The Energy of Leadership

 I sat down with Glen Pearce — and serendipitously, it was the same day Ryeqo, Gedeon Richter’s treatment for women suffering with endometriosis, was listed on the PBS.
We unpacked some brilliant leadership lessons:

• Be curious, not the one with all the answers
• Read the room and look to your team for solutions
• Trust that the answers often lie within the group
• Ask the right questions
• Listen closely — even to what your body is telling you

Glen’s perspective is thoughtful, grounded, and genuinely inspiring.

Transcript

[00:00:00] 

Tara: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us today. This is the Innov8 in MedTech podcast, a show for MedTech and life sciences professionals that aims to help you get ahead in your career. I'm your host, Tara Sharma, ex MedTech professional, turned executive search headhunter, and owner of recruitment agency, innov8Search for the MedTech, pharma, and biotech industries with over 20 years of experience in the healthcare field.

For more tips and tricks on how to get ahead in your career, follow me on LinkedIn. Let's dive into this week's episode.

Tara: So, Glen, we're so excited to have you here today on this episode of our podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. I'd love you to [00:01:00] tell our audience a little bit about yourself and your career journey into the industry and into being an executive in the pharmaceutical industry.

Glen: Tara, thank you for having me.

Absolute pleasure to be here as well. It started out as nuclear medicine something that I perhaps didn't see myself doing, but something that my mother thought that I might enjoy. I pictured myself taking a year off and maybe being a sports instructor up the coast somewhere.

Yeah. And decided that I would be going to uni. Okay. She signed me up actually for the course. Oh, wow. Okay. So nuclear medicine is where I first went into as a nuclear medicine scientist. I worked in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and John Hunter Hospital, and then went out into private practice as well.

And working in that industry I enjoyed it for a period of time until I didn't. And there was a particular day that I can remember the exact day where I had a patient, there was a little boy, a 3-year-old who was having bone cancer [00:02:00] and only had six months left to live. And he looked up into my eyes and he was in incredible pain.

But he did everything that I needed to do to work with him during our session. And the next lady that came in was a lot older, but she whinged and cried and screamed and abused me and my team and soiled the table and the rest of it. And I went home that day and I spoke to my wife and I said, I'm really struggling to treat both of these patients with that same empathy and care that I should.

And she said, Glenn, you need to get out, you need to try, think of something different to do. And on that next day, I started to explore. Wow. So I explored both the sales element and I explored also academia. So I was a lecturer and tutor at Sydney University. And I also started working back in the industry as a sales rep.

The sales rep suited me. It really, it was something that I think going out and seeing people and meeting people after being locked in, playing with Radioisotopes for a few years, [00:03:00] it was something that, that was a bit refreshing as well, and I was able to go out and I realized I really enjoyed it.

And I was probably pretty good at it and I certainly enjoyed being with the people that opened up a whole new career for me then a different piece. If I had sat there and said, oh, I'm gonna study nuclear medicine, but then I'm gonna end up being a sales rep or a sales manager, or we'll get into marketing.

I certainly hadn't pictured that this would be the path that I would go down. Yeah. I was given a couple of opportunities. So, in, my first roles were with Radpharm Scientific originally and then with Mallinckrodt Tyco . So into the medical device industry where it sort of touched over with Radiopharmaceuticals, et cetera as well.

And contrast media. So I went from selling to being in my first marketing role where I was looking after that whole product portfolio and went through an acquisition. So I was on the Mallinckrodt side when we were taken over. Okay. At Tyco. Yeah. In the back of that I was given a really big promotion, so I was given the responsibility for Australia and New [00:04:00] Zealand for the marketing side of that part of the business.

Right. And that opened up a new door again for me. Yeah. Where, why? Well, next step, I think for me, I was offered a role in St. Louis, and so Mallincrodt was gonna send me across to the US and at that particular time, my manager thought that wasn't the right role for me and over me, but my family and I were very excited and very interested, and that probably sparked my curiosity then to say, all right if I'm being blocked internally for a wonderful opportunity, what else is out there? And that's where I ended up in pharma. So I moved from devices into pharma on the back of that that opportunity being shut off from me, I guess in this sense. Yeah. I went to Serono working then, in growth hormone at first.

And then in IVF in particular, and my manager at the time saw potential I think in me and really gave me a really big portfolio only after a few months of being there. I had the fertility in the women's health portfolio. Gosh, yeah. The team [00:05:00] that I put around me at that particular time we achieved best in world result.

So we had the highest market share, the highest sales growth of any of the affiliates in the rest of the world. And the deputy CEO came out to Australia and he did a road trip with me. We went out and saw some customers and he said, Glen, I don't want you to be in Sydney. I want you to be in Geneva.

