biomedicine

April 28, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Leadership: How to Act Like a Leader

Leaders show certain traits, skills and habits to those they lead. Some leaders exhibit some of them more than others, but all leaders consistently behave like leaders. In short, they do what leaders do.

Like any role, leadership is based on knowledge, skill and attitude. We can all gain new knowledge and learn new skills – or hone what we already have. In this series of articles we will explore the knowledge and skills that define leadership.

Leaders Know Where They Want to Get to

The origin of the word leader is the way. Leaders know where they want to get to, and they know they must bring their team and their customers with them. They then work out the best way to get there. This is the power behind a corporate philosophy, vision and mission statement.

Too many mission statements are words on a sheet of paper. A corporate philosophy, a company’s vision of its own future, and the mission everyone sets out on to make that future a reality must be a living, breathing, encompassing, defining, set of standards, goals, acceptable practice and actions. Leaders are on a mission. Leaders know where they want to get to.

Leaders Stay Focused

Once the vision is clear, the end goals, performance goals and process goals for the company, for each department and function, and for each individual team member become powerful things. Leaders focus on them, and they stay focused on them. Every project, activity and action must meet those standards the leader has set out. The leader puts systems in place to monitor, manage, review, improve or (where needed) correct each of them. Leaders also make sure the systems can all be justified in terms of those standards, so everyone buys in and adopts them in their daily actions. Leaders focus on keeping the whole team on track.

Leaders Are Believed and are Believable

Anyone can fake it, but not everyone makes it. Leaders who really believe in their vision of how they want their company to be, and how they want their team members, customers, prospects and competitors to see them, are believed when they speak and act. Leaders who stay focused on their “Big Why” and who show a level of integrity that endures, are totally believable. When they praise, coach, counsel, criticize and discipline, and when they announce new plans and new challenges, they are believed. When they relate everything they say and do back to the company’s standards, and the customers’ expectations, then everything they say and do is taken on board by others.

The Take-Away

Leadership is not inborn. Some people may, as Winston Churchill said, be born great, but most of us achieve greatness. We achieve it by behaving like leaders – by knowing what constitutes leadership, and by honing the right skills.

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

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April 26, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Fluctuations in Weight Leads to Dramatically Increased Risks for Cardiac Patients

Weight loss has always been suggested for those with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 in patients with cardiovascular disease as we know that obesity contributes to poor cardiac outcomes in that segment. However, a new study suggests that patients who experience a fluctuation in body weight may be at a higher risk for certain diseases and conditions, including coronary events, CV events, and stroke.

Body Weight Variability and Risk Factors

The study, published this week in the NEJM looked at 9509 patients with an established diagnosis of coronary artery disease, explores the relationship between fluctuations in body weight and the incidence of cardiac events. After adjustments for baseline lipid levels, mean body weight, other risk factors, and weight change, each fluctuation equal to at least 1.5 kg in body weight variability was found to be associated with an increase in risk for subsequent events.

Compared with patients having fewer fluctuations in weight or less than .93 kg on average, patients with the most seesawing exhibited the following increased risks:

64 percent for coronary events
85 percent for cardiovascular events
124 percent for death
117 percent for myocardial infarctions
136 percent for strokes

Sripal Bangalore, MD, MHA, the lead investigator for the study, warns similar fluctuations in weight also increase risks for developing adult onset diabetes at a rate increase of 95 percent.

Baseline Weight is an Important Factor

It’s important to note that patients with a normal weight at baseline who experienced similar body weight fluctuations did not appear to be at an increased risk for the same events. Therefore, those patients who are already overweight at when diagnosed with CAD and CVD are in the danger zone.

What This Means for Weight Loss

Obesity remains one of the greatest risk factors for many disease processes. Dramatic weight loss for curing obesity is still the best approach for lowering risk factors across the board. However, for this subset of patients, it is important that the weight loss is sustained. The goal should always be to achieve a healthy weight as this reduces the risk of developing cardiac disease to start with.

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April 21, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Leadership When Your Organization is Changing

When your organization is in flux, your leadership skills may feel tested. Even if you know exactly where your company is headed, members of your team may feel insecure, worried, and apprehensive. It takes real leadership skills to keep those emotions from affecting productivity. Not only does it take a lot of skill to lead through organizational change, but it also takes having a realistic understanding and application of the change itself as it applies to your team specifically.

Embrace Change

You can’t lead change if you do not embrace it. There are likely things that you are apprehensive about, worries you have about the future; all of these “what ifs” that keep you awake at night. At some point, you have to let all of that go and commit fully to the change that is happening in your organization and of which you have no control. Don’t beat yourself up about having doubts. There is a well established “grieving” process associated with corporate change. When graphed out, it looks something like an upside-down bell curve and progresses like this:

High Expectations > Shock > Mourning > Nostalgia > Anxiety > Guilt > Depression > Letting Go > EMBRACING CHANGE> Focus > Structure > Hope > Attachment > Excitement > Realistic Expectations

Convey the Goals for Change

There is no debate that change within a corporation can lead to the creation of opportunities and competitive advantage, while companies that refuse change are inching toward a slow painful death. This isn’t to say that all change is positive, just that the goals of change most certainly are. The idea here is to focus on and convey how the changes will help your company innovate, disrupt, and improve your industry, the lives of your customers, and the company culture. Don’t assume that team members understand the reasons for the changes, the ultimate goals, or even the extent of the changes being made and how it does or does not affect them.

