Leadership & Career

Paths: Real Life Lessons

• Osama Tabbara, R.Ph., BCNSP, EMBA

• President, IVPN-Network
Objectives
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, 1400 beds, Riyadh, SA
Life-Learning Lessons
• Always reply to any message
–LinkedIn
–E-mail
–WhatsApp
–Messenger
• Be professional
• Be kind
• Be impressive
• Ignoring messages is harmful
Life-Learning Lessons

•Dream BIG
•Be prepared
•Internship
•Search for a mentor
–From year-2 College
 • Exposure to SMEs
• Rotations
• Academia
Why branded • Research
place?
• Best practice
• Multispecialty
• Career growth
Life-Learning Lessons

•Never reject an interview

•Evaluate yourself
•Interview is educational
–It is a mentorship session
•See what they offer
 Life-Learning Lessons

•Don’t negotiate an offer by

branded organization!

•Apply everywhere every 1-2 years

Life-Learning Lesson: Be a Brand
• Create professional profiles
• Good to have your own website
• Create a content strategy
• Make your name and knowledge visible
• KPI:
–How many memorize your name?
–How many did you influence and transform?
• You are your own brand!
Life-Learning Lesson: Be a Brand
•KPI:
–How many memorize your name?
–How many did you influence and
transform?

•You are your own brand!

Al-Hada Military Hospital, 480 beds, TAIF, SA
March 1984: First Job, Out-Patient Pharmacist
September 1984: Out-Patient Pharmacy Supervisor (11 FTEs)
1991:
Game Changing
My Game Changing: The Peripheral Brain!
Get the answer to any question in 20 seconds!
 Life-Learning Lessons:

•Be prepared for coming opportunities!

Life-Learning Lessons:
•Dream Big!

•Crave for Leadership but don’t show it!

•Leadership is acquired; not granted

•Be a servant leader, work/care for others, they

will make you a leader
Life-Learning Lessons:

•Maximum stay in one place

without growth is 3-5 years
Life-Learning Lessons:

•You will never find a job if you are traditional

•You will never grow if you are not a game changer

•Be a fighter

•Fight through your achievements

Life-Learning Lessons:

• Market your achievements

• Don’t work in silo
• Better advertised through your leader
• Celebrate your achievements
• For positive people: Contagious
• “I don’t like to celebrate or advertise and I have suffered a lot because of that”
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, 1400 beds, Riyadh, SA
October 1993: In-Patient Pharmacist
December 1993: TPN Clinical Pharmacist
KFSHRC, 1996
KFSHRC, 1997
TPN Team
Leader
• 1993: TPN Clinical Pharmacist
• 1997: TPN Team Supervisor (5 FTEs)
• 2000: TPN & IV Room Supervisor (22 FTEs)
• Search for a place where you learn and grow…
Finance is second or third in priorities.

• Learn from history:

• 30 Pharmacy Directors from KFSHRC worldwide

• Don’t link yourself to people…. “Work” & “Patient

first” as obsession

• Don’t love your Company…. Act as if you will leave

soon! Just love what you do… Love your Patient!
•Summarize what you
read
•Brain can retain < 5% of
what you read
•If you don’t teach, you
don’t learn
Life Learning Lessons

• Revisit your goals every year

• Take advantage of available resources

• Apply to new Jobs every 1-2 years

• Hang out with great people!

• Target horizontal growth

Career Path Planning

What is Next?

