Part #2: Looking back: How to have a happy career in pharma

Reps: We’re the only people that set our alarm clock. If you notice its getting set later, you’re in a spiral. It will never get better. Ever. You’ll end up slacking. It will ultimately infect your core if you let it. Don’t rot from within. It really is the damndest thing: Those that put the most effort into this job like it the best. Think about your customers. An average doctor sees 15 patients a day and all those people do is bitch. The doctor knows that half the people he sees would be just fine if they only took a little better of themselves. Lose a few pounds. Go for a walk. But his patients won’t. This frustrates doctor because he really wants to help and now he must think of some pill to prescribe because this patient won’t leave his office without some sort of a solution-in-a-bottle. His staff is yelling about his handwriting. The government mandates more new crap than you can even imagine and he hates having to use a computer for everything. You are literally likely going to be the only nice person he sees all day. Be his sunshine. You owe it to him. If he’s salty to you and “only wants to sign,” just remember: he probably doesn’t like our industry for a reason. We’ve probably sent some 26 year old fraternity president to tell him he’s been practicing medicine completely wrong. Maybe you are the best rep in the world, but there are a lot of your “ancestors” that weren’t. He might be jaded for a very good reason and it’s your job to find out what you can do differently to earn his respect and time. There’s someone who has. There always is. Just look at your competitor’s numbers if you don’t believe me.

Managers: Great. So you’ve got some power now. The longer you can remember the feeling of when you didn’t, the better manager you’ll be. If you catch yourself ever enjoying your power, you’re in a spiral. You’ll end up a tyrant and nobody will like you. Once your core is infected, you’ll lose your ability to relate to people “lesser” than your current level of arrogance. People will cease liking you. People don’t go the extra mile for people they don’t like. There’s that age-old conundrum: “is it better to be liked or respected? “ Eventually you’ll find out it’s a trick question. You can be one or the other and sure, you’ll get some things accomplished. If you want to be really great? You have to have both. In equal balance. How to be respected? Do everything your rep can do. If you can’t scrub a toilet, don’t as someone to do it. Once you do get people scrubbing your toilets, get back on your knees and scrub with your people, and even once in a while on your own. Just so you don’t forget how. Have a better work ethic than your top team member. Everyone will see it, feel it. Finally, don’t be shady in anything, even the little things. Ultimately everyone wants to work for someone they perceive (or truly is!) better than them. The minute you have your good people believing that they can do a better job than you, or have a better work ethic than you, or have better morals than you: you will lose those good people. How to be liked: Be trustworthy. In order to be trustworthy, you have to first trust people. Ask any rep’s biggest dislike and they’ll tell you in a New York minute: Micromanagement. Micromanagement, or nitpicking over everything, does not build trust. There’s a fine line between micromanagement and holding people accountable. It’s an art and it’s your job to figure it out. If the word on the street is that you’re a micromanager, knock it off. You probably are. Lower your pride and ask your more experienced colleagues for some ideas on accountability. There’s a conceit with managers: that same ego and competitiveness that earned you your promotion to management is also most likely going to be your Achilles heel. The only way to avoid it is through a daily mantra: “Human behavior and interaction is so complex that I’ll never, in a hundred lifetimes be able to understand it completely.” When you were new, you had to “seek to understand.” It’s an easy one to forget once you get a couple of years under your belt. But what motivates Sally doesn’t motivate Jane. You’ve gotten lazy and stopped trying to figure out what that motivation is. Be open to new ideas. Trust and listen to your people. Remember in training when they told you “fundamentally, you can’t motivate people.” Yeah, that was crap. Of course you can motivate people. Go figure it out or talk to someone who has. Plus you owe to your people that they should enjoy their jobs and be successful. You’re not just impacting the 8 people who work for you. If each of them has an average family, that means that the stupid, demeaning thing you just said to berate your team is going to run the family dinner of 32 people tonight.


Directors: Always remember that good managers – the really good ones – are going to try to top their best representative’s work ethic. Plus they travel a lot. Maybe you forgot what it was like to wake up in a bed in a daze, not remembering what city you fell asleep in because it changes so much. Watch your good managers for signs of burnout. These people will work themselves to an early grave because they don’t know how to “turn it off.” Watch your “power tripping managers.” If you can’t back these people off a couple notches, then acknowledge your own mistake and get rid of them. They mislead you on the capability of their readiness to lead.

