Name: Amar Thyagarajan

Title: Chief Commercial Officer

Organisation: Excelra

I trained as a scientist and am passionate about working at the intersection of science and business. I enjoy building and leading teams, that accelerate the discovery of new medicines and technologies to benefit human health and life. I leverage my experience in commercialization of life-science products/services, driving business strategy, nurturing organizational development, raising capital, and leading innovative commercial initiatives, to drive profitable growth of organizations grounded in top-notch science.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Amar's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

The balance of inspiring and aligning a diverse group of individuals is a challenge I face (and perhaps every leader faces). This challenge is even more acute when bringing change in an organization, as one tries to turn perceptions of threat (change can be threatening to some) into moments of inspiration. As a leader, I have to often accept and get comfortable with situations in which a small section of the people in a given discussion are not going to agree to align on a specific idea. Yet, I must inspire everyone to commit to that idea despite that disagreement. This is a challenge that I learn to overcome everyday.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

There is no one story! My curiosity and desire to learn has allowed me to continuously ask "is there a better way" and helped me evolve as a leader. Often this has required me to go beyond my "defined role" in any organization - be this in school when growing up, later on in the lab, or in the business world.

Years ago, I was chatting with the CEO of the company I was then working at about how I wanted to learn about different organizational functions and how I thought (in my youthful naivete) that my "job description" was all I could do in that organization. His response, that I have kept close to my heart to this day was…"where does your current job description say you cannot learn about other functions in this company?"

I realized that I was my limitation! I opened my mind to building relationships across functions, managing both up and down, and sharing my curiosity with my colleagues. Since then, I have never allowed my "job description" to limit my curiosity. This has helped me immensely to take leadership functions.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I am an early riser, often up by 5 AM ET. I work in global organizations, so this works well. I am at my best in the morning, so I block off time for "intellectual/thought" tasks before I jump into meetings (though sometimes this can be challenging!). I also work in quanta, to drive my productivity, meaning I will step away from my desk to "go think" (take a walk, run, anything away from my desk), while my brain is thinking.

As counter-intuitive as this seems, not being chained to my desk actually helps me bring clarity to my work. I try my best to avoid "back to back" meetings (even though that is very challenging nowadays), as I find this to be counter-productive. I switch off in the evening for a few hours, for my personal pursuits (e.g., my cello). Often, I have to take a call or two (with my colleagues in Asia) before I go to bed.

So I have found that if I look at each day as a continuum where work and life are intertwined, I can move between the two seamlessly. When I am traveling (which I do a lot of), I try to follow a similar structure as much as I can.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

"Locating yourself", which is a key to conscious leadership.

A mentor recently introduced me to this concept summarized very nicely in this YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLqzYDZAqCI).

I try my best to practice this concept at work and in life and learn that leadership is a way of thinking.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

"Multipliers" by Liz Wiseman. A mentor introduced me to this book. It highlighted several concepts that leaders often miss out on.

1) building an army of people doesn’t always result in increased productivity. Rather, inspiring smaller teams to amplify their capabilities can be more productive;

2) leaders can accidentally diminish the smartest members of their teams (I have found I am guilty of this as well). It is important to allow teams to fail and learn from those failures;

3) good leaders act as "multipliers" to get more done with fewer resources, and manage to attract and retain top talent, while bringing innovative ideas into an organization.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

I would give TWO pieces of advice, which I wish I had received earlier in life:

1) Have a network of mentors outside your organization, who care about you and will help you evolve to be a better leader; and

2) Be genuinely curious and contribute to your organization unimpeded by "job descriptions" and the leadership titles/promotions will follow. Titles alone DO NOT make a leader.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

I had to establish a new function in a company that I had joined, and appoint a leader for this new function. Instead of the prevailing advice of hiring someone from the outside (which would have taken significant time), I identified one individual in the company who, with some additional training, could be a good fit quickly and hit the ground running. This was going to be a promotion for this individual (higher title and pay).

However, when I offered the role, this individual declined the promotion! Someone declining a promotion was a first for me. The reasons being that they were unsure whether the new function would be successful in the company (they had more institutional knowledge than I did) and if they had the skills to do the job (a self-limitation!).

I offered to work side by side for the first 6 months, and in that time if we did not see signs of success, this person could keep their title and higher pay and move back to their previous role, and I would figure out a different path for that function. Within 6 months, this function and the individual were very successful, and to this day contribute significantly to the company's profitable growth.

To me this was a great experience in leading WITH someone and "multiplying" their capabilities rather than just setting goals and leave them to their own devices. I strive to see the strengths that exist in my team and help my team forge a path to their goals. This helps them and the organization immensely and makes work all that more enjoyable, efficient, and inspiring.