Welcome to this special recap of Your Pharmacy Career podcast, proudly produced by Raven’s Recruitment - Australia’s experts in pharmacy career and locum services for over 30 years.
In this episode, host Krysti Lee Patterson sits down with Michelle Lynch, CEO of Ramsay Pharmacy and Psychology Group, to discuss her inspiring career journey from pharmacist to CEO. Michelle shares personal insights on leadership, overcoming challenges, and the power of kindness in pharmacy.
Episode Summary
Michelle Lynch’s career in pharmacy began at Monash University, following her mother's advice to pursue a profession that balanced science, career growth, and flexibility. Throughout the episode, Michelle reflects on:
The early years of her pharmacy studies and career.
The pivotal role of mentors and professional networks.
The transition from hospital and community pharmacy to leadership roles.
The unexpected career detour - running a restaurant for three years!
The challenges of being pigeonholed as “just a pharmacist” and breaking into executive leadership.
The importance of values-driven leadership and leading with kindness.
Key Takeaways from the Episode
Pharmacy is a launchpad for diverse careers - Michelle’s journey demonstrates that a pharmacy degree can lead to roles in operations, leadership, and beyond.
Mentorship and networking are crucial - Engaging with professional networks, such as PSA and industry mentors, can shape and accelerate your career.
Leadership requires continuous learning - Michelle expanded her skill set through executive education at Wharton University, proving that leadership development never stops.
Kindness is not weakness - Leading with kindness and empathy fosters strong, motivated teams and better patient outcomes.
Pharmacists need to advocate for their broader skills - Breaking the perception of pharmacists as “just dispensers” is key to unlocking greater leadership opportunities.
Our Partners & Supporters
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA)
Proudly brought to you by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. The PSA is committed to empowering pharmacists through advocacy, innovation, and industry-leading professional development. To become a member or learn more about how the PSA can support your career, visit www.psa.org.au.
Pharmacy Daily
Pharmacy Daily is a proud supporter of Your Pharmacy Career Podcast. If you're in the pharmacy world, it's a great resource to stay up to date with the latest industry news. To subscribe, just head to pharmacydaily.com.au to get the newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.
How to Listen
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Full Episode Transcript
Welcome to Your Pharmacy Career podcast, proudly produced by Raven’s Recruitment, the experts in pharmacy career and locum services for over 30 years.
Every episode is your gateway to new opportunities in the pharmacy profession from expert advice to inspiring success stories, we're here to spark ideas, guide your career and help you achieve your goals.
Stay tuned.
The next step in your pharmacy journey starts here.
Hi everyone and welcome to Your Pharmacy Career podcast.
I'm your host, Krysti Lee Patterson and I'm so excited to have you with us today.
We have an incredible inspiring guest, Michelle Lynch.
Michelle is the CEO of Ramsay Pharmacy and Psychology group, and her career journey is one that I know will motivate and resonate with so many of you.
In today's episode we'll be chatting about her journey from pharmacist to CEO, the challenges she's overcome and the defining moments that shaped her leadership style, so let's dive in and welcome Michelle to the podcast.
Thanks Krysti Lee delighted to be here today.
Very excited.
Thank you so much for joining us.
So Michelle, let's just start right at the beginning and why did you decide to become a pharmacist?
Ah, good question.
Long time ago.
So I'm at that stage in my career and life where you kind of reflect back and you go, oh, I'm not about one of the junior babies anymore.
I can remember very distinctly, I was doing year 12.
I had to make the choice back then.
I was one of the firsties I had done the change in VCE and so we have different marks and a whole range of things.
And I was putting my selection in and I was talking to my mother who was a teacher and she goes to me, I think you should do pharmacy.
And I said, why is that, Mum?
And she goes, well, you know, you like science, good career path, good for a woman if you want to have a family and the flexibility that that offers life.
And I think you should do that.
And so that was it became my fourth choice because I wanted to actually do law and let me down on law by two points.
But I think there was a serendipitous component around that.
At the time, one of my best friends, her brother was doing pharmacy, he was in second year at the time.
So when I came to join first year, he was in third year. And it, you know, he loved it. And you know, we all probably had the same affinity in terms of what we liked in science and maths and physics and biology and chemistry.
And yeah, and and so here we are.
