Pharma Veterans

Teams That Empower Each Other – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1135 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1135 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: fauxels Credit: Kindel Media Preamble In a high-performing team, something magical happens—members consistently support, encourage, and elevate one another. It's not just about individual brilliance; it's about synergy. Unfortunately, many workplaces still promote individualism, silent rivalries, and siloed operations. But the modern workplace demands more than just task completion—it needs cohesive units that build each other up. So how can leaders and organizations intentionally create teams that operate from a place of mutual support rather than competition? Let’s explore this in some depth. Why Do We Need Teams That Uplift Each Other? Before d...

Recognition Gap Between Developed and Developing Economies – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1134 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1134 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Artem Podrez Credit: Edmond Dantés Preamble In the evolving world of work, talent is the engine of innovation, performance, and progress. While developed countries often champion a culture of meritocracy—where skills, ideas, and contributions are openly rewarded—developing countries frequently fall short in offering the same level of respect, recognition, and dignity to their workforce, especially their mid-tier talent. The consequences are visible: brain drain, employee disengagement, reduced productivity, and an underutilized human capital base. While a commonly cited reason is the lack of employment opportunities—whic...

Widening Chasm Between Senior and Middle Management– Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1133 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1133 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: cottonbro studio Credit: PNW Production Preamble In modern organizations, middle managers are the glue that holds together strategy, execution, people, and process. Yet increasingly, they are feeling disconnected from the very leaders they report to—senior executives. My last blog post was on this subject. This widening gap—often referred to as the “leadership chasm”—has created frustration, disengagement, and even organizational dysfunction. Middle managers feel overlooked, unsupported, and under pressure, while senior management often perceives them as resistant to change, lacking vision, or slow to execute strategy. Why is this...

The Middle Management is Squeezed and Struggling – Why and What Should be Done – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1132 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1132 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: cottonbro studio Credit: Mikhail Nilov Preamble In the corporate hierarchy, middle managers have traditionally been the bridge between strategy and execution, vision and action, senior leaders and frontline teams. They are the interpreters, implementers, buffers, and stabilizers. But today, middle managers find themselves in an uncomfortable, often unsustainable position. With mounting responsibilities, increasing ambiguity, and little recognition, they are the most squeezed layer in modern organizations—and many are burning out.  What’s changed in the role of middle managers? Why the pressure is...

The Embodiment Gap in Leadership: Why Knowing Isn’t the Same as Doing? – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1131 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1131 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: August de Richelieu Credit: ICSA Credit: Yan Krukau Preamble Walk into any corporate training room, and you’ll find leaders scribbling notes on active listening, emotional intelligence, resilience, or adaptability. They nod in agreement, fully understanding the theories being presented. Yet, back at their desks, when the pressure mounts, the same leaders snap at colleagues, micromanage, or fall back into old, usual habits. This disconnect between knowing about leadership and practicing leadership is known as the Embodiment Gap — the difference between intellectually grasping leadership concepts and physically, ...

Gen Z in Leadership – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1130 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1130 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Mikhail Nilov Credit: Pavel Danilyuk Preamble It is July. Time in Pakistan for promotions in pharma industry. Every day I see beaming faces announcing their upgrading to various senior positions, such as general manager, business unit head, business manager, group product manager, and the list ends. We can understand that an even larger number would have been promoted as district managers but those announcement are not seen. I am curious why. Is it so that they are not really happy with promotion? Is it so that the role does not appeal to them?  Even otherwise, talk to any Genzer and she/he will most likely say they would like to do something of their ow...

Executive Coach and Coachee Interface – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1129 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1129 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: cottonbro studio Credit: Jorge Urosa Preamble In the developed world, executive coaching is a cornerstone of leadership development. For many senior executives, having a coach is now as routine as having a mentor—but just having a coach on retainer doesn’t guarantee personal growth or meaningful transformation. The real challenge lies in how both the leader (coachee) and the coach engage to make the relationship impactful. Too often, coaching relationships falter—not because coaching doesn’t work, but because one or both parties fail to invest fully in the process. Drawing on insights from INSEAD experts Derek Deasy and Enoch Li (link at the...

Executive Coaching – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1128 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1128 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: RDNE Stock Project Credit: Timur Weber Preamble In this blog post, we explore executive coaching, its purpose, the expectations from an executive coach, and the deeper questions surrounding whether a coach should provide answers or ask more questions. Executive Coaching: Answers, Questions, or Both? In today’s fast-paced, competitive, and often volatile business world, leadership roles come with relentless demands. Executives are expected to deliver results, drive innovation, manage people, and navigate complex markets, all while maintaining composure and clarity. This is where executive coaching comes in. Executive coaching is talked about in corporate circle...

Brainstorming Sessions – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1127 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1127 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: fauxels Credit: Olia danilevich Credit: R._.F Studio Preamble Pharma industry is also very fond of holding brainstorming sessions. Every now and then, such sessions are held enthusiastically, though fruitlessly. Pharma industry is not the only industry, other corporates are equally interested in it. Let us explore what are the issues at play and how it may be done better. Brainstorming in Corporate Life: Why It Often Fails — And How to Fix It Walk into any corporate office today, and you’ll likely find a whiteboard filled with colorful sticky notes and a group of people enthusiastically exchanging ideas in what’s labeled a “brainstorming session.” It’s a b...