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Fear of Letting Go and What to Do – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1025

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Fear of Letting Go and What to Do – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1025 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1025 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Preamble In one of the organizations, I had a colleague who had been working on the documentation of export shipments, and he was good at it. During that time, he also somehow got the opportunity to do business communication with couple of customers abroad and did it well. My assessment was that he had good talent for business, and he should shift to that area of work. It would be good for his future growth because documentation was almost a dead-end job. We talked in detail, and he agreed, but he said he would do both for some time. Understanding his fear of letting go, I agreed. Meanwhile, we hired someone for documentation. However, he kept sticking to the
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Strategies to Help Fulfil Commitments – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1024

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Strategies to Help Fulfil Commitments – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1024 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1023 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Binti Malu Credit: Michael Burrows Credit: Mikhail Nilov Preamble Recently, I read an article by Michael Blanding in Harvard Business Working Knowledge which led me to study which inspired this blogpost. The findings of study, or rather set of studies’ have been reported by the researchers Ariella Kristal and Julian Zlatev. The report is titled ‘Going beyond the ‘Self’ in Self Control: Interpersonal Consequences of Commitment Strategy Use’. It raises some very important points, just a few of which I shall share. Being copyrighted, I shall not reproduce from the study but shall take the primary idea and present in my own words. Commitment The dictio
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Thoughts on Leadership Teams in Pharmaceutical Companies II – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1023

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Thoughts on Leadership Teams in Pharmaceutical Companies II – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1023 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1023 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Antoni Shkraba Credit: Vlada Karpovich Credit: Werner Pfenning Collective Accountability I finished the last post on the point that collective accountability should also be considered along with individual accountability.  Building collective accountability in the system will require that both individual and team goals be assigned to team members. Team goals are those which can only be achieved as a group and not as an individual. For example, if the organization plans to introduce certain values in its culture, it is a goal for the entire leadership team, and they must work together to achieve it. On the material side, if the
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Thoughts on Leadership Teams in Pharmaceutical Companies I – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1022

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Thoughts on Leadership Teams in Pharmaceutical Companies I – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1022 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1022 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: August de Richelieu Credit: Karl Solano Credit: Khwanchai Phanthong Credit: Mandiri Abadi Preamble Having worked in pharma industry for over 40 years and at the most senior positions, I have plenty of observations on the subject; many of these are concerns which I had been raising on various occasions in various forums. I am also in the habit of reading the latest thinking from accomplished people and analyzing/ relating pointers from here and there with our own situation. This may be read as what is happening and what better can be done. Every organization strives to grow and become big, though their routes greatly vary. I sha
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Expect Anything Worthwhile to Take a Long Time – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1021

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Expect Anything Worthwhile to Take a Long Time – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1021 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1021 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Mikhail Nilov Credit: Polina Kovaleva Credit: Thirdman Preamble This is a quote from Debbi Millman, “Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time”. It is a powerful reminder of the patience and persistence needed for meaningful accomplishments. In our culture of immediacy, where instant gratification often feels like a baseline expectation, this idea can be challenging to embrace. However, it underscores a crucial truth about depth, growth, and the nature of truly valuable achievements. What is "Worthwhile"? A worthwhile pursuit or outcome is one that holds enduring significance and personal or societal value. Worthwhile achiev
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Power of Consonance of Goals – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1020

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Power of Consonance of Goals – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1020 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1020 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Polina Zimmerman Preamble All business organizations set goals. Some visualize for one year, some for three or more years, based on the nature of the business. However, plans are reviewed every year and finalized for the year, every year. From the corporate goals, team goals and individual goals are derived. These goals are incorporated into the performance management system running in the organization also.  The observation is that despite this cascade, goals of teams and individuals are not in alignment. And of course, the biggest omission is that customer-related goals are not included in the corporate goals. In recent times, I can say with reasonable au
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Learning to Say No – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1019

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Learning to Say No – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1019 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1019 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Jep Gambardella Credit: leo Credit: Yan Krukau Preamble We, who live in Asian societies are particularly prone not to say No. Even when we say it, we do so with great difficulty. So, we say yes to things we cannot do, or do not want to do, and we land in difficulty. In Pakistan, it is extremely common to hide behind a litany of excuses and unattended phone calls when promises are not kept, and jobs are not delivered. This behavior is causing uncertainty, confusion, mistrust, bad relations, and poor work environment across the country. We not only yes, but add InshaAllah also, a suffix which has sadly become associated with the intent to not honor the promise.  Learni
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