And I think I reflect now where I am in my life that was pharmacy and I think that was, again, as I said, a serendipitous moment, but it has provided me with such great opportunity and more broadly than I could have probably ever have imagined.
I totally agree and I think as the longer I'm in pharmacy, it just opens up more and more doors.
And I know when I was my mum actually said I should have been a pharmacist as well, but I didn't listen straight away and I did something else first. And then I decided to, yeah, switch degrees and into pharmacy. And she goes to me oh, do you remember I actually suggested pharmacy to you?
I'm like, no, I don't remember.
There's always wise words that parents provide um when you at the time you always want to make your own path, don't you?
Yes, I'll define that myself thank you, but often they are very right.
Yes, exactly, especially when you get a bit older and you reflect and think, okay, I understand.
Correct, correct.
So once you made that decision and started studying at Monash University, I believe, what were those early years like?
Did you already have a vision as to where you thought your career would go?
Were you just sort of thinking, just head down, bum up, let's just get to the end of the degree?
Yeah, interesting.
So I found first year really challenging.
It was it was a very big social year to be, let's be frank.s that freedom and that, you know, different learning environment and friendships that I cemented that year, I am still friends with them to that day.
They are very much part of my circle of supporters and friends and colleagues.
And so that was a very big friendship year and a social year.
And it wasn't really until so I did a three-year degree and then did my was pre-reg back then.
It wasn't until my third year that the kind of the penny started to kind of drop. The first two years I found it very academic.
I couldn't like I couldn't really understand like what I was going to be doing.
And then in third year when you started to do some really practical pieces, and then I went and also had a job in a pharmacy for the entire time where in Melbourne, there was a man called Ed Johnson and his wife Marg.
They owned pharmacies in Templestow. And Ed and Marg had a pharmacy student on each night of the week between six and nine that worked with a pharmacist and another pharmacy assistant.
And so you kind of moved different nights depending on where you were in in a university degree.
And having that experience in the background and then getting to third year and then kind of the pennies kind of dropped and then I thought, ah, okay, this is what I'm going to be able to do.
And you know, that's 25 years ago.
And, you know, reflecting now the scope of practice that we're starting to see the change in pharmacy, that's always been available.
The skills that are pharmacists has always been able to do that.
It's just time has had to catch up.
Health has had to catch up.
And so yeah, so that's been the kind of hard to make sense.
And then you became more particularly when the working environment you were able to do more.
And so that was pretty cool too.
So it wasn't a distinctive component around hospital or community.
There was a big push back then to always do your internship in a hospital environment.
If you could get a public hospital environment, which was were more coveted, that was the way to go.
And that's what I did.
I went and did my pre-reg in at Monash Medical Centre so there was eight of us and that was exceptional too, because the eight of you got to experience a learning together how to be a pharmacist.
We got exposed to every element across the hospital.
So we learned how the compound.
We were making steroid medications, TPNs.
You're on the ward.
You know, you got halfway through your Reggie.
You might have been able to you actually got the the authority to actually go do a ward round by yourself, do your view of your medications chat, you come back and do a check-in.
And so there was when you kind of think, okay, I can start to see the opportunities that this career could start to offer me.
And equally to, I think the important part, what I could actually offer to it.
Yes, yeah, that that's true.
I think, yeah, as you talk about what you just said then, and what you could offer it, that's also really important.
And I think that's something that some younger farmers don't really think about early on in the career.
And there's so many other aspects to a person, not just what maybe they will learned at university or in their career.
And you can actually tap into those skill sets and bring them into pharmacy.
So I guess for you, Michelle, what was maybe some of those other experiences that you've tapped into throughout life, that's kind of influenced, I guess, your career.
You know, if I thinking about it now too, back in farmers, I'll talk about pharmacy world back then in terms of support networks.
There was a huge PSA, which, you know, I had great affinity with and participation in for most of my professional career.
Back then they really offered a very active in a state-based level and there was a great, I suppose, cohort of pharmacists who were very passionate about mentoring younger pharmacists and providing back, but more broadly to the community, not just the, you know, the profession and and not just a career kind of perspective.
And so there were key people back then who helped shape that for me and giving back.
And so, you know, Kay Dunkley, there was a used to be oh my goodness can't me what the name was, but it was basically, it was an early version of ECP essentially, early career pharmacist.
