Managing in Uncertain Times: Carsten Thiel’s Effective Leadership
Within all industries, leaders across the globe effectively spearhead initiatives, champion the success of their teams, and work diligently to move their sectors forward. Through commitment, leadership skills, empowerment efforts, and ongoing dedication to their teams, leaders effectively inspire greatness, provide mentorship, and encourage positive outcomes. While being in the role of a leader is a rewarding experience, it can also be challenging in a myriad of ways, especially during times of uncertainty, change, or instability.
Tasked with being the absolute example for their team to look to, even the most seasoned leaders can find difficulty in implementing solutions within unprecedented situations, navigating difficult territories, and overcoming unforeseen obstacles. With conditions changing seemingly by the second, the recent global COVID-19 pandemic has parlayed unique difficulties upon leaders. Throughout the pandemic’s spread, as business operations dramatically shifted to accommodate for new concerns and conditions, leaders across the globe have held the difficult task of attempting to navigate the new norms.
For successful pharmaceutical industry leader Carsten Thiel, thirty years of on-the-job leadership experiences have provided him with the wisdom, certainty, and knowledge needed to navigate uncertainties in an effective manner. Throughout his impressive career at the helm of product launches for various pharmaceutical giants, Thiel has navigated changing cultural norms, ethical complexities, and operational changes to effectively lead teams to success. Understanding the role of a successful leader from a relatively young age, Thiel has developed bespoke strategies that can be implemented by other leaders within any industry, and may be regarded as vastly beneficial tools throughout times of uncertainty.
Maintain Ethical Considerations
At the core of every business, the safety, wellbeing, prosperity, and satisfaction of humans should be an unwavering consideration. Regardless of profit margins, growth trajectories, or other aspects of business development, the business cannot thrive without the personnel who manage daily operations. Thus, the changing needs of personnel must be well cared for at all times, whether during times of prosperity and ease, or throughout times of turmoil and change. While this may seem innately human, it can be sometimes lost in the pressures to maintain sales revenue, or other financial burdens.
For leaders facing newly changing operations amidst the current pandemic, it is important to consider the safety, welfare, and long-term comfort of teams first and foremost. For businesses that choose to remain open, ethically based considerations performed on behalf of leaders may include providing employees with the equipment needed to seamlessly transition to a remote working environment. For crucial businesses that remain operational during this time, ethical considerations include ensuring that all staff members are proactively supplied with the correct tools needed to perform their job duties safely, the implementation of hazard pay, and the ability to provide paid time off as needed. While some of these measures, like providing equipment for staff to work from home, may incur additional charges on behalf of the company, proactively caring for the wellbeing of staff ensures a positive outcome, increased loyalty, and the ability to continue to engage in operations that are as close as possible to status quo, given changing conditions. Leaders often talk about “doing the right thing”, and in times of difficulty, this notion is put into action through the ethical treatment of employee teams.
Similarly, for forward-facing businesses, ethical considerations must always be made on behalf of consumers, clients, and individuals who will be utilizing a company’s products. As representatives of a particular company, effective leaders must consider the impact of a brand on the lives of consumers, and act in good faith to protect not only the reputation of the company, but the overall wellbeing of the consumers who utilize the company’s goods. Throughout turbulent times, caring for the public’s best interest may lie in implementing infrastructure to keep people safe, changing operational practices to maintain control over crowds and customers, or even retargeting marketing to best suit the changing needs of the public.
While these feats may be operationally difficult to execute, they are crucial to maintaining trust between consumers and companies, an element that can very well dictate the long-term success of a company. Thus, for leaders within a forward-facing business, adapting to changing recommendations to preserve customer safety proves to be an integral move during times of uncertainty.
Within the scope of Thiel’s experiences in the pharmaceutical industry, he was often tasked with overseeing entire teams of talented individuals, in the quest to effectively bring a new treatment product to market. Sometimes, last-minute findings led to difficult decisions being made, with Thiel choosing to act ethically on the behalf of potential customers at all times. For example, immediately prior to the launch of an Oncological treatment for a particular type of cancer, Thiel’s team discovered the existence of a particular biomarker that would successfully dictate the efficacy of this treatment, prior to the administration of this treatment.
By establishing appropriate genetic testing for the presence of this biomarker prior to the implementation of treatment for prescribers, countless patients would be provided with the confidence of knowing that the treatment would help them. Conversely, countless patients could be spared the heartache of going through an ineffective treatment. Financially, they would also be spared from paying for the ineffective treatment. While these benefits would undeniably change the course of the lives of patients, they would undoubtedly produce less sales volume for the company, through the exclusion of potential participants via the genetic testing. Additionally, requiring the extra procedural step would entail further costs on behalf of the company, training for medical professionals, and the procurement of equipment for all prescribers to be able to test for the presence of the particular biomarker.