You know what you've done here with your team and what your team has achieved. I would love you to be part of the global strategy and actually looking after this worldwide. So I think it was an Easter Friday. Yeah. Good Friday. And I had to, by Monday, talk to my family and to say, do we take on this opportunity in Switzerland?

And we took it Amazing. So the next phase of my career was then as a global marketing director, sitting in Geneva. Yeah. With worldwide responsibility within that fertility portfolio again. Yeah. There, what I was told was you go for two years in Geneva, Glen, and you'll come back and you'll be the general [00:06:00] manager and you'll be looking after Australia.

Yeah. And that seemed like a nice career path and the next step and logical progression. What they didn't tell me was that a German company was gonna take over Serono at that particular point. And the deputy CEO who had sponsored me to Geneva lost his job. And here I was wondering what happens next?

There's no trip home for me that was perhaps shut, but it actually opened up the biggest opportunities that I'd ever had. I had never thought of a role that was bigger than a country manager's role. And what I ended up with after this was I ended up on the European leadership team.

With responsibility for marketing, for medical, and for business development, for all of the portfolios for Merck Serono. So about a $2 Billion responsibility launching products across multiple countries, doing business reviews a across the whole of the European Union where different ways of doing business and the [00:07:00] portfolios were, I was exposed to.

I think through these opportunity and I didn't even know this existed. I didn't know this role existed, you know? Yeah. From Australia. You wouldn't be thinking about it. I wasn't thinking it was never on my career path. And from there I was then given international, so worldwide sales responsibility for the neurology franchise.

And this again, was something I probably hadn't expect. So I became in, again, Australia was part of my territory. So I had the Australian business was one of my territories that I was responsible for. Yeah. I got to launch new products first in the world through my territories and through my teams, and that was really exciting.

And I could be doing business in Brazil one day. Russia the next, and then back out here or in Japan and Australia, in Canada. So the territory was pretty big. Yes. And I think this after a couple of years of this, it was also exhausting, leaving home on a on a Sunday night usually to do a long haul flight to one of my territories and then back the following Sunday or Friday night as well.

So, yeah, this while [00:08:00] it opened up some fantastic travel experiences and some wonderful business opportunities, it was very draining also in the family. Yeah, I can imagine. And you were in Switzerland still then? So I was in Switzerland responsible for every country outside of Europe.

Tara: Oh my gosh.

So how long did you do it for?

Glen: For a couple years. 

Tara: Yeah. Okay. And then from there you came back, or? 

Glen: I had a decision to make, Merck Serono decided to sort of shut down their Geneva office, and they actually offered me at the time to be head of Asia based in Singapore. Yeah. But they also offered my wife , who was working at Serono at the same time, or Merck Serono, a job in Damstead.

So for me, this was maybe they didn't have our best interest as a family at heart, if they're sending me to one country and her to another and at that particular time, Shire offered me a role as Global commercial lead and also the franchise lead. So I went into rare diseases and yeah, this was in Nyon at the time.

So instead of the family being sent to all different [00:09:00] parts of navigate through this with me looking after I knew and I think probably something that I was that really shaped me. I was really impacted by the impact we were having on patients and really seeing the difference that we were making on patients and their families as well. So that particular role was something that, again, probably something I didn't look out for, I didn't know it existed, but something that I truly treasure in shaping me and the wonderful opportunity it gave me to have an impact on patients.

Tara: And where was that, where were you located? 

Glen: That was in Switzerland. That was in Switzerland. Yeah. Switzerland is, yeah. And we was firstly in Nyon and then we moved across also to Zug. Yeah. And what, how did I end back up in Australia? So in this sense, my daughter was getting close to high school.

We've done 10 years now living in Switzerland. We've got a French speaking family and my company decides to. Moved to the German part and yes, it was again, another wonderful opportunity. However, we'd said, we've done 10 years. If we move here, we want to give our children [00:10:00] stability, particularly through their high school years.

And as we've divided them up and the kids are every four years in our place it almost meant that if we stayed, we were staying for another 10 years to enable all of them to get through high school. Yeah. And so we made the decision let's, if we're not gonna live in Zug, where would we like to live?

And after being away from Australia for 10 years, home was calling. Yeah. Families were getting older. Grandparents were needing more support. And the opportunity came that we said, all right. That's now's the time when we'll move back. 

Tara: And when was that, Glen? How long ago? 

Glen: It was in 2014.

Yes. That we actually then moved back to Australia. 

Tara: Okay. And what did you do when you came back? 

Glen: So I had nothing. Okay. No role. Yep. We threw it all in. We put our house on the market and had sold. We had nine people came through and eight people gave us an offer. Wow. We figured it was meant to be.