We would meet together.
It was all voluntary.
There was a whole range of different spectrum of people.
And one of the first things we did was to write guidelines to be able to help pharmacists provide medications to those who had visual impairment.
And so we worked closely with the Royal Victorian Institute of Blind.
So we even went out there.
We met people who were visually impaired, you know, what was important for them, what was important for their carers, their family, and that started to really shape the other parts of life we're thinking about other people, how they may receive the service and the care that you're providing from a pharmacist's perspective.
So that was pretty fundamental.
And I'd have to say, you know, my parents are very highly influential in terms of giving back.
You know, values are very strong to me in terms of who I am and where I work and how I lead and live life, essentially.
And so they were very influential in terms of shaping those other kind of life experiences to give back.
And so, schooling and all that had kind of also provided some of those experiences.
And I say you talk about your parents and some of the experiences that have shaped who you are today.
Have you always been in pharmacy or has there been any times where you've gone and done something a bit different?
Yes, there has been.
So in my probably early thirties, I got a little bit sick of uh pharmacy to be truthful.
You know, I was at that nexus point I'd work at that time in I' you know, done my complete my internship in public hospital, loved that, loved that, had some time where I did work a little bit after that, then got a role in community pharmacy where I was also servicing was in Berwick, which was kind of southeast of Melbourne, kind of on the cusp of rural area at that time.
It was a there was biggest growth corridor in Australia at the time.
And so they had a what they did have as a bush nursing hospital up there, and that's what was called.
And now that's actually in a it's a broad though Saint John Gods have a big private hospital up there and there's a public up there, but there was a bush nursing hospital and it was like wards.
They did lots of different surgery up there.
And so the pharmacy, the community pharmacy I worked for, I then provided that service to that hospital from that community pharmacy.
So I'd work kind of half my day there and half the day back in the pharmacy.
So that was amazing.
And so then I'd gone and done other things.
I worked in community pharmacy.
I'd worked for Australian Unity, which at the time we' a friendly society or they are a friendly society, but they owned pharmacies just in Melbourne at the time, so I kind of oversaw some different services there, but their professional services manager and helped kind of professionalize the pharmacies that they had.
And so we're kind of oscillating and I thought, I didn't know what I wanted to do.
And at the time I was working in private hospital and decided then there was a restaurant that my partner and and I at the time would go to and talk to the owner and chat to him about life and experience and he had been an accountant and he had bought this restaurant and he was from Malta and he had been there for three years and, you know, loved it and I love food.
So so we talk about and then we would go and fantasise, oh, what if we own that?
When if we owned a restaurant like that, what would that mean?
And we kind of always said to the owner of the restaurant and you know, if you're ever going to sell, just call us, let's know.
So in one fatal day, he did call us and it said, uh, I'm going to sell, would you be interested?
And so then that started kind of the consideration of, well, you know, we've been talking about it.
Is this something we want to do?
And I have a family, my brother-in-law is a chef and they own a restaurant and, you know, got people that we know and trust to come out and assess.
And yes, we bought that restaurant.
So I ran a restaurant for three and a half years.
So I kind of worked in a hospital pharmacy for a bit longer than stopped.
Then I had about a year where I just ran the restaurant and then I went back and did consulting work whilst we had the restaurant as well. And all those skills that you have in pharmacy about communication, customer first, talking to people, fundamental and anything, because it's not it doesn't matter whether you're providing a medication or a meal and yes, there are different consequences or risks associated with each of those.
Yes. But they are all integral.
And I always used to say, so it was really interesting.
So, you know, I like talking to people and I knew I had a great loyal customer base that would come in once, twice, three times a week, host big functions there.
And then they knew, you know, you talk and they knew that you were a pharmacist, so, you know, you chat about those type of things. And you kind of got to be able to then share what the pharmacist does and experience.
But, you know, it also kind of highlighted to me was sometimes our disproportionate weight in society of how we value things.
So I could give someone a bad meal, a meal that they didn't like for some reason, and they would write a bad review about you because a meal that hadn't met their expectations.
Yes, you can provide someone some medication and there might be an error.
There might be something that comes deleterious to provide that medication, not by ill intent, but by fact of it.
And people, you know, generally forgive me.
