Follow my Leader?

Can a leader become a follower? In recent years pharmaceutical companies' R&D divisions have cut swathes of staff and many scientists who formerly held management positions with others reporting to them have been reduced to the role of individual contributor. When you've been used to leading, managing and delegating it can come as quite a shock to find yourself in a follower role.

I've been wrestling with this issue myself, but found some good advice in Jennifer Crittenden's book "Discreet Guide for Corporate Women". Crittenden advises aspiring leaders to develop good listening skills, and it struck me that as a manager, it is easy to fall into the habit of talking more than one listens. Added to that, our multitasking online culture engenders the bad habit of emailing during phone calls and presentations, and we find ourselves less and less able to focus solely on the speaker.

I'm resolved to consciously practice my listening skills, to refrain from interrupting and give speakers 100% of my attention. When I attain my next leadership role I'm hoping these skills will make me a better leader.

Honing Professional Skills

From time to time we each need to look objectively at our professional skillsets. Are they gathering dust - is the world moving faster than we are?

I recently attended the La Jolla Writers' Conference - a weekend packed with workshops and seminars on all aspects of writing, ranging from how to develop characters, how to set pace, to commercializing a book. The weekend provided multiple opportunities for feedback, all of it delivered in a constructive and caring way. I came away full of ideas, revitalized and with my professional skills ratcheted up a level.

Take a look at the courses available to you and take the plunge - you never know what you'll discover!

Lessons from the Corner Office

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a CEO? This morning's BIOCOM panel moderated by San Diego based Merck Technology Scout Jim Schaeffer provided some intriguing insights into life in the corner office of a variety of biotech companies.

Grizzled veteran panelists were Bob Baltera, CEO of Amira Pharmaceuticals, Rich Heyman, CEO of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Bert Liang, CEO of Pfenex Inc, Laura Shawver, founder and CEO of Cleave, and Jay Short, founder and CEO of BioAtla,LLC.

Both Baltera and Liang grew up with Amgen and stressed the importance of understanding the drug development business, which they learned from their experiences as Development Team Leaders, having to negotiate with departments for resources to move their projects forward and to build alignment across clinical and regulatory functions. Both cited this as the most important training for becoming a biotech CEO.

All panelists agreed that the CEO has to have skills appropriate to the stage of the company. Most were experts in start-up and drug development, and acknowledged that they would probably need to find someone else to lead the company once their products reached commercialization. Speaking of exiting, the CEOs recommended keeping one's options open and not taking steps that might block a potential exit route.

Over the last 20 years business models have changed dramatically, from organic growth to a relay race model of a virtual company hand-offs between specialized contractors, and CEOs need to be open to flex their company as the model evolves.

Are zero tolerance of failure, and innovation mutually exclusive?

Today it dawned on me that the reason for much of the Dilbertian doublespeak we hear today from both corporations and government boils down to saving face for our leaders in a climate with zero tolerance for failure. While we know that we learn most from our mistakes, in business today it appears to be unacceptable to admit to making them.

Portfolio theory teaches us that the biggest returns come from taking the biggest risks, so if we have zero tolerance for risk we are going to be missing out on opportunities to earn disproportionately high returns, or to discover breakthrough innovations.

How can we create safe harbors where failure is acceptable? As inventor Thomas Edison said "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Perhaps we can encourage our leaders and innovators to share with us the mistakes they have made in the past, and more importantly, what they learned from those mistakes? Perhaps we can make spaces in which our teams can throw out the rule book and challenge themselves to accomplish what's never been done before without fear of punitive or career-limiting consequences?

Elevator Speech

I listened to an American Society of Chemistry webinar today on Personal Branding; the speakers emphasized the importance of forethought, of identifying one's unique value proposition and articulating and honing that into an elevator speech. It set me thinking about my own value-add, and here's what I came up with:

I spot gaps
It's relatively easy to critique a report, proposal, or plan, but much more difficult to spot what is not there, vital missing components or strategic gaps. From my broad and varied experience across the industry, I have a knack of seeing and articulating what's not there but should be.

I synthesize connections
One of my favorite sayings is "I don't know but I know someone who does." I bring together diverse people and nuggets of relevant information and synthesize these into a whole through an iterative process of systematic inquiry and strategic analysis.

I solve problems
You can rely on me to come up with a solution and implement it - I get things done

AWIS Endowment Raffle - Online Ticket sales now closed, pay by cash or check only at tonight's Open House!

The Association for Women in Science seeks to build an endowment of $5 million to provide a financial base that ensures AWIS remains at the forefront of education and workforce issues that affect women in STEM.

The endowment will support:
1) Regional conferences
2) Chapter initiatives
3) Enhanced member services
4) The national office in mounting new initiatives.

A successful endowment campaign will enhance every aspect of our work and make AWIS even stronger and more influential in the years ahead. It’s your future, your career, your success...your lasting gift for future generations of women in STEM.

Tonight we will be raffling a $150 Amazon.com gift certificate at the AWIS San Diego Chapter Open House to raise funds for the AWIS Endowment. Online and credit card sales are now closed, but you can still enter by purchasing a ticket for cash or check only at the AWIS San Diego Chapter Open House on Thurs November 4th 2010 from 5:30pm at Campus Pointe. The winner will be notified via email (does not need to be present to win).

$10 per ticket, or buy 5, get one extra free!

To register for the Open House visit
http://awis.sdsc.edu/calendar/eventdetails.php?event_id=646

Fall Back

Fall has always been my favorite time of year - after the long hot days of summer there's a bracing nip in the morning air, and routines return to normal as people return from vacations.

Fall is a great time for new beginnings - the new school year, the opportunity to learn something new. It's also time to focus on completing the goals you set at the start of the year, with just enough time to bring things to an orderly conclusion by year end. A time to reconnect with friends and start looking ahead to plans for the coming year.