Humility

Today I’m sharing a research report by Perspective, a firm that facilitates growth across the healthcare industry.  Perspective asked 10 R&D leaders from the biopharmaceutical industry to help answer the question:

“Why does it seem so hard to get R&D recruiting right?”

My key take-aways after 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry, climbing the R&D ladder and hiring for R&D teams include the following:

“There is more to a successful candidate than a CV” ~~ Tal Zaks, Chief Medical Officer, Moderna

Screening for intangible traits such as,

            humility

            humor

            flexibility

            empathy

            resilience

                        that may lurk in shadows of a candidate’s accomplishments

Emphatic readiness: “strong yearning for something different” ~~ Keith Gottesdiener, MD, former CEO of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals

The biggest hurdle for MDs – we are trained as the penultimate individual contributor” … “in pharma, anyone who can derail your program is as important as the next guy”

Michael Clayman, CEO of Flexion Therapeutics: I want someone who asks…

“how am I going to integrate into this company and what do I need to learn?”

Humility arose as the most salient quality that would help incoming R&D leadership flourish

I’d like to thank Kara Coluccio Bern, Partner at Perspective, for allowing me to share this important report