We're selling first day that we put it on the market and it sold so we [00:11:00] really fast tracked our decision to come home. The two areas that I'd really been passionate about were leadership and communication, and I'd been reporting directly to a board member for nearly 10 years. Okay. Across the two different roles or the two, companies.

So I had sat very close to the highest level of the organization for that, for 10 years. Okay. And I'd been involved with a lot of then Strategic projects, been involved with layoffs, massive layoffs but also growth opportunities and new market entries. And I try to set up then a consulting business to say I've got this experience.

Yeah. Would it be of value? Yeah. And what I found was that sectors outside of Pharma truly embraced this, the experiences that I had some of those lessons learned in pharma, traveled to consulting firms in, or opportunities within mining, banking, insurance. Wow. Things that I would never have thought myself as well after 25 years [00:12:00] experience or career in pharma.

Yeah, healthcare and pharma healthcare and pharma. Why would somebody be interested? And, but they were, yeah. 'cause the same lessons people were involved and how we communicated change and change management. Yeah. How we work through that, those same lessons were across all sectors.

Tara: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Makes sense now when you look at it that way. Okay. So you came back and went into consulting for a while 

Glen: and had my own consulting business then for a while. Which merged and I think Covid probably then threw the next little opportunity my way. Yeah. And it's funny how these things happen.

I was on a ski lift Yeah. With a friend of mine and we were sitting down and we were talking about our consulting businesses separate and how some of the things we were doing were very similar. Now I was very focused on leadership. Michael, became my business partner at the time was very focused on Agile and Launch.

And what we did was, we actually at the end of that ski trip, probably after several of these runs and maybe a few sakes [00:13:00] decided we would set up PharmaAgile and Pharma Agile for us was an opportunity to meet a bit of a gap was to actually, go into some of the pharma companies to pro a leadership program that was also focused on launch excellence.

Yeah. And helping them. And most of our clients were based in Europe or US. So we were doing this out of Australia, which was an interesting place when Covid came and shut us all, all down. Yeah. But we became then experts at working through the night. Yeah. Working with our teams virtually. But also this became also a bit of a drag because working different time zones and then trying to live in Australia for me anyway, it became more of a challenge.

So I, 

Tara: you'd done that in a different way that you were traveling. It probably impacted the family again, if you were working all hours. Absolutely. 

Glen: And. Yeah. I think trying to work, starting a project team at 11 PM and then, going through to 4:00 AM and then trying to be present for your kids when they're getting up in the morning or trying to be there to coach their teams or to give them help or just [00:14:00] even to be just a functional member of the family.

It becomes a different challenge. Yeah, of course. And so then what happened from there? So from there, I made a decision to focus more on consulting than in the Australian Asian region. In my time zone. In your time zone. In my time zone. That was what, yeah where it really happened and yeah.

And I had some great clients. I think I worked for about 18 months, particularly with AstraZeneca. Yeah. Liz Chat, one at the time brought me in as to coach her, but also to coach her leadership team. And I was working through another group called ADAPTOVATE who do a lot of the agile ways of working in agile coaching.

So we came in and supported AstraZeneca. I then also went and supported or worked with Sanofi and the Sanofi leadership team really enjoyed this. This I think also gave me the opportunity to say, ah, I'm missing something. So this nearly 10 years of consulting coming in and helping.

And then getting out after a little piece of time, being actually involved again with people and with the team and longer term was something [00:15:00] that I realized maybe I've missed this enough and that I would love to get back into it. Yeah. And that's pretty where I've ended up now, but on the back of that.

Tara: Okay. And so now you are, so now I'm the general manager at Gedeon Richter. 

Glen: Yeah. Focus on women's health and in particular endometriosis. And it's something that I probably didn't see myself at and 18 months ago when I was asked to think about it, it wasn't what I was looking for.

It was, I didn't think it's what I was looking for, but I was wrong. I was so wrong. That's amazing. And look, I've had exposure to your business, your team and been to events and the passion in your business is just incredible and it certainly runs from the top down, from everything I've seen.

Tara: So that's, thank you so much for sharing your story. So look, during that time, because a lot of our audience will be aspiring to take similar steps to you and are looking for guidance, were there some key milestones or experiences that you felt really prepared you for a leadership position throughout your career journey?

Glen: I think one of the most [00:16:00] life changing events that I had the opportunity to attend was I went to a leadership course at IMD in 2006, and the professor that ran that course was called George Kohlrieser. Okay. And he's somebody who's became then a massive mentor to me after this and since then, okay.

