Evaluation of the leadership strengths of the officers serving within an APhA-ASP chapter: Implications for the profession.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

To evaluate the strengths of the officers who recently served within an American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) chapter and to discuss the potential impacts of these strengths upon the pharmacy profession.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING

The chapter officers from the Classes of 2010-2016 (n = 67; 66% female) voluntarily participated in a variety of leadership development programs created by the chapter advisors. Each of these programs included activities based upon the book, Strengths Based Leadership, and the determination of each officer's top five strengths using the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment. For this study, all of the officer's top five strengths were compiled (n = 335) and evaluated based upon their individual frequencies and their association with each of the strengths based leadership domains (i.e. executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking).

FINDINGS

All 67 officers completed the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment with the five most frequently identified strengths being achiever (n = 27), harmony (n = 27), learner (n = 26), input (n = 19), and individualization (n = 17). In addition, the officer's strengths most frequently corresponded to the leadership domain of relationship building (35%), followed by the domains of executing (28%), strategic thinking (26%), and influencing (11%).

SUMMARY

These findings may help explain why the profession continues to succeed with respect to implementing collaborative patient-centered care, but continues to be challenged with respect to maximizing professional advocacy.