Doing the right thing: compliance isn't always easy

Have you ever received a request to do something that your gut told you wasn’t the right approach from a compliance perspective? It may have been a déjà vu moment, transporting you back to the numerous policies and SOPs you’ve read that outline the expectations for your role. I view building compliance strength in the same light as going to the gym. Building strength in the gym will help prepare me for challenges such as the distance or elevation of a hike. Building our compliance strength will help us navigate unexpected challenges in the field, which is an important component of the art of being an impactful MSL. Understanding of the “why” behind your company’s policies, procedures, and guidance will strengthen the base knowledge from which you can draw when an unpredictable situation arises and your gut chimes in. At the recent Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) meeting, I attended a workshop led by Adeola D., Pamela Lonzer, and Monchiere Commodore, who reviewed some important reminders and led us through a good discussion:

·        Upholding the integrity of the science we discuss is critical. Fair balance and scientific balance are critical during scientific exchange. Enough said!

·        The “Safe harbor” for non-promotional scientific exchange has guardrails, even with the new SIUU Communications Draft Guidance. Are you confident you know how to work within these guardrails as defined by your company?

·        Minimizing the risks or overstating the benefits of a product during a conversation with an HCP is misbranding (and a false claim). How do you ensure balance in each conversation, every time, even with the KOL’s with whom you have a long relationship?

·        There are clearly compliant and non-compliant ways of working in with commercial, there is a lot of grey in between. How does your company interpret that grey and do you reflect that interpretation in the field?

The workshop included an activity where we identified risks, assessed severity, determined the control, and monitored the outcomes. It was valuable to hear the different perspectives from others on their interpretations and experiences. There was no “group think” at our table! It was a good reminder that grey can be interpreted in different ways and depends on the space you are navigating (i.e. launch, device). Each company has a different risk tolerance which will be reflected in the types of activities that are implemented.

When has your gut chimed in to alert you to assess the compliance of a request?

Write the letter

Write the letter you were always going to write.
To your clients.
To a colleague.
To your children, spouse, or partner.
Maybe even to a former professor or a mentor who shaped your path.
What about that physician who encouraged you to follow your specialty—or that quiet, steady presence who doesn’t realize how special they are?

Whether it’s handwritten or an email (handwritten does have a lasting magic), it’s never too late to say what matters.

A simple letter can become a lasting legacy.

Who’s on your list?

Building strategy brick by brick

It’s always a good day when you get to play with Legos, and it’s an added bonus when you get to do it while working. At the recent Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) meeting, I attended a workshop on the “Best practices for building and leading medical affairs in a resource-constrained environment.” The workshop faculty included Rachel Leder Couchenour, Marianne Kenny, PharmD, and Melissa Wanner, PharmD, who brought their extensive experience to the conversation about building for launch with limited resources to optimize patient outcomes. Using a case study, we built the strategy using different colored Legos represented the many medical affairs activities, with the number of Legos selected for each color representing the budget we allocated to each activity. As you can imagine, there was spirited discussion about what to prioritize and the level of funding based on the participants’ experience and expertise.

We worked as a team, shared our perspectives, listened to others, and made the best decision(s) in the time allotted. Here are my takeaways:

· In this fast-paced environment, trade-off decisions are required.

· If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.

· Listening to others, we all gained wisdom.

· The budget only goes so far! Ensure you consider immediate needs but give thought to the investments that will impact your long-term strength.

The leadership team may need to enlist help through outsourcing if it’s not time to build the team. There are various outsourcing models available based on your needs and strategies. The facilitators did a nice job outlining the various approaches they’ve used providing examples of where outsourcing supported their success.

As a Medical Science Liaison (MSL), you may not be involved in these decisions, but you play a critical role in their success based on your support for those decisions. Part of the art of having impact as an MSL is to understand the strategic priorities and align your execution in the field to deliver results aligned. Demonstrate your value while working within those priorities. Provide feedback (with solutions!) based on your insights from the field but avoid pulling attention away from the priorities once they are set.

Our discussion led to a pile of disorganized, individual Legos organized into a thoughtful (and colorful) structure that represented our team’s thoughts about strategy.

How have you used your field experience to support the needs of the medical affairs team in a resource constrained environment?

Do I trust you? Building high performing teams

Psychological safety of teams was one of the valuable sessions I attended at the recent Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) meeting. Psychological safety means you are comfortable speaking up, making mistakes, and being vulnerable because you are confident you won’t be punished or humiliated for doing so. The discussion was led by Fatima Ahmad, Lori Mouser, and Sarah Jarvis who reminded us of the importance of trust to team success and employee well-being. Learning from mistakes and sharing vulnerability has helped their teams learn, grow, and thrive to foster the organization’s success.

How do you build psychological safety—and the trust that naturally follows? And what are the consequences when that trust is missing? Amy Edmondson’s TED Talk, “Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace,” offers powerful insights into both questions.