If you given someone say, given something someone wrong in the pharmacy and you say, oh my goodness, you catch it before it goes out, I'm really apologise or you follow up.
I've never had a customer yell at me for that.
They're being very forgiving.
They you know, generally forgiving in pharmacy.
And so it really kind of opened up my eyes to how sometimes we in society value things and it made me much more conscious when I went back into pharmacy world around how do you actually start to communicate that value and the seriousness of what you're doing and the care that you're actually providing?
So be kind of life lesson um even from a restaurant.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, right running a restaurant, it's a hospitality retail environment, but as you said, it's very people focused and that's exactly what pharmacy is.
And I worked at many restaurants while I was at uni and before I went to uni, and I think that definitely helped as you get to just experience different types of people.
Absolutely.
And as you said too, in restaurants, people are much more comfortable at telling you what you've done wrong.
So that's definitely yeah, a learning experience when you're in like 16, 17.
Well, and I and when we bought the restaurant I had never I'd never waitressed.
Like I either worked in retail like different retail environments like my or somewhere.
So had lots of customer service experience but I I didn't had to wait.
I didn't I had to put an order in and call it, you know, when you had to then time it from the chef perspective.
But what would the other interesting part around running a restaurant or in a kitchen is the disciplines around the role that each of the team members have and look at even like the Michelin star restaurants around the world, our bully, which yes no longer exhibit, you know, how they organise themselves.
And so that each person knows the critical role they have.
You apply that to pharmacy, wherever you practice, community pharmacy, hospital, pharmacy, H care prescribing, whatever they might be, the fundamental, you know, knowledge of the role that each of you play to be able to make the next person be able to do their functional role and care for patient ultimately.
You know, they're all applicable and the disciplines that they're in a kitchen , again, a fundamental to what we then do in our healthcare and pharmacy world.
I think some of the points that you just touched on and that I think is really important in pharmacy is people understanding what their role is and what they need to do and what's their place as part of that team.
I think, yeah, any of the pharmacies that I've worked in or just any jobs that I've worked in, if there's people that don't understand what they're doing and whether it's a lack of training or just communication, it's kind of whether we all start to to fall off.
And I talk about it now and, you know, probably my role and and different leadership I've had since is about explaining the why.
So if you know the why, then you know why, obviously you are doing it or the wash.
And so it actually creates purpose.
If we don't explain the why. So even it could be to the customer explaining why, why do I need to ask you to come back tomorrow?
They can then context it.
They can then manage their life or reaction or so forth or expectation.
So any of that in a pharmacy world is really explained the why it's really critical.
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Absolutely.
Yeah, you're right.
People need to understand why they're part of something and that impact they're going to have absolutely.
So I'd like to chat to you now about maybe a post restaurant. My love of food hasn't changed.
That's still there.
I just yeah, people now get subjected to dinner parties where I cook, that's all.
But I'm sure they're probably really fun events.
They are.
So you decided to, I guess leave the restaurant at it was too hot.
Yeah. Well, yeah, it was exhausting like so I've never worked harder in my entire life and I work hard.
I have never worked harder.
It's relentless.
It's a big piece.
So yeah, decides to leave the restaurant and I was consulting for a while.
I consulted with a group called Farm consult, which is led by Michael Ryan in Melbourne and we did great projects, like different consultation around different sectors in Australia, pharmacy predominantly, but you know, going in and assessing a private hospital or a public hospital and, you know, what's the framework is at best practice and then coming back with set of recommendations and guides to be able to implement.
We helped farmer companies do a whole bunch of we had great breadth and depth of work across the health sex around Australia and that was really cool.
And then I got to the point where I missed doing things, like implementing.
And when you get called back to the same, I know, uh hospital environmental department and they say assess these things aren't working.
They might have had a new leader come in after three or five years and the report that you'd written in three to five years ago was equally applicable now.
And you kind of go, okay, I not like you you miss I missed implementing things.
I miss operations.
But the big part for me was that I knew that if I was going back into a people role, the values of who I was joining had to be alignan because if they weren't aligned, then, you know, it makes the effort of leading and, you know, implementing and being operational a little bit more challenging.
And so I got rung up for a cup of coffee with someone who just randomly one day, you know, said, what are you're doing?
I need someone to lead our hospital pharmacy team and do my due diligence and here we are almost nine years later.
