What transforms you into a Leader from a decent professional? Is it your Title, no never? The resources you have in your dashboard? Not at all. Even the background you carry does not significantly constitute your Leadership Skills. The question still remains the same. What are the most important characteristics that lead you to the stature of a leader particularly in Life Sciences Consulting?
Authority and power over the subordinates also are not the basic ingredients of a leader’s personality. It is the vision and the insights about your field and your organization that help you grow as a leader, influence the people and direct them towards the journey of sustainable success. The blog post is a result of profound and rigorous research and observation on which factors contributed the most to the success of the present leading faces in the Life Sciences Industry. Let’s begin discovering each to enlighten ourselves and embark on the path of evergreen success;
Communication
Name a profession that does not ask for Communication Skills to ace. We will wait. Needless to stress the importance of head in a general walk of life. But, when it comes to Life Sciences Industry, the significance manifolds since the research, discussion, development, and invention are the primary heads of functions. The functions and responsibilities a professional performs in the industry are incomplete without effective communication. Let alone its usefulness for aspiring leaders. It won’t be an exaggeration if communication is termed as a must-to-have skill for leaders to productively and effectively lead not only the respective organization but the sector as a whole.
Let’s dive into more aspects Life Sciences Consultants should consider learning;
1. Attentive Listening
Listening attentively is one of the primary pillars of great communication. When you listen with appropriate attention, you are more likely to understand the thought, ideas and expressions shared along with those to be read between the lines. Furthermore, the fruits of mutual respect, a bond of trust, and a healthy relationship are also the result of great listening.
2. Body Language
Ones who are well aware of what is life sciences consulting, certainly realize how instrumental body language is for a leader. Lowered gaze and fumbling body language while discussing an idea, explaining a plan, or sharing something might not benefit a lot. Instead, correct straight body posture. Looking confidently in the eye as a leader compliments more and makes you more impactful and meaningful.
Strategic and Practical Approach
One of the distinguishing factors between a decent professional and a leader is the ability to think strategically and transform the devised plan to the phase of implementation. A dreamer alone cannot get the work done. Instead, a blend of both dreamer and doer lets you embrace the leadership mindset. Half of the job is done when one manages to balance between the two to perfection. Strategic Approach asks a leader to think a hundred times, review the industry trends, evaluate the potential fields for the future in consideration with the data available before reaching to the stage of making a decision. Not only this helps in making the right decision but your critical approach in each matter inspires your followers or subordinates to follow the same.
What are Life Sciences Companies, how do they operate and what should be the best methodology. All such questions require both a strategic mindset to plan and a practical approach to implementing adequately.
Delegation of Tasks and Responsibilities
One man can’t manage all the tasks and responsibilities of the entire organization; it asks for a competent team. A leader realizes the fact and respects the need for fellow professionals. The matter is even more crucial in the complicated industry of Life Sciences Consulting considering the nature of the work. Delegation of Tasks and Responsibilities is quite a technical task. As you need to know about the skillset of each of the members of the team, guide accordingly. And evaluate if the assignment is done up to the mark. On the other hand, employees feel more honored and respected when given a chance to participate more in the projects and tasks.
Constant Oversight is one of the most common mistakes leaders often unintentionally make. You need not monitor all happenings and progress of a project once delegated to a team member. Furthermore, another aspect is the liking and preference of each of the employees. Leaders should assign things in accordance with the passion and enthusiasm of team members.
Participative Instead of Authoritative
A leader understands the true potential of the team. He/she knows well about the value the team can add to decision making if asked to involve and participative. The authoritative Approach of leadership fails to respect and encourage the participation of employees. Only the leader tends to assign the responsibilities and the employees get to follow each and every instruction by adding his/her personal expertise, knowledge, and creativity for value addition. In consequence, employees feel like machines and treated poorly. The whole practice brews an environment unideal for productive working. The reason why this head stresses following the participative approach in the Life Sciences Consulting Sector.
The participative approach empowers the employees in decision-making. The sense of responsibility thrives in the employee, in return, the team works harder with more dedication to achieve the organizational goal.
Leading by Example
Actions speak louder than words. What you do impacts and influences more than what you say. People look up to leaders to follow adapt the personality traits, work ethics, code of conduct, and everything one can think about. If you are a leader, you should be well aware of the fact that each of your actions matters for your followers and subordinates. Therefore, you need to present yourself as the role model embodying each of the characteristics you expect your employees to learn and practice. It does not matter if you advocate your activities or not. Your communication, your attitude, your reactions to problems, your approach to working. Irrespective they are good or not, everything has a subtle impact on the people.