Meet Member
Sanobar Syed
What is the biggest challenge facing women leaders in our industry today and how do you overcome it?
The 2 biggest challenges which women face are:
Fair share and recognition as leaders
Fighting gender stereotypes
Women continue to deal with some of the workplace’s most entrenched hurdles.
Everyone has unconscious biases—even the best-intentioned people—which play out in their everyday lives and interactions such as those in the workplace. Working women face a unique set of challenges that intersect across motherhood, race/ethnicity, gender, country and culture. Because of this, many women who oftentimes have to deal with daunting roadblocks such as other people’s beliefs, attitudes, and experiences.
How do I overcome it?
Create conversation ground rules and hold myself + team accountable for following them.
Develop a shared understanding and language about inclusion and exclusion.
Exclusion comes at a great cost to organizations in the form of lowered job satisfaction, reduced work effort, diminished employee voice, and greater intention to leave. Building an inclusive workplace means creating a culture that fully engages and supports all employees.
What is the leadership/business framework you use most often to help you lead effectively?
A quote on leadership that has always resonated with me is from Martin Luther King Jr., “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."
My main job is to support our communities/ patients and help better strategy decision making for my organization. In this, I think the most important thing--and it really comes as a consolidation of many trends--is how do I make my team's work easier?
I use the 4 C’s Model of Leadership: competency, courage, confidence and communication skills.
Creating a vision, have the courage of your convictions, Unleash the power of my people -– these three qualities allows me to cast a shadow of leadership success. People drive a culture of recognition and diversity. I understand how leveraging the power of recognition leads to positive results.
What’s a trend going on in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry that doesn’t get enough attention?
With Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in forecasting + business analytics already making waves in other sectors it's high time that the pharmaceutical industry adapts, rides & amalgamates in this wave.
Forecasting and strategy accurately the market conditions is arguably the most important, not only for the companies themselves but also for the patients they are helping. The key challenge to forecasting is to create a process where the needs of function can be made without compromising the integrity of the forecast approach.
The cost of bringing new pharmaceutical products to market can be astronomical. The high pipeline risks can be mitigated or even prevented with the right tool set for pharmaceutical forecasting and planning. This is critical because predicting the future with relative accuracy helps pharma organizations run better, from planning next month’s production schedule to strategizing budgets/revenue for the next two decades. Specialized teams are required for the methodological framework and forecasting analytics used to support companies' sales projections and long-term planning.
What is your favourite leadership book and why?
Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office by Lois Frankel- The book is written as a list of common mistakes women make and how to fix them. Every page of this book is filled with something you or one of your colleagues/friends do every day. The book is a simple, quick guide to presenting ourselves as the strong and bold women we are. No wonder this book tops the must reads Forbes list for women leaders over a decade.
Out of the many introspecting quotes the author has said in the book I want to mention -- “There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” I will encourage you to read this book and find the page number for this quote
Special nomination for The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper (Yes, the Best seller children’s book)
This timeless tale can be summed up in a single line: “I think I can.” It’s a great tool for teaching anyone to believe in themselves through positive self-talk. It also teaches that leading means working as a team, staying positive and having the courage to face any challenges that come your way.
What are the most important decisions you make as a leader?
As a team lead there are many decisions I am involved with - some are trivial, some are consequential.
I insist on not being involved in every decision, as I will only pull the organization down and discourage the incredibly bright and capable team I work with. Empowering the team is the key.
However, decisions involving vision for the team, aligning activities with the strategic imperatives and resources (talent/people in my case) are very important and vital to take as a leader.
Being committed to the decisions, is like being loyal to my responsibility.
To do less is to relinquish my role as a leader.