But he was a hostage negotiator. Wow. And he put together a leadership program, but designed particularly around secure based leadership and. For me, I went to this course and at that time I was the youngest global director in the company, and I thought I was going to CEO 101.

Yeah. I really did think that I was getting a fast track to, I wanted to be a CEO and this is what I was doing. And after that week and that week, we explored the behavior, high performance behaviors, the patterns for success, we went through some incredible speakers and stories and experiences.

And At [00:17:00] the back of it, the one that probably was the most confronting. And can I share with you the piece? I would love that. Yeah. Thank you. We were asked to do an exercise and with a stranger, with a complete stranger, I had to write down or think about and then write down one of my mentors 25 years in the future. What would you like him to say about you and what you've done in your career? And then we would do this exercise. Then you had to write down one of your employees. 25 years again in the future at your retirement deal. They're going up, they're giving a glass of champagne and they're giving you a toast.

What sort of manager, what sort of leader were you to them? What sort of doors did you open up? And that was also, I was quite comfortable. I actually could write this and I was actually I felt quite good about it. And the third one the whammy that was, now ask your wife to write what you would like her to say about you. What sort of a husband, what sort of a father were you? And at that particular time, [00:18:00] this was the most confronting. I was leaving home on a Travel so we just talked about traveling to all parts of the world. My wife who was a physiotherapist originally like yourself. Yeah. Sacrificed her private business. Yeah. To come to Geneva to give me this opportunity. Yeah. She was looking after the kids. Yeah. And I didn't even know the teacher's names. Yeah. Yeah. And trying to articulate what I would like my wife to say versus what my current situation was so far

from where reality that it whacked me. And I think the biggest learning on the biggest action was that I wanted to put my family first. And I made decisions and from then and from till today that is living that and putting that and my wife is having a wonderful career as well.

She's in Boston this week as we talk. She's traveling. She's traveling. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love that story, Glen. Thank you so much for sharing that. So vulnerable. But it's questions like that, that suddenly make you [00:19:00] turn around and I can relate having started a startup business and that gets my attention, my team gets my attention, clients, and then sometimes I'm like, oh my God, like.

I forgot about my husband's note. That definitely resonates and it's important. It's an important one. There's, yeah. Another on the back of this, so I went to another event. It was held in San Francisco on Big Sur actually. Yeah. You know where in Big Sur? 

Tara: Yeah. 

Glen: Yeah. Wonderful spot. Yeah. And I went to this leadership development programs after my first experience, I was so positive.

I went to this one and I hopped in my taxi. I turned up in my suit and I was the only person wearing a suit in Big Sur. And it was leadership in times of crisis was the topic. What year was this? Do you remember? Roughly? It was around 2007 or 2008. Probably. Possibly. And this also had a massive impact on me.

So during this particular week, the other members of the group, most of them, were vice presidents [00:20:00] CEOs, general managers of or function heads of their different company across different sectors. Okay. As well. It's across industry and across industries. Yeah. It was a very small group and intimate group.

We had whales migrating up the coast and hot pools or hot springs there that we could use in the afternoons. But the rest of the day was workshops and the workshops became very, very revealing. The psychologist that was running it there, many of the people who were there had experienced incredibly difficult childhoods or times through their young adult times and there was people who had been raped.

There was people who had been persecuted by or their parents or grandparents had been persecuted through communist regimes or through political hardship, and Imprisonments. There were people who had been beaten by their fathers. And during the course of the week I had gone there wanting to learn about leadership and what I cook away from it was the same people potentially were in my, I [00:21:00] think I had 10 reports at that time.

And I had no idea what they had been through and what they had gone through in their life to make them, the people that they were and the behaviors that they were doing. Exhibiting now, particularly under pressure or whatever. And it, I came away from this as one of my, probably my biggest leadership learnings, to be curious, to really be curious about what is driving people, what is motivating them?

Why are they behaving the way they are not judging? Yeah, because there's so much stuff that's happened underneath the hood that we are just not sure of. And I think still to this day, it was an incredibly emotional wi time, that course. And the vulnerability that some of these people showed in their leadership and the trust that they had to showed with the rest of our group to be able to move forward.

It's life lesson and the impact is lifelong for me. And so that's [00:22:00] totally transformed. Your leadership comp completely influenced it. It's influenced it. And I'm now much, much more curious. I'm much, much more interested in who people are. Rather than what they're doing. Yeah. And I think I've moved very much from that task to task only.

Yeah. To really that relationship and a curiosity, almost like an endless curiosity Yeah. Around the people. 

Tara: Yeah. That's very insightful and really good advice as well for our listeners. So thank you for that. Are there any mentors or influences you've taught or you've. Probably talked about it in these two leadership, 

Glen: George is one, definitely.

