My name is Olivia Knack and I am a third year pharmacy student at Midwestern University Chicago College of Pharmacy. This past summer I traveled to Washington D.C. to take part in a five-week internal CVS Summer Leadership Development Program. I was one of twelve CVS pharmacy interns selected to participate in the program from the thousands of interns who applied from across the nation.

Each week during the program was dedicated to a particular element of leadership within CVS. During week 1, I focused on learning the metrics that CVS uses to evaluate retail store performance. CVS collects monthly data and analyzes it to rank each store at the district, region, and division levels and to ultimately determine where each store stands in the entire enterprise. Such data analysis on the corporate level has contributed to the success of CVS Health as it ranks #7 on the 2017 Fortune 500 list. Like many top companies, CVS uses a metric-based approach to gauge each store’s performance with respect to company goals and to compare stores to one another. Each metric is organized into groupings called scorecards that share the same focus.

During weeks 2,3, and 4, I applied my knowledge of metrics while observing CVS stores and analyzing their metrics and performance. Each intern was assigned to observe, analyze, and work with three retail locations in the Washington D.C. – Virginia – Maryland area. I was assigned to one store in Washington D.C. and two in Virginia.

To understand and evaluate the performance of each of my stores, I received each store’s metrics from the previous month. To gain special insight into each store’s situation, I traveled to each store to observe the state of affairs. After observing each of my stores, I provided staff with specific feedback targeted at improving performance based on store metrics and my observations. I went on to design and write a specific Action Plan for each pharmacy with steps for employees to follow to achieve targeted performance improvement over a realistic time period. By sharing my observations, providing feedback, and meeting with employees to communicate about ideas related to each Action Plan, I took steps to ensure that each pharmacy team’s members were prepared to collaborate to achieve shared goals.

During my fifth and final week, my mentor group and I created a 20-minute final presentation focused on a specific CVS metric scorecard. We presented this to our mentors, development program coordinators, regional directors, and finally the division 3 Vice President. However, feedback from and collaboration with mentors and other influential CVS leaders was not limited to our final presentation. Interns met each Friday for mentor days with experienced CVS corporate leaders selected to work alongside interns to support our work observing and evaluating retail store performance. On mentor days, I visited stores with my mentor, practiced reading store metrics, designed store Action Plans, and provided in-the-moment feedback to pharmacy staff. After completing our mentor day tasks, my mentor and I discussed my professional development within CVS and pharmacy in general, and we discussed my personal development, especially as it related to leadership skills such as communication and the giving and receiving of feedback.

This one-on-one mentoring component of the program was invaluable is it advanced my growth as a CVS intern and made me more comfortable giving and receiving feedback. Feedback can be intimidating to give and especially challenging to receive, process, and use for improvement. However, I have found that listening closely to a person’s perspective and suggestions is absolutely necessary to progress and develop in the field of pharmacy. When someone takes the time to provide feedback, it is important to listen and know that it is coming from a good place. Constructive criticism from a supervisor or mentor could improve your practice and not receiving feedback may be limiting your growth.

Ultimately, this leadership internship prepared me to be more confident, assertive, and to provide guidance in a clear, polite, and professional manner. Having a mentor dedicated to maximizing my learning potential throughout the internship was very important to me. While feedback can sometimes feel uncomfortable, this internship provided me with the opportunity to challenge myself. I improved my leadership skills by practicing communication with others, listening to and using constructive criticism, and confidently and effectively offering guidance based on data and observations in order to improve retail pharmacy performance. Overall, I would highly recommend the CVS Summer Leadership Development Program.