Model the Desired Behavior

Whether your team needs calm, enthusiasm, or encouragement, they will expect to find it in you. Even if you aren’t quite there yet, model the behavior your team needs to progress through the change. One quote comes to mind as I write this:

“People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” John C. Maxwell, author and leadership expert.

If your team trusts and believes in you, they will follow your vision through the many ups and downs of change. This is the mark of your leadership.

Create a Vision You Actually Believe In

No matter what the corporate expectations are, develop realistic expectations that you and your team can get behind. Only when you are grounded in reality, can you have hope and believe for the best. If you are riding the rollercoaster of corporate spin it ‘s hard to find footing, stabilize, and move forward.

Align Your Vision with the Corporate Vision

When you are dealing with a truly realistic corporate vision, your job of leading change is made simpler. However, it is not uncommon for corporate to have lofty or far-reaching, long-term expectations. These expectations aren’t necessarily unreasonable but may take time. Make sure that each team member feels connected to the big picture goals. To facilitate this, create goals for your team that are incremental, realistic and that align with the larger corporate goals and vision.

When organizational change is occurring the unsettling ripple effect impacts, everyone. Effectively leading through change requires an understanding of what your team needs to feel secure. This is especially important because we know that uncertainty and inefficiency often go hand in hand.

Sure, leadership who successfully creates change are seen as visionary, change agents, and forward thinkers. The less glamorous reality is that effective change leaders simply find ways to keep their team motivated, secure, and focused on creating a vision everyone can believe in.

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April 17, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Biotechnology industry developing bioelectronic treatments for diseases

Galvani Bioelectronics, a joint venture of an American company, Verify Life Sciences (formerly Google Life Sciences), and a British company, GSK, is embarking on a relatively new method of treating diseases, by hacking into the human nervous system. The biotechnology company hopes to have treatments available within seven years.

During animal trials, Galvani patched into the nervous systems of test subjects to alter the way they signal the presence of glucose in the bloodstream. The nerves feed the data to the brain, which in turn raises or lowers the levels of insulin in the body. The idea is that such a patch could be used to treat type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the human body produces too little insulin to process blood glucose.

Another possible application would be a treatment for arthritis and other chronic pain conditions, turning off or even just turning down the pain signals, providing relief without recourse to medications.

In the future, people who are undergoing bioelectronics treatment would wear implanted devices that would control the signals their nervous systems send. These devices would be battery powered and would be customized to fit each individual.

The ability to not only turn nerve signals on or off, but to also control their strength and rhythm, has the potential to treat a whole host of diseases. Think of them as pacemakers for the nervous system.

Of course, the science of bioelectronics is brand new, sort of like genetic therapy was a decade or so ago. But it has the promise to change the way health care providers treat disease.

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April 14, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Jack Welch’s 5 Traits of Leadership

Jack Welch was a business force of immense magnitude. He was Chairman of General Electric for 20 years, and his impact grew the company’s value by 4000%. He is an exceptional leader. He believes there are five leadership traits in addition to the obvious foundation needs – intelligence, emotional maturity and integrity. Without those three obvious requirements, the five traits Welch emphasizes would either not exist, or they would be meaningless. Three of those five either exist within a person or they do not. If not, the other two, which can be learned, also become meaningless.

1. Positive Energy

Leaders neither exhibit a lack of energy nor negative energy; they have an inbuilt positive energy. Positive energy drives someone forward through good times and bad. Positive energy enables an individual whether working alone or managing a team to see the future they want to create and to keep going until they break though the barriers.

2. The Ability to Energize Others

Positive energy is infectious. It not only rubs off on the team, but it becomes part of who they are. Team members see and feel the leader’s energy. It attracts them and they want to copy that powerful trait. A positively charged team accomplishes goals, works through problems, and develops its own energy. That energy drives them all forward and keeps them wanting to succeed.

3. Edge

Welch uses this word to define the leader who can make difficult decisions. Decisions are based on knowledge, experience and, quite often, gut. Leaders give decisive answers – a definite “Yes” or a definite “No”. They do not waffle or wander off topic because it is complicated or has support from both sides of the argument. Leaders have authority and responsibility. That is not always an easy position to be in. Hire the right people, fire the wrong people, support the right project or cancel the wrong one. Leaders know they must make decisions, so they set about learning enough to be able to make the right decision more often than the wrong decision or no decision at all.

4. The Talent to Execute

Leaders get things done. They learn, they consider, they decide and they implement. Decisions without follow-though are not decisions, they are just conversation. Leaders get things done and they earn a track record for getting things done. The net result is that others want to follow them – and get more things done.

5. Passion

Leaders care deeply about themselves, their team, their goals, the organization as a whole, the market they are in and the markets they want to get into. They also care deeply about their customer base. People who are passionate about these things become driven. They have to succeed. That passion, just like positive energy fuels the team and the team’s actions as a whole.

The Take-Away

Leaders are tempered in the fire of real-world action, they know the glow of success and the pain of failure. Passionate, people filled with positive energy, get stronger as the fire tempers their steel. Experience gives them the facility to make strong decisions, and to impart their desire to succeed to their team. Recruiting people with these traits enables companies to build for the future, and to capitalize on the presence.

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