The Dean’s Playbook for Building a High-Performing Pharmacy Leadership Team
Behind every thriving College of Pharmacy is a leadership team that doesn’t just manage operations—but moves in lockstep, solves complex problems together, and builds a culture of trust and accountability.
In his books The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni outlines what separates high-performing teams from those that struggle: it's not strategy or credentials—it’s organizational health. That means trust, clarity, commitment, and results—all things that are often assumed, but rarely built with intention.
As a dean, your leadership team is your nerve center. Here's how to transform your cabinet from a group of accomplished individuals into a unified, high-impact team.
1. Build Vulnerability-Based Trust
Lencioni argues that trust is not built through familiarity or reliability—but through vulnerability. That means team members must feel safe acknowledging gaps in knowledge, asking for help, and owning mistakes.
In many academic settings, however, leaders are conditioned to appear certain and self-sufficient—making true trust rare and fragile.
Try This:
Model vulnerability as dean. Share a recent failure or blind spot in a team meeting. Invite others to do the same.
Examples:
A dean starts a cabinet retreat by sharing three leadership mistakes from their first year and what they learned—setting the tone for openness.
An assistant dean admits to struggling with a faculty conflict and asks the team for feedback—strengthening trust and shared problem-solving.
A team rotates “learning moments” in leadership meetings where each person shares a recent stumble or insight from a tough decision.
2. Embrace Healthy Conflict to Make Better Decisions
Too many academic leadership meetings are quiet—not because everyone agrees, but because there’s no culture of constructive conflict. Lencioni calls this a key dysfunction: fear of conflict leads to weak decisions and artificial harmony.
Conflict isn’t about being combative—it’s about engaging around ideas, surfacing disagreements, and pushing toward better outcomes.
Try This:
At your next leadership meeting, ask: “What are we avoiding talking about that really needs to be addressed?”
Examples:
A dean introduces red/yellow/green voting on proposals to reveal hesitation and spark deeper discussion.
During strategic planning, a team pauses to debate competing priorities for limited funds—ensuring buy-in before a decision is made.
A department chair pushes back on a policy recommendation, prompting a productive dialogue that improves the final implementation plan.
3. Create Clarity—Then Overcommunicate It
In The Advantage, Lencioni emphasizes that the greatest threat to organizational health is ambiguity. If your leadership team isn’t aligned on goals, values, and decision criteria, confusion trickles down to faculty, staff, and students.
Leaders may assume their team is clear—but unless you’ve explicitly defined key priorities, and repeated them often, you’re leaving clarity to chance.
Try This:
Answer these six questions with your leadership team:
1. Why do we exist?
2. How do we behave?
3. What do we do?
4. How will we succeed?
5. What’s most important right now?
6. Who must do what?
Examples:
A dean holds a half-day retreat focused on aligning the team around three core strategic priorities—and eliminates unrelated initiatives.
Each cabinet meeting begins with a review of “what’s most important right now” to stay focused and prevent drift.
The college website, orientation materials, and internal emails all echo the same language around purpose and direction—reinforcing clarity throughout the organization.
4. Foster Commitment Through Shared Ownership
Lack of buy-in isn’t always about disagreement—it’s often about not being heard. Leaders are more likely to commit to decisions when they’ve had a chance to weigh in.
Academic environments can foster passive agreement, where team members nod along but don’t act in alignment.
Try This:
At the end of major discussions, ask: “On a scale of 1–5, how committed are you to this direction?” Then ask, “What would move you to a 5?”
Examples:
Before finalizing a curriculum redesign, the dean invites each leader to speak to what excites or concerns them—ensuring all voices shape the outcome.
A leadership team co-authors a faculty workload policy instead of rubber-stamping a draft—leading to stronger implementation and support.
At retreats, the team uses anonymous polling to check alignment and surfaces hidden hesitation that might otherwise go unspoken.
5. Hold Each Other Accountable for Collective Results
The ultimate sign of a healthy leadership team? Members hold each other accountable—not just rely on the dean to enforce standards. Lencioni warns that avoiding accountability leads to mediocrity, silos, and frustration.
In a strong team, leaders care just as much about shared outcomes as they do about their own departments.
Try This:
Shift from departmental reporting to shared performance tracking during leadership meetings.
Examples:
Instead of siloed updates, a college uses a scorecard of collective outcomes: student retention, research productivity, interprofessional engagement.
A dean encourages peer-to-peer feedback conversations among assistant/associate deans on meeting deliverables and deadlines.
Leadership performance reviews include how each team member supported college-wide goals—not just departmental metrics.
Final Thoughts: Your Team is Your Advantage
In the end, your strategy is only as strong as the team that executes it. Colleges of pharmacy don’t just need good intentions—they need unified, healthy leadership teams that trust each other, debate well, commit fully, and own results.
As dean, you’re not just the chief academic officer—you’re the architect of your team’s culture. Invest in its health, and you’ll unlock exponential impact for your college, your students, and your profession.
Next Steps to Strengthen Your Leadership Team:
Explore Executive Coaching for Your Cabinet-
From team diagnostics to one-on-one coaching, we help you
move from dysfunction to cohesion—and from alignment to advantage.
Schedule a Free Strategy Session today.