If you are leading a team through a period of change, you need to understand how everyone travels through this process, and work out how you need to support them differently during the various stages of the process.

During the elation phase, you need to inspire change. Provide a vision for the future and give people a clear understanding of what the future will look like, what they will be doing, how the change will happen and when it will happen by.

During the fear stage, you should spend time listening to the fears people express. Give team members the chance to express their concerns, and provide reassurance or solve problems. It is easy to spend too much time talking and not enough listening. People create barriers in their minds that they need to express; these are often emotional rather than rational. Providing logical arguments without listening will not reduce those concerns. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

During the depression phase, keep listening, clarify goals and build solutions to help meet milestones. Re-engage the team with the reason for the change and keep focusing on the benefits of the new state.

To avoid getting into a hope/depression cycle, look for little successes and make the most of them, explaining how these are taking everyone towards the goal. These little chinks of light need to be magnified so that if things become difficult, everyone still feels they are moving forward.

During the confidence stage, focus on the final push, identifying the last steps needed to complete the transition and refocusing again on the goal. Continue to focus on successes to maintain motivation towards the goal.

The final stage is one we often forget. When you get to the satisfaction stage, celebrate your success. This helps to put a full stop after a period of change, and signals a move into a period of stability. Additionally, it helps to build confidence and commitment for future periods of change. Different members of the team will go through this process at different speeds.

Some people may spend a long time in the fear and depression stages, but move quickly from there to the end of the process. For others, the experience might be exactly the opposite. You need to treat people as individuals and recognise that different people will have different paces of change.

Pause to reflect

Reflect on the last time you made some changes in your pharmacy.

• How much did you involve your team?
• How could you have increased their involvement?