But I think within the business there are two that one that really opened up and gave me opportunities when I probably didn't think myself that I was ready and yeah, if I was truly honest to myself to come into, pharma with relatively little experience and then to be given

the largest portfolio and the largest team within only six to nine months of being at [00:23:00] one particular company. Somebody showed great faith in me and they saw that I had potential when I probably didn't see it myself, or that I didn't think I was ready. So I think this , is a lesson that I've also then used and been able to.

Probably promote people before they're ready to say as well someone had trust in me and gave me that, opened that door. I should do something similar. Yeah. And the other one for me was an Italian gentleman who became my boss and then mentor and opened up this opportunity that I discussed before about head of marketing, medical, and business development for Europe.

Yes. And he is the most calm person I've ever met under pressure, under stress. He always remained completely calm. And I think what I saw him in at his best when people were attacking him personally going purple in the face, and hearts beating and bloods and he remained, these are the facts.

These are the facts. And remain completely [00:24:00] calm and emotional. And I think for him, he's the other person that I would say it was an amazing mentor. He showed particularly secure based leadership giving me the opportunity, so remaining calm under pressure, but also giving me then

the permission to be innovative and creative and to try something maybe a little bit out of the box. Yeah. Left field and maybe not all of my ideas worked, but he gave me the permission to say, Glen, let's try it. I trust you. And if it didn't work we shut it down and we moved on and it was okay.

I wasn't punished for trying or bringing innovation to the business. So I think he would've be another one that I. That I really value. Yeah. The opportunities that he gave or the trust that he gave me to try something. Yeah. And knowing that he had my back. Even if the idea wasn't a good one.

Tara: Yeah. And do you think that's secure based leadership is what's almost given you the confidence to get to where you are now? 

Glen: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And it opened up. Doors to [00:25:00] try things and to learn from them. And I think what I've really tried now, is if you ask any of my team test and learn or piloting new ideas, I've got lots of ideas.

Not all of them are good. I know this. Yeah. But I'm encouraging also then my team. Yeah. To also go out and try these things. 

Tara: Yeah. Excellent. Thank you. I love that. And you've started to get into this and described it beautifully how would you describe your leadership philosophy then from all of this learning that you've done over the years?

Glen: Yeah, I think I've definitely evolved. I've gone, I think in my twenties and early thirties, I was definitely a do this and tell people how to do it and expect that we, things would happen this way to what I hope and I think, has become a secure based leadership piece where I want the right person to step forward.

If they've got more experience or expertise. So I really like this leading I'm not sure if you, so leading from the rock analogy versus the leading from the hole, so the historical version for me is this leading from the [00:26:00] rock is do this one person standing on the front pointing their hand and telling the team and everyone else following.

Yeah. Leading from the hole is somebody you have a circle and different people step forward. Doesn't matter about your title. Yeah. But if you've got an idea or if you've got the right capabilities or the experience or the confidence that you actually step forward and you lead at the right time.

And this for me is the model that I really would like to work. It's difficult, not everybody, and if there's a fire in the building, you need someone to take a decision. Yes. And absolutely. But my hope is that the team that I create and the system or the ecosystem that we would work for is that everybody is a leader and can step forward at the right time if they have the right confidence or capabilities or want to try something. 

Tara: Yeah. Yeah. And this is, yeah, we love that. Thank you. You know when you are in that, when you are the one stepping into the, what was it, 

Glen: leading from the hole. Yeah. 

Tara: And [00:27:00] you've gotta make a really tough decision and be very clear minded and all the things it takes to make a very tough decision. What's your approach? How do you go about doing that? 

Glen: This has also evolved, Tara. And I think I trained out of myself to trust my instincts.

There was different schools of thought, different leaderships that said you can't. Make a decision based on your gut. You have to be fact based and you have to have evidence and data and everything and you know you should list stop. Don't listen to your gut. And I think what I've managed to do over the years was actually to say, I actually do need to trust my gut.

I've made several times, my gut told me that the decision should be left or right or X or Y and I didn't listen to it and I paid or other people paid for that. And what is my gut? My gut is now 30 plus years of experience. It's seen this before. It's seeing solutions, it's seeing problems it's [00:28:00] seeing what happened when people did go left or right or X or Y.

And my gut is actually now an intelligence center itself with lots of data points. Yeah. And I think what I do now is definitely trust my sense more. I still need data. I still would like data, and if it's available to me I certainly wanna make data driven decisions. Yeah. But I'm not ignoring anymore my gut.

And I think you and I think we share that you, that second brain piece where there's lots of intelligence within our body. Yeah. Whether that be through our heart or whether it be through our head. Specifically for me, also through the gut. Yeah. Is there anything you wanna explain?

