By Vinam Puri
Adding to the series of interviews with leaders on the iJOBS blog, I decided to contribute by interviewing Piotr Rudzki, PhD, the Head of Pharmacokinetics at Pharmaceutical Research Institute in Warsaw, Poland. He has a wealth of experience after 14 years in the area of Pharmaceutics, including 8 years as the research team manager.
Dr. Rudzki graduated from the Medical University of Warsaw in Poland with a master’s degree in Pharmacy (organic synthesis) in 2003. Shortly after, he joined the Pharmacology Department (currently Pharmacokinetics Department) at the Pharmaceutical Research Institute in Warsaw, Poland. In 2009, he received his PhD in Pharmacy for Application of Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectroscopy in bioanalysis and bioavailability study of a drug candidate. He has also completed yearlong courses in Chemical Metrology at University of Warsaw, and on Research Project Management at Kozminski University in Warsaw. He conducts research on the topics of reliability of bioanalytical methods and bioequivalence. As the head of the Pharmacokinetics Department at Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Dr. Rudzki is responsible for team development, project sourcing and management, study designs, study reports approval, GLP-compliance, etc.
Dr. Rudzki, moved up to become the head of his lab and then to become the head of the Pharmacokinetics Department. He explained how the experience of working within the team provided him with an inside perspective. This allowed him to be a better leader of a team he knew everything about and he definitely had the advantage of being able to look at the laboratory from a staff perspective. But when he transitioned to be the head of the department, he had to change his perspective a bit to better understand what the kind of actions are needed to be taken to run the lab. When you are a member of the team you are thinking about the tools you need and the relationship with your fellow teammates and boss. When you are the head of the team you are also thinking about your relationship with your clients and with higher institutional authorities. These differences can be nuanced and challenging. Being a fan of basketball, Dr. Rudzki uses the sport as an example of life learnings and uses examples from the NBA in everyday communications. He explained this by saying how it is advantageous for a player in the NBA to be a coach. One successful example is the legendary player and coach Phil Jackson. He had a career in the NBA before going on to coach some of the biggest players, like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and some of the best teams in the history of the sport.
Leadership, as defined by Dr. Rudzki, is setting a good example for your team.
I went on to ask him how leaders should work with teams where there may be people more experienced than them in the team. He answered this by giving an example of his deputy head who was much more experienced, and he decided to retain her at that role after he took charge of the lab. He had great respect for the lady, and she was very comfortable communicating to him. This was advantageous for the entire team since people who did not feel confident enough to share concerns with their boss but instead would share with another senior member. She would then convey all concerns to Dr. Rudzki. Having experienced members on a team helps break communication barriers and can be a major contributor to team success.
When he started to work as the head of the team, his priorities switched to include providing the department new contracts and also networking with business partners and making strong connections. In order to do that effectively, he decided to create project leaders to work under him in order to ensure that the lab was working efficiently. These leaders were also sharing responsibilities so that no one person was responsible for every major task. Although the transition was difficult the team eventually welcomed this change and will never go back to the old way. As a leader foresight is needed to ensure that the team and the department are keeping up and headed in the right direction. To insure success, Dr. Rudzki says that a leader requires a free mind and having project leaders helps him achieve that efficiently. A leader should be prepared for different scenarios that the team might be facing in the coming future.
Leaders are usually readers and Dr. Rudzki is definitely a great leader. We were able to discuss a book that I had also recently read, called Getting Things Done by David AllenHe mentioned how he applies the technique of completing small tasks and then assigning the right time if it is not the right time or delegating to the right person if he is not the right person for the job. Leaders need to understand when and how to get things done. In an ideal world, he said, he would only give responsibilities to people who have the appropriate talents to complete that task. However, we do not live in an ideal world and we must do things that move us out of our comfort zone. But the leader also needs to ensure that there is an appropriate proportion of uncomfortable tasks so that the objective can still be achieved while being a learning experience for the person. His one favorite book is First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham.
Dr. Rudzki, also explains how the job that the leader delegates for each individual should be best suited for them. They should also be allowed to bring in their own ideas. He says it is not a good practice to ask the person presenting an idea to execute it as well. That person may not have the appropriate talents for that task. The leader also needs to be aware of the best capabilities of the team members. Coming up with a new idea should not feel like a punishment and ideas should be welcome so that creativity is not limited.
It is only helpful to interview a leader if you can learn something from their challenges and how they dealt with them. Dr. Rudzki encountered many challenges on his leadership journey with the biggest ones occurring near the beginning. When he took on the position of manager, they were just finishing a project for another company. Unfortunately, the experiments had negative results and he was required to explain these results to the company. When they went to the meeting, Dr. Rudzki was representing his lab and the department, while his previous boss represented that company. He was very surprised to see her representing the company and asking questions about a project she once used to head. He explained that he felt intimidated and uncomfortable during that encounter, but stayed strong and dealt with the situation. Identifying problems on both sides of the table eventually led them to a position where the can now look back on this as a learning experience. His takeaway – You learn much more when you lose than when you succeed. Identifying the sources of failures are very important for good leaders to learn from their mistakes and the mistakes of others. The next step is to communicate with the team effectively about the lessons learned from such failures. Failures should not be followed by penalties but rather should be shared as learning experiences.
To end the interview, I asked Dr. Rudzki, the one quality that a future leader should possess. “Good Hearing”, he said instantly. A leader needs to understand a lot of things and to understand it is important to listen to not only what is being said but also to interpret what it means. Family can be a great asset in developing this skill as when you are living with a family, making decisions needs to be while considering everyone’s needs versus when you are alone there is more freedom in actions. Listen to the team and lead them to success!
Key Learnings from the interview:
- Leadership is setting a good example for your team.
- Leaders are not only good listeners, but also good decoders of information that they are hearing.
- To be an effective leader, you need to build a multi-disciplinary team you should have people on your team that are better than yourself in certain tasks.
- Ideas should be welcomed, and failure should not be penalized.