Throughout this particular conundrum of ethical consideration versus business success, Thiel understood the importance of patient transparency, building trusting relationships with customers, and the long-term ramifications of failing to disclose the company’s discovery of the biomarker’s existence. As an effective leader, Thiel championed for the company to disclose the discovery, implement a mandatory pre-treatment testing, and utilize the needed funds to successfully bring the product to market with these considerations. At the time of this occurrence, such transparency and patient-consideration were not the status quo within the pharmaceutical industry, and Thiel was met with some professional opposition. Sticking to his belief about the importance of ethical considerations on behalf of customers, Carsten moved forward with his plan, which was met with vastly positive results from the medical community, and patients alike. While initial sales may have been lower than anticipated due to the disqualification of participants, the company’s decision to focus on the wellbeing of patients leveraged a long-term trusting relationship with the public that helped the company successfully launch other treatments, and remain financially successful on a long-term basis.
Remain Practical
In times of duress, it can become easy for even the most even-keeled leaders to succumb to moments of panic, uncertainty, and the inability to “think clearly”. While these emotionally based responses are certainly normal while navigating unprecedented occurrences, they can certainly render it increasingly difficult to effectively lead a team. Thus, for seasoned leaders, remaining practical, and relying on previously mastered common sense, can be useful tools for navigating even the most profoundly impossible situations.
Armed with previously established goals, guidelines, and practical knowledge of a particular industry or field, leaders can look toward those baselines for ways to move forward under changing conditions. Combining common sense, government guidelines, ethical considerations, and previously perfected working knowledge of the company, leaders can implement these baselines to create a basis upon which to build.
For example, for the supervisor of a local health insurance call center, remaining practical could provide a working blueprint for successfully transitioning operations to remote locations. As an integral service that will undoubtedly be utilized by countless individuals during a health related pandemic, health insurance call centers are flooded with inquiries from respective clients. Without even considering any other factors, this surge in volume alone could propel leaders to panic. However, the leader of a team of agents could implement rational thinking to effectively move forward, using previously mastered understanding of daily operations to disperse directives to mirror these operations from a home setting. By implementing appropriate technology, an effective leader in this position will be able to set standards and goals for operators, check in on progress, and ensure that all operations are remotely functioning through the practical application of similar measures that are utilized under “normal” circumstances.
Think Long-Term
During times of unparalleled movement and change, leaders can often feel the need to be somewhat reactionary, or to resolve only short-term issues immediately. While this may be somewhat true in life-or-death situations, or when considering the health of others, the ability to think on a long-term basis can provide clarity, direction, and perspective for leaders within any industry. Abrupt changes essentially sweep the proverbial rug of normalcy up from the stable feet of leaders, and thus, can impart an urgency to react. However, the long-term trajectory of a company’s operations can provide the motivation needed to make changes as necessary, and resolve to continue to work toward particular long-term goals.
By being able to proactively consider long-term aspects, in tandem with immediate needs, leaders are able to impart feelings of stability, assurance of the longevity of a company’s breadth, and provide positive goals for employees to work toward. For leaders, conveying the prospect of future goals, and the ability to think on a long-term basis, creates a myriad of benefits for teams, and can be an effective tool to maintain motivation. At a time when normalcy is scarce, and long-term projections in various aspects of life may seem shaky at best, the projection of long-term professional goals can incite motivation, professional commitment, and the desire to continue excelling professionally under the new normalcy of operations.
Utilize Technology
From Zoom meetings, to VPNs that allow entire teams seamless access to needed files, there is a myriad of communication, efficiency, and team building tools that can be effectively utilized to promote streamlined operations, ongoing ability to perform tasks, and the ability to effectively communicate amongst co-workers. As a leader, implementing communication expectation throughout times of uncertainty, or remote work conditions, will not only provide employees with the blueprint for action, but will aid in the crucial need to keep all team members abreast of changes, ongoing work, and any other operational needs.
As most employees aren’t well versed in working totally autonomously, implementing technology to impart check-ins, assignment instructions, and feedback is a fantastic way to maintain supervision, create infrastructure, and ensure that all team members feel confident in their remote work.
Remember The Role
Intrinsically, the pivotal role of any leader is to inspire success, champion others, lead by example, and to successfully provide the resources needed to garner fruitful results. Within any industry, the definition of this role may change slightly, but these core requirements remain resoundingly similar. Thus, throughout times of uncertainty, effective leaders have to remember their duties, and adapt to changing conditions in order to ensure that they can successfully continue to fulfill those duties. By pivoting directions as needed, implementing changes, and spearheading communication, leaders can play an integral role in creating the most comfortable, successful, and positive experience for their teams throughout the occurrence of unprecedented changes.
Follow Carsten Thiel on Twitter and ThriveGlobal.
