Pharma Veterans

Cyberloafing at Workplaces – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 958 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 958 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 your contributions here. Credit: Andrea Piacquadio Credit: Jopwell Credit: Pixabay Cyberloafing Cyberloafing refers to the act of employees using their company's internet and digital resources for personal purposes during work hours. This can include activities such as browsing social media, shopping online, watching videos, or engaging in non-work-related communication. While seemingly innocuous, cyberloafing can significantly impact productivity and organizational efficiency. The issue becomes even more serious when the staff engages in watching immoral content.  Although internet technology is installed to increase organizational productivity, this is not the case in practice. Technologi...

Hubris and Narcissism in Management – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 957 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 957 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 your contributions here. Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko Credit: Kampus Production Credit: Kampus Production Credit: Maria Orlova Credit: Safa Bakirci In the realm of management and leadership, the traits of hubris and narcissism are often prevalent to varying degrees and can significantly shape leadership styles and organizational dynamics. It is essential to understand how these traits manifest in leaders, their impact on management practices, and possible ways to mitigate their negative effects. Hubris Hubris is an ancient Greek term, literally translating to ‘excess’.  It describes a state of exaggerated self-belief and arrogance. People suffering from hubris imagine that the way t...

‘Right to Disconnect’ Law – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #956 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #956 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 your contributions here. Credit: Antoni Shkraba Credit: cottonbro studio Credit: Mizuno K On Saturday evening, I forwarded couple of messages to a colleague and added a voice note requesting him to have a bit of research done on the links in the messages. He replied instantly that he would. This Saturday was an off day.  Did I do the right thing by asking to do something outside the office hours? Knowing that the world is considering that after-hours messages, emails, assignments must be discouraged or even forcefully prevented. No, I did not. This movement has been going on for a few years since we started boasting about ‘being connected 24/7’. I remember, Blackberry in its prime, had thi...

The Culture of Belonging – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #955 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #955 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 your contributions here. Credit: Alena Darmel Credit: Emtius Hasnat Credit: Helmy Zairy Credit: RDNE Stock Project Credit: Thirdman Many years ago, I witnessed an animated discussion between two senior managers, one of whom had spent his entire career in the same organization where we were sitting, the other had come after working in another MNC for several years. I was a junior manager who also came from another MNC. The topic was ‘sense of belonging’. The long serving manager was insisting that sense of belonging is nothing but a catchphrase. Our employment is a contract, we work and get paid, and the contract can be terminated any time. “Where does sense of belonging come in” he asked. The o...

Core Leadership Behaviors Are Not What You Perceive – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #954 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #954 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 your contributions here. Credit: Alena Darmel Credit: Anna Tarazevich Credit: Karolina Grabowska This blogpost is inspired by a McKinsey article authored by Claudio Feser, Fernando Mayol, and Ramesh Srinivasan. link at the end. Leadership is a buzzword which is thrown around a lot, particularly, these days. There is an unending discussion on essential attributes of leadership, what makes a leader, how should the leader think and act, leadership for change, and so on and on. It is a great transition from conventional management which was archaic, patriarchal, autocratic, and centralized. Management was about work and deployment of all types of resources to get work don...

Persistent Rise of Bad Bosses – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #953 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #953 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 your contributions here. Credit: Pavel Danilyuk Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko Credit: Yan Krukau This blogpost is based on a talk of Lucia Rahilly of McKinsey with Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, author of ‘Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?: (And How to Fix it) (HBR Press 2019). It is common observation that too many incompetent men rise to leadership positions, which is serious, and in many cases, devastating issue. True, that men also suffer the consequences of bad leadership, but the damage to people and organizations may be much bigger.  Tomas says their research was focused on abilities, competencies, interests, and personalities, but they also collected data on age, gende...

Why do Senior Managers Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes? Last Part – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #952 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #952 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 your contributions here. Credit: Edmond Dantès Credit: fauxels Credit: Yan Krukau Continued from Previous …… With a heavy heart, KK typed his resignation, and emailed it to the DM, with copy to HR.  End of KK’s Story KK lasted less than a year on his second job, and he felt extremely bad about it. Losing the job under such circumstances was such a great blow to his ego that he could not absorb it. He somehow put up a courageous face, went to the DM office, took his leave, and bade farewell to him and his marketing team. He had no intention to see his peers in other departments. He silently walked out of the office. KK lived alone. His parents lived ...

Why do Senior Managers Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes? Part VIII – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #951 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #951 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 your contributions here. Credit: Andrea Piacquadio Credit: Burst Continued from Previous …… The DM decided to intervene. The DM was a highly seasoned professional who believed in autonomy with defined limits, team building, and maintaining conducive work environment. He had been hearing about things happening in KK’s team but did not intervene as a matter of principle. He was the main member of the selection panel that had hired KK. He had liked KK for his profile and personal attributes that they could see during interview. He had given him this particular team which was stable in sales and more stable in working pattern. He wanted KK to change the pac...

Why do Senior Managers Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes? Part VII – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #950 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #950 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 your contributions here. Credit: Daniel Frese Credit: Djordje  Credit: Lisa Fotios Continued from Previous …… Not every ZM was comforted with the talk of SPM. The SPM started rolling out his plan immediately. He talked first to the ZM who seemed more receptive to his idea. He had long discussion about their working, their customers, market, and any other relevant factor. The SPM then asked the ZM what his plan was to implement new working parameters and achieve the new targets. The ZM said he had asked his teammates to increase the number of doctors on calling lists and number of calls per day. It was easy to add doctors to the list but 16 calls a da...