Life Science Rabbit Hole #15: Won’t Get Fooled Again – Top 6 Actions So You’re Not “The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss”

Congratulations – you are about to start a new leadership position in a life science company.? You’re thrilled and humbled by the opportunity to impact patients and their loved ones, to contribute to the development of the people in your organization, and to build your own capabilities.

You may also feel some trepidation as you think about joining your new organization.? You may remember a verse from The Who’s song “Won’t Get Fooled Again”: Yeah, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

How do you enter and integrate into a new organization as a constructive force for alignment and velocity?? ?Here are the Life Science Rabbit Hole’s Top 6 actions to integrate effectively into a new organization.

Rule 1: Don’t Make the Past Wrong

Rule 2: Don’t Assume Opposition

Rule 3: Don’t Shoot the Messenger

Rule 4: It’s All About Alignment and Accountability

Rule 5: The Kids Have to Tie Their Own Shoes

Rule 6: Be Grateful and Say It

Let’s dig in.

Rule 1: Don’t Make the Past Wrong

You may enter your new organization and immediately see nothing but poor performance and the consequences of bad decisions and inadequate leadership.? Patients and their loved ones are waiting!? What a mess! This is completely unacceptable!

You may be thinking, “who are the idiots who made all these dumb decisions?”? Do not say that!

Guess what – “those idiots” are all around you, and those dumb decisions may not have been so dumb based on the company situation & information available at the time.? The last thing you want to do is invalidate your team, and finding fault with the past, when you weren’t there to understand the situation at the time, doesn’t help your team align and drive.

Instead, speak in terms of “where we go from here”.? As in, “OK, as I understand it, we have done x, y, and z over the last 24 months to prioritize and qualify Authorized Treatment Centers in anticipation of a product launch in Q4.? As I look forward, I think what we need to do now is a, b, and c.”

This way, you aren’t dismissing the hard work of the past.? You aren’t making your team feel defensive or threatened.? You are focusing everyone on the future and how to accomplish your shared mission.

Your team will be free to lead.

Rule 2: Don’t Assume Opposition

Suppose you are about to join an organization with a mandate to clean house and get a poorly-performing organization operating the way the company needs it to.

It is very easy to assume that your new organization is going to oppose you every step of the way.? That you’ll be making changes and seen as a threat, shaking up a hidebound organization and getting them to perform to your and the company’s high expectations.

If your mind is expecting opposition and hostility to you and your ideas, guess what - that’s exactly what you’ll find!? Even neutral statements made by your team will come across to you as opposition and disagreement, because your unconscious mind will be looking for what it expects to see.

Instead, mentally frame your mission as “I’m coming here to give voice to all the people in the organization who have wanted to do the right thing for years, and were unable to make it happen.”? Guess what you’ll find – lots of great ideas coming from all sides and a willingness of your team to adopt new approaches and address long-standing problems.? Your unconscious mind will be looking for what it expects to see.

Rule 3: Don’t Shoot the Messenger

As a new leader, you will probably feel pressure when things start going wrong.? You may wonder whether your own bosses are having second thoughts about selecting you for this critical role.? You may be tempted to cover up problems or blame the people in your organization leading the areas that are not delivering.

Two common factors cause leaders to fail, and shooting the messenger contributes to both of them:

1. Being cut off from truthful information about what’s actually happening in your organization
2. Being cut off from good ideas to improve things and solve problems

Instead, when you learn of a problem, ask “How can I help?? What do you need?”? Imagine if you were the one leading a project that was off track, or in charge of an organization that wasn’t meeting it’s objectives, and your boss handled it that way.?

Wouldn’t you be able to share your ideas to solve the problem? Wouldn’t you feel supported?? Wouldn’t you be able to lead with confidence? ?Wouldn’t you go back and tell your coworkers about the positive outcome from your meeting with the boss?? Wouldn’t the organization be more successful?

That’s the kind of organization you aspire to lead, isn’t it?

I worked under a leader who frequently reminded the organization that “bad news delivered early is good news” – making the point that he wanted to hear about problems while there was still an opportunity to help correct them.

The CEO of one of the largest life science companies once told me about his Friday afternoons.? He said he learned as CEO that all week long, people across the organization were trying to solve major issues that had arisen.? By Friday, some of those issues had gotten to the point of “We haven’t been able to solve it - we have to tell him.”? So, he was prepared for those calls.? He knew that every word he said was likely to be repeated down the organization, potentially around the world.? He knew that he had to lead explicitly from his and the company’s values.? How can I help?? What do you need?