Yeah.
Oh, just as easy as that, right?
It's just super simple, super simple.
I'm sure it's been a long road and I'm sure you've had some really amazing successes, but also I'm sure there was some very difficult times as well.
So, yeah, what were some of those biggest hotels?
Let's talk about the challenges for us, yes.
And yeah, is there anything that kind of stands out to you as you reflect on those nine years?
Yeah, it's interesting.
I think it's, I have to say in my career, I have been very fortunate to have people who are great supporters of me personally.
And so, you, from a development perspective about making you able to overcome those challenges or to manage them has been it makes it easier to be able to do that.
I think probably one of the biggest challenges is trying to, you know, sometimes you get pigeonhole too.
So if you're a pharmacist, you can only be a pharmacist and that's all you ever be and so forth.
So then how do you start to move yourself from being just a pharmacist, which is a critical role to being a leader a leader people of a pharmacy team and then a leader people of a non-pharmacy team and so I think that's the other part is working through the challenges of, I am a pharmacist, first and foremost.
I will say that, you know, probably the day I die because that is very court who I am.
Yes.
But you also have a greater and a great understanding of the healthcare system.
You understand all the mechanics and all the jigsaw puzzles that go in to make it work.
And so some of the challenges has been around how do I start to make sure that people understand my skill studies broader than just pharmacy.
It's also about leading people, creating vision, creating strategy, you know, what are the values that I have to to lead with?
And so one of the other challenges has been, how do I get myself to that next level to be able to do all those things and so have done different courses and put myself in different environments to be able to develop that skill set. And that's been challenging because some of those things may not come naturally to you.
So, you know, how do you know, also even understand finances?
Like how do I understand what a profit and loss statement looks like or a balance sheet and when we calculate different things?
So that's not intrinsic to my wheelhouse.
And so how do you start to overcome those challenges acknowledge so that you can be present in a meeting, understand your role, whatever the, you know, role you've been engaged to do, and be to be able to contribute as well?
Yeah, exactly.
And I think what you've mentioned there around pitching, I have seen that and I feel I've also experienced out myself personally and it's kind of hard, especially in really large organisations.
People really do value the pharmacists and they come to you, but then sometimes you really have to advocate for yourself and your skill sets to be given, I guess a chance.
So is that that something that you did is like speak up and say, look, I can be a part of this project or something like that?
Definitely.
Yeah, absolutely.
And so I have had the fortune of working with several leaders throughout my career.
One particularly stands out Australian unity and then um my current, who's still my lineman he just have.
And so both of them have afforded me and put me forward a different things.
You know, when I've said, I would really like to be part of that I'd be really interested in learning how to do that.
How do I get to that next stage or be part of it?
And they've both been able to help support that and I've spoken up about that.
I also, we also have a rare people leader and in our business and having a conversation with her around, you know, how do I, if I want to become a board director long term or if I want to be able to get to a CEO position, why do you think, you know, how do I start to do that?
So she's been very supportive of me also to help shape that, part of my career.
And part of that was I was fortunate so there was during COVID, there was a there's a group called chief executive women that time I had the CEO roll about business and, you know, I wanted some kind of coaching and support around, you know, what do I need to then develop in this area?
And they had a scholarship program.
And so I applied for that.
You know, did an interview online and then you could choose to, and I was very fortunate and I was awarded the scholarship.
So they have about four or five scholarships per year in different kind of sectors and I was awarded this.
And so I then could choose a course that was with an international school to develop my executive presence and learning and development.
And so I ch chose to attend the Wharton University and to their development program and unfortunately it was online because it was COVID because it traveled. , you know, that would have been phenomenal, but there was was 26 of us around the world in different sectors.
There were some from health.
There you know, there was a group three or four, there was nurses and HR and different kind of mix there of skills and professions from one of the big New York hospitals.
There were people who worked for Google.
There were people who worked for Disney.
There were people who worked for mining companies like so there, you, you know, 26 of you all gone online from all around the world and learned and and developed with one another about your executive presence and your skill set.
And then you went into teams.
So you then had to run a company.
And so in the team, so you know, you do kind of coursework and so you do kind of an hour and a half, two hours of that.
And some of the most amazing, uh like it went from marketing, it went from finances.
He went to like social media.
We talked about procurement.
