- Seeing the gaps in plans and helping others identify and rectify them
- Connection

When I stepped back and looked at the list, I couldn't help but chuckle.

They are exactly the same things I love about my work building leadership capability in individuals and across pharmacy teams and groups. They're also where I consider many of my strengths to lie.

Different role. Different tasks. Same underlying thread.

It made me think about how easy it is to define ourselves by the specific things we do. Pharmacist. Coach. Facilitator. Consultant. Volunteer. Whatever hat happens to be on at the time.

But when I zoom out, the things that give me energy don't really change with the hat. Neither, it seems, does the contribution I naturally try to make.

This week, I heard one of the Irwin's reflect that they once thought Steve Irwin's legacy was conservation, but perhaps it was actually love — love for his family, his work, the environment and the animals in it. What a beautiful and profound statement.

When I think about the legacy I would like to leave, the word that keeps coming back is empowerment. Helping people feel they have a little more self-agency. A little more confidence in what they're capable of. A little more capacity to grow.

That's the bag I carry with me whether I'm coaching a leader, facilitating a team, standing behind a dispensary bench or simply helping someone work through a problem. I'm increasingly realising that my strengths, the work I love and the impact I want to have aren't separate things.

They're different expressions of the same underlying thread. Perhaps that's why returning to pharmacy practice has felt so good. It hasn't taken me away from the work I care about. It's reminded me what that work actually is.

18/08/2026

Within the last week I have written CPD, facilitated a team development workshop, worked as a locum pharmacist and coached. Not to mention volunteered, been a sports mum and a friend.

Many hats, but something that has popped up over and over again is the desire for people to be on the same page.

The interesting thing is, we can use exactly the same words and still mean completely different things.

It's about time we got curious, challenged our assumptions and helped people communicate what they actually mean.

We've heard a thousand times before that “people want to be seen and heard”, but what does that actually mean? From my point of view, much of it comes down to people having the space and the safety to communicate in a way that allows them to be understood. They want to walk away from an interact...

13/08/2026

👋 Hey, long time no speak! I have a question for you (at the end).

10/07/2026

The Leadership Accelerator Program enrolments close today.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve spoken a lot about the leadership tensions I keep seeing across community pharmacy.

The heroics.
The overloaded leaders.
The communication challenges.
The emotional carrying.
The reactive firefighting.

The feeling that everything still relies on one or two people holding things together behind the scenes.

The conversations this campaign has created have reinforced something I already suspected: Many pharmacy leaders are trying incredibly hard inside environments that ask a lot from them.
That’s exactly why the Leadership Accelerator Program exists.

Not to create perfect leaders.
Not to add more pressure.
But to help pharmacy leaders feel:
- more intentional
- more capable
- less reactive
- more equipped to lead sustainably under pressure

Through practical leadership development designed specifically for real-world pharmacy environments.
Because leadership capability is not just “nice to have” anymore.

Modern pharmacy is evolving quickly.
And leadership capability needs to evolve alongside it.

Thank you to everyone who has followed along, shared posts, sent messages, had conversations, and already enrolled.

If you’ve been considering joining the July cohort, this is your reminder that enrolments close tonight.

I’d genuinely love to have you involved.

🔗 https://info.turnpharmacy.com.au/leadershipacceleratorprogram

09/07/2026

Less than 24 hours to register for the Leadership Accelerator Program and I am soooo excited! Check out what landed in my letterbox yesterday. Doors close midnight 10 July.

03/07/2026

Sometimes people quietly sit with leadership pressure for a very long time before deciding to do something about it.

Not because they don’t care. Often it’s because they’re busy surviving.

The thing is, leadership capability rarely improves through pressure alone.

It improves through:
- reflection
- discussion
- practical implementation
- behavioural awareness
- intentional leadership development

If the Leadership Accelerator Program has been sitting in the back of your mind over the past few weeks… this is your reminder not to ignore it.

Doors close 10 July.

https://info.turnpharmacy.com.au/leadershipacceleratorprogram

27/06/2026

I think many pharmacy leaders have become so used to carrying pressure that they no longer realise how much they’re carrying.

Through:
-constant mental load
- over-functioning
- emotional carrying
- hyper-responsibility
- permanent reaction mode

Eventually… survival mode starts feeling normal.

But… normal doesn’t always mean sustainable.

Leadership development isn’t about becoming perfect.

It’s about helping leaders feel:
- clearer
- more intentional
- more capable
- less reactive
- more equipped to lead sustainably under pressure

That’s exactly the kind of practical leadership capability we’ll be unpacking inside the Leadership Accelerator Program.

Enrolments are now open for the July cohort.

https://info.turnpharmacy.com.au/leadershipacceleratorprogram

25/06/2026

One of the biggest shifts in leadership is moving from being the person who solves everything…

to becoming the person who helps build capability across the team.

That’s not easy.

Especially in pharmacy environments where stepping in quickly often feels faster, safer and more efficient in the moment.

But over time, constant rescuing creates:
-dependency
- bottlenecks
- reduced ownership
- overloaded leaders
- reactive teams

Strong leadership isn’t about controlling everything.

It’s about creating environments where:
- capability grows
- accountability strengthens
- communication improves
- teams become more sustainable under pressure

That’s exactly the type of practical leadership development we’ll be unpacking inside the Leadership Accelerator Program.

Enrolments are now open for the July cohort.

https://info.turnpharmacy.com.au/leadershipacceleratorprogram

22/06/2026

I think a lot of pharmacy leaders carry far more emotional pressure than people realise.

Not always in dramatic ways.

Often in quieter ways:
- overthinking conversations
- carrying responsibility for team tension
- constantly checking things
- struggling to switch off mentally
- feeling responsible for holding everything together
- absorbing stress from multiple directions simultaneously

After a while that level of hyper-responsibility starts feeling normal. But… normal doesn’t always mean sustainable.

Leadership capability is not about becoming perfect or never feeling pressure.

It’s about building:
- clearer communication
- healthier accountability
- sustainable leadership habits
- behavioural awareness
- confidence navigating difficult situations

That’s exactly the type of practical leadership development Leadership Accelerator was designed to support.

Enrolments are now open for the July cohort.

https://info.turnpharmacy.com.au/leadershipacceleratorprogram