'cause you said this is conversations that we've had before and I completely agree about really listening to what the body's trying to tell you. Yeah. This is something that, that my, my understanding of this has probably also changed a lot over the last few years. There's a lady called Jane Weber.

Who's been very impactful and very insightful [00:29:00] influential, on my thinking here. I've gone from a very scientific background. Yeah. Where everything needs very much needed to have data and evidence to support anything. Yeah. To. Being influenced by her to go through an a Aikido based profiling technique, and it's called Vertical Q.

And this particular profiling technique really looks at the body and the strengths that you have. And it's been based then on east and influence. So it's Aikido based, and it looks at the mind, it looks at the heart, it looks at the body. And it shows you and when you experience it, that we have different strengths and the body responds or can focus in different ways.

And I've done my whole team, my local team have now gone through this experience as well. I. But I've also done this with the leadership teams at AstraZeneca and others during my past. And it's, so normally we've done Myers-Briggs or we've done insights or we've done [00:30:00] disc and all of them are using the brain only.

It's all using the neurological filling in a survey response. Yeah. And I think we can game them. If we've done enough of them, we can Tara, I can say, I think I know what you are looking for. Yeah, and I can answer it this way, where if I do a body-based test, the body doesn't lie. So if I've got the strength, I've got it.

If I haven't got it, Jane who's probably less than 50 kilos, will push me over and I can, and that there's no way that I can hide the fact. That I don't have a particular strength. So I've really learned to, to listen to the body. Yeah. I've learned to observe how others and I think the body also tells us very quickly when things aren't working.

So I find within my teams that if somebody's about to go through burnout, their body will give in first. They'll get signs and symptoms that say back or their neck or something will start to actually go well before or maybe just before their mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tara: [00:31:00] Completely with you. I need to look into this and I'll make sure we include the link on the show notes for this particular test. Sounds fascinating. And being a scientifically trained physiotherapist coming into a very scientific industry, but then learning everything I've learned about psychology and everything else, I'm right with you on this.

I always know when I'm under stress and what's gonna go in my body first, before my mind patches up. So it's good to be able to spot that in your teams as well, isn't it? 

Glen: I think that's it. Like any of those profiling techniques are great. If the conversation at the end of it is what are we gonna do differently or how are we gonna look after each other?

Or what have we learned? Yeah. So I'm not to look down on any of the neurological based ones because I've seen real value in all of those at different times in my career as well. Yeah. This new one, it's just nobody else really has done it yet. So for me, because it's new and it's novel and it's innovative and it's body based.

Yeah. You can't game it. Yeah. And that the conversations that happen at the end of it are also then very [00:32:00] rich and also it's very well adopted of course, because everybody sees if Tara has the strength or she doesn't have the strength, everybody as a team building exercise, you're experiencing it together.

It's not filling in a inner a survey elsewhere. Right. Do the whole team is doing it as a team. 

Tara: Okay. And so then how does that kind of come into making those tough decisions? Is it because you're self through this.

Glen: I think I've learned that to use this, but also then when if the decision needs the right expertise, the right capabilities, the right strengths, yeah.

Then who am I putting together to solve a problem? Yeah. And I'm probably using some of this knowledge now to put people who I think have the right, whether it's strategy, whether it's execution depending what the decision is, I might need be now building little small project teams Yeah.

That are having a combination of all of these strengths so that we get a better outcome. 

Tara: Thank you for sharing. And how do you, I mean, you've got such a [00:33:00] great experience. I love everything. You're talking about your leadership philosophy now. How are you attracting top, I don't like the word talent, but people, individuals to your organization or the organizations you've worked at?

Glen: Yeah it's a great question. 

Tara: and What do you look for if, or what are those key ingredients you look for? 

Glen: I think what we've, I'll talk about maybe through Gedeon Richter at the moment. And the reason that I joined this company was there was an opportunity in the last 30 years there's been really nothing new for endometriosis.

And I've got family members who are living with endometriosis and I wish that they had options and choices that would've helped and reduce their pain at that particular time. And I think when I realized that there was something coming that into a space that had been so underrepresented under invested under everything.

And these poor women had suffered and still suffer incredibly, that there was a way of bringing something [00:34:00] and having a positive impact on their lives. Now for me, Tara, I think I've launched or been part of teams where we've launched probably over 50 different products in my career.

Yeah. Not one of them really has probably had a personal impact on any of my family or could have had an impact if it had been available. And this is the first time, so for me the reason I've joined is that I can actually make a difference for people like my family or could have made a difference if it had been available earlier.