It talked about negotiate like we we did the whole breadth and depth.
You got assigned a coach as well.
So you'd have a coaching session one on one uh once a week.
And then you went into teams where you simulated running a company and then at each kind of that kind of had happened every two or three nights.
It was a really intensive course over a 14 day period. And you then had to do different roles.
So one day you'd be the CEO, uh, one day you'd be the CFO, one day you'd be the negotiator.
And so it was to kind of test all the theory that you had been lear.
I mean you had breakout rooms so you'd go and negotiate a price of something with someone and you'd come back and someone have to do the modeling and it was excellent.
It was like from a skill set and learning perspective.
So, you know, overcoming the challenge of how do I make myself be ready for a position of leadership and and a CEO role, which was kind of my ultimate, you know, aim and how do I start to overcome the maybe the knowledge challenges around that?
And so that was one of the greatest kind of opportunities I've had to be able to develop that and overcome that challenge. , it sounds amazing, but it also sounds some quite intimidating as well to very well my gosh very, like because then you kind of go like you do a model and you go like you got like a template, but like oh, I don't know the input like.
And so and and then how do you then, you know, like someone who would have that experience in the team, I need you to help me do this because I absolutely have no idea.
But also that bit, the overcoming the challenge of how do I own up to not knowing which is which is important, you know, like I need help.
I need someone to help me get through this.
You know, that's a really important part in life too.
Like, you're not meant to be the smartest person in the room that is a keyup, particularly if you're a leader, but being able to surround yourself with the brightest and the best and the people who have the skill set, that's the key. And that acts actually is a joy when you lead a team like that.
And I am very fortunate.
My team who lead our business, that's exactly they are the best of the best.
How exciting sounds amazing.
It's exciting I guess all of the training, hard work, mentorship that you've described throughout this podcast, to me, one of the biggest values that is kind of shining through of you is I guess maybe like even kindness and being aware of people in their school sets and supporting them and mentoring them.
So I guess it sounds like you had that experience early on in your career and I think those people have obviously shaped your leadership style as well.
Very very much.
So if I think back outside of like mum and dad, the job that I talked about early on where I had worked at the pharmacy where I was an undergrad, at at a Mark's pharmacy.
I worked with a pharmacist Mary and Kay, who was a pharmacy assistant.
I was 18 when I first joined and they were both 6 at the time, both of them the same age. And they had worked together for years.
And Mary probably had she had daughters.
They both actually had children the same age as me and they ow to life. And particularly both of them were like, you know, Mary would take, you know, there' say an antibiotic script come in and shed, come on, you're going to come and dispense.
And I'd be like oh she goes no, so she'd go on the floor.
And like, so in terms of providing that mentorship guidance, you know, we and we would chat about everything, you know, like that was probably the first kind of from a professional career perspective.
I talked about the PSA cohort that was around at that time, particularly about supporting, I think it was a young pharmacist was as what it was called, not early career, but young pharmacists.
That cohort.
And then throughout kind of like having key leaders and mentors has been really important to be able to support me.
And then what I am very conscious of myself is that how do you actually start to give some of that back?
Because I've been probably fortunate that it's happened just kind of serendipitously.
Maybe you put yourself in circumstances and you and you receive that.
But how do you start to then generate that component?
And so kindness is a very big part of who I am.
You know, I talked about I wanted to go back into a role that whether values align from I say a company an organisation perspective.
And Ramsay does have a value of what we call people caring for people.
It's very much entrenched in our founder, Paul, who started the business in 1964.
And I translate that today to Michelle Lynch language of Leading with kindness.
And that's a really big part of who we are and who I am.
And, you know, we've just actually, we've had our conference in October this year and it resonates with our team.
You know, everyone provides female.
That's really good.
And it's and kindness is not about being weak at all.
Kindness is kind of denoted by about 12 traits, but it's about being kind to yourself, you know, being kind to others around you, having the strength and resilience, the compassion, the humility, and knowing when it's talking up as well, you know, being kind to the environment or when something's not going right.
And so kind of that education piece around what does kindness mean and how do we actually start to live and breathe that?
And so Kath Koschel is a lady who she's actually just being she won the New South Wales person of the year and she'll go into the nominations for a strain of the year four to announce in January.
But Kath Koschel presented at our conference and her company, the kind factory group is very much surrounded by that.