You may not be the CEO of a Top 5 life science company, but you can lead like one!

Rule 4: It’s All About Alignment and Accountability

Remember that 99.9999% of the results of your organization are delivered by someone other than you.? Assuming you have decent talent, knowledge and skills in your organization, what determines the rate of progress?? It’s alignment and accountability.? You simply must foster alignment and accountability up, down, and across your entire organization.

As a new leader, you need to tune your antenna to pick up the subtle clues indicating lack of alignment (which could be from disagreement, misunderstanding, lack of information, or other factors).

A useful approach for you and your leadership team is to clarify your organization’s key objectives, literally getting them on a single page.? Here is a template to use as an example.

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You’ll put the vision statement at the top.? That is why your organization exists.

You’ll identify the key pillars or strategic imperatives next – these are the major outcomes that your organization needs to achieve over the strat plan horizon.

Underneath each pillar you’ll identify the strategic initiatives that you intend to execute in order to deliver the strategic imperative.? Define each of them as precisely as possible and make sure there is an accountable executive for each.

What you may find:

• Relief!? People on your team will say “this is so clear!? I get it now!? I can see how we can use this to track progress and communicate our priorities within our organization and out to our stakeholders!”
• Unrecognized misalignment.? Your team may have thought they were aligned, but this process gets everyone one click more granular.? When you are reviewing the strategic initiatives one exec may say something like, “you know, this means we’re going to move Sales Operations from Finance into Commercial” and another exec may say, “whoa – I didn’t see it that way!”? Misalignment or disagreement is OK, because you can talk it through and resolve it.? Unrecognized misalignment is NOT OK – that’s what causes important initiatives to be delayed.

A leadership team that has clarified their objectives in this way, cleared up any misunderstandings or disagreements, assigned an accountable person to each initiative, and tracks status regularly is one that is going to be successful.

Rule 5: The Kids Have to Tie Their Own Shoes

As the leader of the organization, you likely have skills and experience that let you easily solve problems presented to you by your team.? You’ve seen these problems before, and you know how to handle them.? When presented with one of these problems, you will be tempted to say, “no worries, just do x, y, and z and that’ll take care of it.”? Unless it’s a real crisis and time is of the essence, don’t do this!

Instead, when presented with a problem, ask “What do you think you should do?” You need to channel your inner Socrates.?

Through collaborative questioning, help the other person clarify the cause of the problem, describe and evaluate alternative ways to solve the problem, and recommend to you how to solve the problem.? If they have missed an important aspect of the solution, don’t say something like “that won’t work unless you communicate this change to our distributors.”? Better to prompt their thinking, by asking something such as, “are there communications that need to be part of your solution?”

You may find that this takes longer.? You’re busy.? You have other things that need your attention.? And, truth be told, you get a little ego boost by solving a problem that your subordinate couldn’t.

But it’s a little like sending a child off to kindergarten – it’s time to go to the bus stop, and your kid hasn’t tied their shoes.? Yes, it’s faster to tie their shoes for them.? But at some point, you have to help your child develop the skills, otherwise you’re going to be tying his or her shoes on the way to take them to college!

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Rule 6: Be Grateful and Say It

You probably consider yourself to be just a regular person.

However, from the organization’s perspective, you’re the boss.? The person with the big title who goes off to mysterious meetings with other senior executives.? The person who wields career-impacting power over everyone in your organization.?

Noone will know what’s going on in your head unless you say it.?

If you don’t say it, people will make things up: “He refilled his coffee during my presentation – he must not think my initiative is very important”, or “I made my recommendation and he approved it, but did you notice that he didn’t laugh at my joke?”

Imagine your interactions with your own boss.? How do you feel when he or she recognizes you with a simple “nice work on this”, “thank you for making these changes so quickly.? I needed them for my meeting with the CEO”, or “I really appreciate the fact that you always say what’s on your mind.”? Aren’t you more motivated, more secure in your position, and able to lead more freely?

Your team wants to know that you recognize and appreciate them.? Get in the habit of saying thank you and acknowledging their work.

Concluding Thoughts

Leadership and strategy execution are big topics.?

If you’re reading this article, you are probably a participant in the life science ecosystem.?

That means you are probably committed to advancing human health and well-being.?

You probably intend for your organization to operate with a culture of collaboration, integrity and excellence.?

You never forget that patients and their loved ones are waiting.

I hope this edition of the Life Science Rabbit Hole helps you lead and execute the strategy of your organization.

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.