Yeah. Now when I've put out there and looking for people to join my team, yeah. I'm finding it's almost magnetic. When we talk about what we're doing and the fact that we're going out and talking to GPS and specialists in an area that has been so underrepresented, the education has been not met at all.

The patients have been almost ignored, I would say, in this sense that people are coming and they're saying, I also have lived that experience. [00:35:00] Or know somebody that has lived that experience. And I would also love to be part of it. So I've got people ringing me up wanting to join me, not necessarily me looking for them or attracting them, is that people are seeing what we're doing.

And I think the sense of purpose of being able to come and do something that's actually impacting a group of people that, that they have a personal connection to. That is what I'm looking for. Yeah. And what they're looking for as well while they, when they join me.

Tara: And honestly, being a body and energy person walking through your office, meeting your team, you can feel it. Like, you can just feel that purpose there and that passion for helping. It's amazing. 

Glen: One of, one of the figures, I've sent it out a few times now and I've gotta be careful on it a little bit, but it's one in seven women are living with endometriosis in my team, it's less than one in two. Yeah. 

Tara: Isn't that amazing?

Glen: So, we really have a track to. 

Tara: It's not like you've set out to do that, but it's just happened that way. 

Glen: It's, and I think that because there's been [00:36:00] this long gap of nothing and people have their own lived experience, which wasn't good. No. That they would love that empathy side of it, or the purpose side of their business is they want to be able to help others.

Or to educate gps or to educate specialists so people don't take the same path that they've taken. 

Tara: And it's horrendous. Everything I've learned about it through you and your team, so. What trends do you see? And there's a always a lot happening, but we're at some incredible kind of shifts in the world at the moment, but what trends do you really see it shaping the future of healthcare and med tech, pharmaceutical, everything, that whole industry.

Glen: Yeah. I think the one that excites me because you know that I'm interested in innovation very much and I'm interested in new and change. But it also scares me is the ai Yeah. And the use of ai, the use of the use of it in and around our business. Not necessarily for us, but the way the patients are engaging with it, the way the doctors are engaging with it, the way the companies are [00:37:00] engaging with it.

There are roles that will be in our future that don't even exist today. And I think when we studied, they weren't even on the horizon. When my children now are going, they're still maybe not on the horizon. So this, for me, I think that the digital integration, the use of that data back into the industry is where I think that it's a massive trend it's not a trend.

It's here. Yeah. And it's changing. It is changing by the minute, not by the year. It's real time change at the moment. Yeah. 

Tara: Yeah. It's happening right now, isn't it? And we need to be as educated as we possibly can about it. It's certainly transforming our business, that's for sure.

So look, being such a high performance leader, I know you're so passionate at what you are doing particularly at the moment, how do you keep that level of high performance and passion, but also prevent burnout? It's so prevalent. I know some people like talking that about that word,

some don't, but it's something we have to tackle, particularly at the top. How do you go about [00:38:00] preserving yourself? 

Glen: Yeah. No, and I think I learned myself, but also for my team, I think that one of the lessons that I've learned is absolutely prioritization. So knowing that we can't do everything and saying that's okay and pushing things back, but reprioritizing constantly.

But the thing for me that I really do myself is, and some of my team have told me in the past, Glen, go and bike on it when they see me starting to, if you look a little bit overwhelmed or a little bit that I don't have the answer then they say, go and bike on it. And I find when I go and bike on it, or when I go out and get fresh air.

Usually my head gets clearer, I get clarity, but also that mind and body piece of making sure that my health is okay. So I quite often now I have meetings where I do walking meetings. Now in my team, some of my team know this and like the leadership team will go for a walk around North Sydney, around the harbor.

We'll do our one-on-ones this way. And I find that we are constantly, I'm still doing the prioritization with [00:39:00] them. Yeah. But I'm also getting out and getting some exercise and away from the office, away from the screens. Yes. To do it. And

Tara: I, in a natural environment and you're modeling that's your team. I think that's fantastic that's important for them to do that. As well. And it's not natural for us to be sat in front of screens all the time, is it? So that's amazing. Yeah. 

Glen: And I think one of those lessons that I take out of Adaptovate or Agile and Pharmaagile piece is this constant prioritization.

What are we doing for this next 90 days? What's important? Yeah. , And then saying, it's okay, some of these other things. They're important, but they can win. 

Tara: We can push them forward, push them. And you talked to me about that before. You work on these 90 day cycles and we prioritize each time, don't you?

Glen: And also within those 90 day cycles. So if something changes just because we said we were gonna do it. Yeah. If something's changed, yeah. It's no longer important. We stop it. Yeah. And then that, that for me as well for some people, this is really difficult because you like having a 12 month plan.