She's had a phenomenal story and she talks about how she's got to this position.
And so we have just signed up to what we call the acts of kindness.
So we've got a challenge for the team about what will be the five acts of kindness that you will deliver over the next 12 months.
We've got to register, we'll, you know, keep track of it.
And we talk about when we open meetings, we have a customer story to keep us focused on why we are doing what we're doing, but next year we'll also introduce a kindness story.
So what's the kindness story you've delivered?
And so yeah, so it's kind of how do you make that come to life in your day to day?
And, you know, it can be the simplest things, but particularly in pharmacy, I think, you know, sometimes and in say in the community pharmacy, you know, those customers that are walking in, you may be the only person they speak to all day or week.
You know, think about the number of customers that come in and have 10 scripts have got to get dispense.
Don't dispense them all today. Dispenses these two today, so that means they can come back in three days time and that pharmacy is such a pivotal connection piece for the community.
And then you translate that to a hospital well, for example, is that people are in pretty scary and vulnerable positions.
They're not in a hospital because they're well.
They're you know, they've had something quite significant maybe done or a check-in and being able to be that connection point of kindness to explain medication or some advice or whatever it may be can actually be very hugely influential on a person.
Absolutely.
And you're right in pharmacy or hospital, you're seeing people at their worst and they can be quite, you don't don't know what that they is going on in their lives.
And yeah, I think sometimes it's it is easy to kind of sometimes get stressed when they're like, I don't know, when it's safety net season and because you worry, you worry about all the things that you have to do.
Like, and so, you know, we talk about that, you know you've got a catalog coming out.
So there's stock arriving everywhere and they've got to get this reporting or we've got to have a team meeting and I've got to be on that.
And so we become so focused on the task and that's natural.
We all do that.
That's and so how do you pull yourself back to go, okay, like what are we actually here for doing?
And so that's why the value piece and the simplicity of leading with kindness or acting with kindness is is is, you know, a nice message to be able to share.
Oh, absolutely.
And I've also really love that you share that you start with a custom story.
I think that's really important.
I mean, at the end of the day, that's Why were they?
Why you're there.
So it sounds so simple, but it really does help because like you said, humans, you can's just natural behaviour just to be really focused on the task and just I need to get this done.
Yeah, remembering that that why it is really, really important.
Wait, and you know, the bit with casharing a customer story is not always a good story.
It could be a story where things have gone awry.
And so, you know, the obvious lesson in that is so how do we prevent that from occurring again?
And how do we do better or what, you know, what can we reflect upon and how do we respond to that person who let us who took the time to let us know that this wasn't up to standard or wasn't what they expected?
And so I think the good and the less good are important in those customer stories.
And we measure it like we're fortunate enough to be able to measure our, well, our customer engagement or feedback to what we call a net promoter school.
And so we track that across the teams and we've got a very good healthy MPS across both of our psychology and pharmacy businesses.
But you know, again, that's just the constant reminder.
What do our customers think of what we're doing?
Are we hitting the mark?
Because as you said, Krysti Lee, that's all that fundamentally matters at the end of the day.
Absolutely.
I think as I wrap up the podcast, you're now a CEO which sounds pretty prestigious.
Sounds fancy, It does sound fancy, but I'm sure it's a lot of work.
Could you just share with us what that meant to you when you got that role?
Did you feel as if uh like I've I've made it?
And did you feel, oh my gosh, okay, now I actually have to do this huge job?
And was it actually what you you expected it was going to be?
Good question.
It's funny, isn't it?
Titles don't they're important and in terms of, you, they don't they don't the scope of your role, but that isn't important to me as who I am as Michelle.
But it was a goal to be able to, you know, I was the COO and that's very heavily operational and in the trenches and doing the do.
And yeah, I did.
I thought we it was a proud moment, like, oh, amazing.
Like over the last 25 years, 30 years, I have had the fortune of me now to hold this role.
And it is a privilege.
There's a privilege I have the role and a privilege to be able to lead the team and create the strategy, the framework for how we deliver cow.
The equal privilege is having a team around me that I talked about earlier who are the best of the best.
They like there's some exceptional team members and some are pharmacists and that's been the great opportunity to be able to elevate and recognise a particular skills that that one of our pharmacists team members have.