11 years at KFSHRC
TPN Team Supervisor
Clinical Pharmacist
IV Supervisor

9 years at Military Hospital

Out-Patient Pharmacy Supervisor
In-Patient Pharmacy Supervisor
DI Pharmacy Supervisor
Acting head of Pharmacy
My first Head of Pharmacy Position

Al-Rahba Hospital, 180 beds

Mafraq Hospital 480 beds
 • Decision to transition:
– Better title
– Better $ (minimum 30%)
– Both
Life Learning
• After 7-10 years, don’t target branded places
Lessons
• Target greenfield hospitals
• Convert the challenges into strengths
• Hire the great people you know
• New target: New jobs through Head Hunting
 • Decision to transition:
–Better Institution
Life Learning –Better
Lessons respect/recognition
–Better title
–Better $ (minimum 30%)
–Both
 • After 7-10 years, don’t target
branded places
Life Learning
Lessons • Target greenfield hospitals

• Target challenging places

• Convert the challenges into

strengths
Life Learning • Hire the great people
Lessons
you TRUST & know

• New target: New jobs

through Head Hunting
King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), 1200 beds, Riyadh, SA
2006-2010: Director of Pharmacy Administration
 Life-learning Lessons

• When you have experience + family = Finance is first

• When you kids reach 18, you are an ATMist

• Make strong and real time decisions

 The biggest achievement

• Transforming through the same people

• Taking the institution to the next level
• The key to success:
– KNOW YOUR LEADER
– EARN THE TRUST
 Oct 2010:
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi,
Executive Director, Pharmacy
CCAD, June 2012
November 2013: “Still Long way to go”!
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi (CCAD)
Day #1: March 2015
HIMSS STAGE-7
JCIA Accredited
Magnet
The PHARmily
 Our Vision:
CCAD “To be a world leader in Pharmacy Practice”

Department • Why world leader?

of Pharmacy • The leadership
• The people
Services • The experience
• The technology
• The place
• The brand
• The culture
•Discovering talents
•We rise by lifting others
•Making everyone smarter
 5th IVPN Symposium, Nov 2019
Pharmacy leaders of tomorrow shaping
700 delegates

the practice today

Pharmacy leaders of tomorrow shaping the practice today

 • Join a leader not an institution
• People join because of great vision, people leave because of
poor leadership
• The key to success in leadership is “Building a Culture”
• The key to failure is “Damaging the culture”
Life Learning • Don’t ever love your company; love your work
Message • You never know when your next boss is a TOXIC BOSS
• Keep applying elsewhere and assess your self in the market!
• Plan B is always entrepreneurship; build the plan and save it
• “end of my career” or “retirement” never in the dictionary!
• Have the confidence and courage to quit
 • Join a leader not an institution
Life Learning
Message • People join because of great vision,
people leave because of poor leadership
 • The key to success in leadership
Life Learning is “Building a Culture”
Message
• The key to failure is “Damaging
the Culture”
 • You never know when your next boss
is a TOXIC BOSS

• Keep applying elsewhere and assess

your self in the market!
Life Learning
Message • Plan B is always entrepreneurship;
build the plan and save it

• “end of my career” or “retirement”

never in the dictionary!
• The best advice from a mentor to mentee:

•“Define your own

career path and go
out and share it with
everyone”
My Individualized Career Development Plan

__________________________________
Year 3
Year 2
Action Steps
____________________
Year 1 Action Steps ____________________
____________________ ____________________
Action Steps ____________________ __________
____________________ ____________________
____________________ __________
____________________
__________
Department of Pharmacy Services. 2017
 After 36 Years
In Hospital Pharmacy Corporate World
 Established in Feb 2012

• Exchanging knowledge and experience in

subjects related to:
• Clinical Parenteral Nutrition
• Compounding Sterile Preparations
(CSPs)
• In-Patient Hospital Pharmacy
Operations
• Drug Shortages
 Thank you, Corona!

• Quicker and more efficient.

– No place for status Quo anymore!
– No longer “resistance to changes”

• Learned to quickly restructure the business.

• Discovered the fearless heroes, loyal, passionate

and determined people at the workplace.
 • Knowledge Transfer
The IVPN • Discovering pharmacy talents, experts and
Philosophy leaders
• Mentoring & empowering them

• Making them known and visible

• Inspiring talented pharmacists to occupy

future positions and transform
IVPN Lateral Leadership Model

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• Passion to serve and transform

• Passion to grow with a growing network

• Linking the name to a brand “IVPN”

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