You like, you know what's going on. But for me, if the world around us has changed, then [00:40:00] the marketing plan that we put in place 12 months ago, if it's not right, yeah. We need a new one. Yeah. And I think this is where I'm hopefully giving permission for my own team to adjust their plans so that they're still relevant or the most relevant.

And this requires smaller cycles than what we traditionally had. 

Tara: Yeah. Yeah. We won on that. As well. And there's a really good book out there called Traction for People trying to implement this EOS system. There's so many different models, but it's that 90 day sprints basically. It works.

It's incredible what my team achieve in that time. They're amazing. 

Glen: I love also being able to show progress. So quite often in the old traditional monologue, we would look at as you look at your business review at the end of the year, what did we achieve? Yeah if you're doing sprints or if you're working towards mid-cycle meetings, et cetera, you can actually show what progress you've made.

Yeah. And then celebrate those progress and make adjustments and on the run. And I think, yeah it's certainly agile for not for all, but yeah, what I've experienced out of it, the positive [00:41:00] side of this part outweighs for sure the bit of chaos maybe that some people feel.

Tara: Yes. Yeah. Agreed. Fabulous. Now look, obviously as I talk to you, a lot of our audience are people looking to follow in your footsteps. So you've shared so much. But are there any kind of top one or two pieces of advice that you would share with aspiring leaders looking to follow in the same footsteps as you?

Glen: I think be curious. So for me, one of my lessons that I had to learn myself what was to be more curious. Yeah. Don't think you have to have all the answers. Really read the room and actually go to where the knowledge is. I think that there was a point in my career where I probably felt like I needed to have the answer or I needed to be on top of everything.

And I think that the biggest lesson that I could take was. There were specialists out there in my team who would always know a lot more than me, and you just need to actually ask the right questions. Yeah. If you ask the right questions, that knowledge can come through and can help, [00:42:00] and we can get the outcomes that we need.

I don't need to have the answers and I think that if somebody else is thinking about in their career, whether I go specialist route or become a people leader. Yeah. The ones that are gonna become a people leader need to be able to trust that other people will have the answers. 

Tara: Brilliant advice. Thank you very much. I'm learning a lot from you today. Okay. We've got, we're almost at the end. You've been fantastic. So just quick fire round at the end. First thing that comes into your head. So what's your number one top value? 

Glen: Family. 

Tara: Yeah. I thought it would, after everything you've just told us, if you hadn't followed this career path, I mean you have transitioned a lot what else would you be doing?

Glen: My team know it, so I'm very competitive. I think I've even told you that I've been out seeing pharmacies myself on my way here today. And I'm on the leaderboard, the top of the leaderboard. So I'm going for rep of the year. Yeah. At the moment. But it would've been as a sports person.

Okay. So I've [00:43:00] played many sports. I'm still representing New South Wales in Hockey but I've represented New South Wales in five different sports. Yeah. What sports? Water polo. Yeah. Triathlon, swimming, cross country and and hockey. Wow. And not one of them paid me a dollar.

Right? Yeah. Not a dollar. So I couldn't earn any income out of them. But I certainly enjoyed them at different points in time. And if I could have earned a dollar, I think that would've been the career I would've liked to have done. Rugby league is the only sport that ever paid me. Yeah. And I was never big enough or good enough to actually make any real money out of it as well.

Tara: So that's why the teams say, get out on your bike. You're obviously a very physical person. 

Glen: I need the exercise. 

Tara: Yeah, definitely. What's on your playlist right now? 

Glen: Eighties music. I still go back to that time. Yeah. You a little bit of country music may have crept into my wife's absolute distaste. So if she's not in the house, I might put that on while I'm cooking dinner. 

Tara: Yeah, perfect. Doing your two step while you're cooking dinner and final one, because I love travel. What's your best travel destination you've ever been to? 

Glen: So [00:44:00] I'm gonna merge the two. Yeah. For me, the Maldives is just such a special place.

Yeah. It is the nicest place and I wish I could afford to go there more often and I could have the time, but if I could merge it also with a little special place that we have in the mountains. So while by living in Switzerland for a long period of time. Yeah. We're exposed to mountain life and there's a little village where I can see the sun rising and setting across the mountains and the colors that change.

And I think being there and being able to, if I could ski, but then go home to the Maldives at night, and then this would be my absolute ideal time. 

Tara: AI will create it for you. Who knows? Thank you so much and you've been so generous sharing everything about your incredible story. I'm just so fascinated with where you're gonna take the company and it's just amazing what you guys are doing for people with endometriosis, and thank you for sharing your tips and insights for our audience.

Glen: Pleasure. Thank you for having me, Tara. Cheers.

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