Vice Presidents: Steve Jobs once said “We don’t hire smart people so that they can come here and we can tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Your ego can get so far removed from reality it’s ridiculous. The only way to stay genuine and on point is to stay close to the front lines. Yes, you have a big corporate finance meeting on how to hedge the Libor. We get it. Try cancelling an indispensable meeting, leaving your Blackberry at home, and hopping in the car with a representative more than once a year. Form your own opinions beyond that of a cadre of ass-kissing directors who all secretly want your job. When you find an ass-kisser, guard your relationship with suspicion. These are always the ones in the end that will get you. Have at least one person on your team who doesn’t recognize your ego, have no fear, and will tell you the truth about things. That way, you can put out fires when they are small. Otherwise you’ll have four alarm conflagrations that your supposedly “good” directors have been hiding from you for the last month.

CEO’s: Cut the crap. Yes, you’ve got a 140 IQ and a level 9 in charisma. You’re done as a leader when you begin underestimating others. Let’s face it: Half the people in your current audience are absolutely as capable of you but simply didn’t have the opportunity to go to Barnard or Stanford. Don’t pander. You think you’re being smooth, but you’re not. Sure, there are things you can’t disclose due to SEC rules – we really get that – but remember, you’re not as good as lying as you think you are. Ultimately your fealty is to shareholders. We get that, but never forget that there are a lot of families riding on the impact of your decisions and the shareholder is an amorphous, faceless conglomerate of infinity that doesn’t have 3 year old twins and an ill parent.


Finally, for everyone, we’re all pretty much the same. There are toxic and terrible people in every walk of life. That toxicity has nothing to do with you and don’t take it personally. Reach out to that person with a smile and a hand. More than likely they are in a bad place, even more likely, just temporarily. Maybe you’re the only person who will try to break through that crusty exterior. If you’re successful, you’ll have a friend and an advocate for life. Even more, that person will return the favor when you need it most. What about those people who swat back your hand of goodwill repeatedly? Just stay away. You will become who you surround yourself with. You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life. It will eventually reach your core.

Have some fun. Be a professional. Seek achievement for its sake alone and recognize that external circumstances only define you if you let them. You know who you used to be, you haven’t forgotten your fundamentals. Go write them down. You’re not 20 anymore and your life principles will slip if you can’t look at them and remind yourself from time to time.

None of us are here for very long. We have a lot to be thankful for. 90% of the planet would give everything to have your life and current circumstances. They literally go to bed and dream about having your life.

So that’s what I’ve learned. Maybe all that advice isn’t worth more than you’re paying for it. But I believe every word of it. Make an effort to be different tomorrow and repeat it for 30 days. The transformation will delight you to such an extent -- and the success – you’ll taste it. If you do, come back and drop a note saying so. There might be a few who need your second opinion.

 

"Make an effort to be different tomorrow and repeat it for 30 days"

Love this quote. Consider stolen! Thank you.

- a humble DBM

 

would love to become friends with the one that wrote that. so true. thank you.

 

thanks for all the advice, you were right on for every position

 

Yeah, because your position will be downsized in 30 days.
Better yet, ask WIFM every day. If you don't like the answer, stay home, play golf, etc. naïveté and cliches are great in utopia, but don't cut it in the real world. Just ask the thousands of unemployed pharma workers what they would have done differently.

 

Thank you for writing this. It's the only decent thing I've ever seen on this site and good luck post-industry.

 

I think the original poster makes some valid points. I left the industry after 18 years because I became tired of being mad at my manager and the company in general. I lived a great life as a rep. Made decent money and invested a ton. 10 years before I left the industry I realized that my bonus was always going to be short, my manager would always find something to pick out that was wrong and I would be treated as a child. Of the many managers I had in my career this all happened in various degrees. Instead of leaving and reinventing myself and career I sucked it up and used the company time to my advantage. I started a small business that I made $300 a month profit on the first month. On the day I left the industry I was making $22,000 a month profit. I used the company time and my time to figure out a way to leave this industry and looking back this strategy of building something on my own and using the company time makes me look at my career in pharma as a happy time instead of a waste of time.

 

Excellent post. I did the same. Did what was necessary

 

Excellent post. I did the same. Did what was necessary to stay employed and Began my own business. Now I have a very comfortable income from Pfizer and my business and have never looked back.

 

Nicely written and great sentiment. I'd like to get to know you and if you've truly left pharma, its a shame for pharma. Bravo.

 

Another strategy is to work only when necessary. My policy is to do whatever is necessary to get the results I, emphasis on I, that I desire. If it takes me 12 hrs, I work twelve hours. If it takes two hours, I work two hours. I refuse to work for the sake of working/ activity. I believe in efficiency. And yes, there are days I do not work at all. I have never missed a quota for 16 years, won my share of awards, didn't miss many of my kids' activities and maintain my quality of life. A win for the company and, more importantly, a win for me.

 

oh darling you sound special, can we watch you shave you nibble balls

 

Can you PM me the name of your dealer? He/she got you some of the GOOD stuff. Where can I get me some of that?