Thoughts on Leadership Teams in Pharmaceutical Companies II – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1023

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 company needs to build a robust supply chain, it will require alignment of almost all functions – sales, finance, production, procurement, logistics, warehousing, and inventory management.

A major reason why organizations may not achieve their goals fully or in stipulated time is that while every member of leadership is putting efforts to his achieve his/her individual or departmental goals, they are not working toward achievement of organizational goals. This is a major gap area which is affecting too many organizations.

The summary is that for the leadership team to achieve organizational goals, collective accountability is as important as individual accountability.

Silos

In my observation, every medium to large size organization suffers from silos. Silos are functional spaces cordoned off by the departmental head, who ordains that none of his staff shall be in direct contact with anyone in any other department for any reason. The commandment says that all communication shall be routed through him, the top boss. If another department needs anything, they should tell their boss who would tell him, and he will get it done and send back. It is an unnecessary drill, but it is being practiced religiously.

I have also observed that insecure seniors are very keen to establish and maintain silos, while competent ones keep things open. The reason is simple. Insecurity comes either from lack of competence or due to some dubious activities going on secretively in the department; both are alarming. 

It is also common observation that the top management knows about silos but keep silent about it. They may have many reasons for keeping mum, but the major one is that they do not look at things holistically, they rather focus on work and not how it is done.

Silos are a worldwide phenomenon. Even in the most developed countries, where management thinking is progressive, silos keep existing and flourishing. The damage they are causing is so huge it is difficult to calculate. But t is reducing organizational efficiency significantly and disrupting workflow.                                                                     

Ownership vs Possession of People

The good old wisdom said that when a person gets promoted from among peers and becomes ‘the boss’, he should own the team which is already on ground, develop a rapport with them, and get to work. The new thinking is that do not trust the existing team, bring your own. Bringing teams along with them is unfortunate but it is happening more commonly in organizations, particularly, at the most senior level. This trend has several serious implications.

One, the existing teams tremble when a new boss joins. Each member may react differently. Some may start finding a new job, some go into survival mode and start doing things to survive, some may think of developing relations with the new boss, and others may leave things to time and fate. Problem is no one remains focused on work. Then the boss drops the first shell, he brings a person of his own liking from the previous organization with higher rank and better salary and plants him in the office. The fear of job loss become real and palpable. Slowly, more people are inducted and because the staff cannot be expanded, therefore, old staff is replaced with new ones. People feel that these changes are not on merit, but due to favoritism. The ones from existing staff who rush the join the new league by pleasing the boss keep their place which further strengthens the feeling of unfairness. The new people do not want to mingle with the old ones and the old ones do not trust the new ones.

In the above example, you can see that with one action, how many issues have been created. Most of all, the work dynamics have been destroyed. Who got benefitted? No one. Everyone lost. The new chief lost from the beginning as he started on a wrong note. His new team lost because they started off poorly and could not perform as well as they could. The old team lost because they lost jobs, and the organization lost as a whole. On an overall basis, it is a pathetic model, but it is still being practiced in too many places. The top management does not do anything because they are concerned with results and not people. 

Leadership team should own their respective teams but must not possess them. Possessiveness to try to take them everywhere with them wherever they go. It is counterproductive and counterintuitive.

Cultural Fit

Last point in this discussion is the cultural fit. This is important for all employees, but it is most important for leadership team. They are the ones who serve as role model, promote and nurture culture and value system, and inspire lower ranks to identify with the culture. 

Observation says that most hirings at the highest-level focus on previous achievements, technical skills, and education, in that order. It is a poor model. Previous achievements may not always be replicated because every organization is a different animal and does not behave in the same way. Technical skills are important, but these are also relevant, not absolute. Same skills may not be useful or applicable in all places. Education is completely out of place because the courses he studied twenty years ago are no more valid today. It seems that the entire hiring process is skewed and needs major overhaul. 

Cultural fit is so important that it can make or break even those appointments where other credentials were very appropriate.

Sum Up

Leadership team is what defines the organization, leads it and makes it successful. Utmost attention must be given to them, starting from hiring to working to staying to leaving.

Concluded.

Disclaimers: Pictures in these blogs are taken from free resources at Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, and Google. Credit is given where available. If a copyright claim is lodged, we shall remove the picture with appropriate regrets.

For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, however, it happens unintentionally, I offer my sincere regrets.