And so we've got key leaders across our business that lead that they sort of the general manager of Ops, who's a pharmacist.
Our chief information officer for pharmacy senior psychology is a pharmacist, our system support teams.
They're all pretty much pharmacists as well.
We are, because I like the IT so I like the systems size.
I've been able to elevate team members who have skill sets, you know, from a pharmacy perspective has been phenomenal and equally others too, who have a great retail or merch background or people background.
So it's not a point of complacency.
Certainly not.
And it's a challenge, particularly when you've been in an operational role in the business, because you know the business intimately, how do you then transition yourself to a CO, which it is a different role.
It's a different scope.
And so, you know, that's been 12, well, probably 12, 14 months now and it's been a big loaning curve, but I've enjoyed it and I it's been a delight to be able to do it because I've had an amazing support network around me to be able to work through challenges.
And there'd been lots of times where I've had to put my hand up and said, I not sure how you do this, but okay.
And so also, how do you elevate yourself so you're not in the weeds?
And so then the team member who was in your previous role allowing them to flourish and to make it their own.
So, yeah, it's been a good it's been a great year.
I've had also, you know, been the CEO and the representative of Ramsay Pharmacy and Psychology, you also get us to do other things.
So, you know, I was fortunate this year that they got asked to deliver the graduation speech or the faculty of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences at Monash.
And that was that to me was also a career highlight, you know, to be able to be there again 25 years later to say, you know, you, I was you.
Yes, I was you.
And what an exciting time of your life you're about to embark on and to maybe share some of as I've done today, my experience and life lessons to be able to take you forward.
See, I'm thoroughly enjoying it and I get I keep talking about Ramsay.
I really love who I work for.
We do some amazing things collectively and I get to be involved in things outside of pharmacy and psychology broadly and it's always interesting.
So it's pretty cool to be able to do this.
Yeah sounds really exciting.
And I can just tell just by from hearing in your voice and and seeing your expression that you really do love it, which is really, really nice to see.
Now, it's been a privilege to hear about your journey today.
I feel like we could keep on chatting for a And 25 year career I'm here to get that down into 40 minutes is very difficult, but what I'd like to ask you now is, do you have any final advice or anything you want to touch on that maybe we haven't covered in our discussion so far?
No, I don't think so Krysti.
it 's been a delight to be able to share my story.
What are the messages actually I shared with that graduate cohort earlier this year was two kind of pieces of advice.
I'd say no, no the values are important to you whatever you do you decide you want to go on a different career path or you want to be the best pharmacist or you want to be a leader, work out whether what the those values are to you that are important because they will stand you in good stead.
They will help you navigate the path of whatever you choose.
And I think also professionally and personally.
And I think the art of storytelling, there is a great skill and that's actually one of the challenges I have overcome to in being able to tell the story because we go back to having the values.
We talk about the why and it's the storytelling.
Anything, you know, numbers are storytelling. A profit and lost statement is a telling a story of how wealth a business is or isn't going.
And so the other storytelling your story, who you're working for, why are you giving me that advice to that customer, the storytelling is a really important skill set to be able to do.
And I don't mean it in a fantastical way to make up stuff, but the storytelling, the communication is key.
We'll send you in good stead.
Great advice.
Well, thank you, Michelle.
It's been an absolute pleasure.
Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
I think what it really stood out to me and I'm sure to the listeners as well is that importance of showing kindness to people surrounding yourself with the right mentors and support systems.
And to our listeners, I just like to say thank you for tuning into this episode of Your Pharmacy Career podcast.
And if you enjoyed today's conversation, please subscribe to the podcast and share it with your colleagues.
Michelle once again thank you for being with us and for inspiring us with your incredible story.
Thanks, Kristi.
It's been the privilege.
Thanks for tuning in to Your Pharmacy Career podcast, proudly sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the PSA is committed to empowering pharmacists through advocacy, innovation and industry leading professional developments.
To become a member or learn more about how to PSA can support your career, visit www.psa.org.au.
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Final Thoughts
Michelle Lynch’s career trajectory is a testament to the endless possibilities within pharmacy. From pharmacist to CEO, her story is one of resilience, adaptability, and the courage to embrace new opportunities.
How can you apply Michelle’s leadership lessons in your own pharmacy career? 🚀