Key ways to build psychological safety and trust include:

- Sincerely valuing the voices of others

- Actively listening to understand and consider dissenting views

- Demonstrating vulnerability

- Embracing and encouraging feedback

Having an open dialogue where mistakes can be discussed and learned from, the team will grow stronger. Foster an environment where asking questions, including the tough ones, is valued. If we withhold questions, we withhold learning and innovation not only ourselves but the broader team. We also miss the opportunity to create a better path forward. People working in high-trust environments report less stress, more energy at work, and less burnout. This fosters an environment with more engagement and higher productivity.

As a Medical Science Liaison (MSL) practicing the art of the role, you can support your team in building psychological safety and trust by role modeling key behaviors—including vulnerability. This includes openly communicating your ideas and insights, valuing diverse perspectives, creating space for less experienced MSLs to share their thoughts and feel heard, and celebrating team wins.

How can you contribute to fostering safety and trust on your team?

Know when to walk away

One of the most powerful techniques I’ve learned from expert negotiators?
Know when to walk away.

When a deal is clearly misaligned, forcing it can do more harm than good. The ability to pause, decline, and reassess is a skill—and a sign of confidence, not weakness.

Every time I think of this, I’m reminded of the 1968 classic by The Four Tops: “Walk Away Renée.” Take a moment to enjoy the brilliance of this group: Watch here: https://lnkd.in/dzc5ahc4

Trust your expertise

Trust your expertise—it’s your greatest asset when presenting. Watch this quick video to learn more and let me know what you think in the comments!

Staying focused in a distracted world

Things have felt a little chaotic in the world lately. I can admit that I’ve been distracted, making it difficult to get things done. Distractions come in all shapes and sizes, from the basic buzzing of my phone/watch (which mainly consists of spam calls), to numerous irrelevant emails that overtake the important ones, to the opinions being voiced through every medium about the events happening in our world. The overwhelming nature of news that impacts us and our friends/family/colleagues can leave us feeling down. Can you relate?

Are you staying on track? It is well known that our productivity decreases when we’re distracted or not feeling our best, but we still have obligations to fulfil and goals to move forward. How are you staying on track? Here’s what I’m trying to implement:

·      Putting my phone aside (and take off my watch if needed)
·      Decide what I will conquer in the next 45 min. I set an alarm and focus on the project at hand. If I think of something else I need to do, I make a quick note and get back to the project.
·      When the timer goes off, I can go back to emails or my “to do” list for 10-15 min and then return to the project. Repeat.

I’ve found that once I gain momentum, time flies by and I’ve accomplished more than I expected.

To be an impactful MSL, it is necessary to stay focused to meet expectations whether that is related to your most important KOL’s request, a project for the team, or just doing the necessary administrative tasks. How are you dealing with the distractions you’re facing?

“Well, here’s my opinion about that…”

“Well, here’s my opinion about that…” Do you ever feel your shoulders tense when you hear that phrase? I do!

I’ve noticed I have a visceral, negative reaction to self-described “opinionated people.” It’s not that I don’t value strong perspectives—quite the opposite.
But when someone leads with “Here’s my opinion,” it often lands as competitive, rigid, or even dismissive. There's an undertone of superiority that can shut down meaningful conversation before it starts.

What’s the alternative?

- A thoughtful question.
- An affirmation of someone else's experience.
- An invitation to explore the topic together.
- A willingness to be curious—not just right.

Of course, this could just be my own opinion (see what I did there?). But I believe that in a world full of noise and quick takes, how we share matters as much as what we share.

As leaders, colleagues, and humans, we always have a choice: Do we want to be right, or do we want to be connected?

What’s your experience with “opinionated” communication? Does it spark dialogue—or defensiveness?

Aligning MSL goals with corporate strategy

It’s that time of year… Goals are being set and rolled out. The goals for the MSL team and how they support corporate and/or Research & Development goals are critical to help you prioritize your goals in your territory and your time. Do you have line of sight to how your goals support corporate success? While not all corporate goals are relevant for your work as an MSL, your work certainly directly impacts at least a couple of those goals.

When planning your quarter and specifically the upcoming meetings on your calendar, each meeting should support your goals and move the mission forward. This is the currency of the MSL role.
·      As you review your goals, are leadership’s expectations for you clear? If not, gain clarity. Ask questions.
·      What resources are available to support each goal? If it’s not clear, let leadership know what you need and support the development of those resources.
·      Each KOL has different interests which may not directly align with what leadership is asking you to discuss. How will you balance these goals with those of the KOL?

We all know that the art of being an MSL is meeting the expectations of the company while bringing meaningful information to each of your KOLs based on their individual needs and interests. How do you bring value to both your company and your KOLs?

Light Touch

Sometimes, a light touch is the most powerful way to communicate—especially when the stakes are high or emotions are running strong.

Watch this short video to learn how a softer approach can create more connection, not less.

The secret sauce of great colleagues

When you reflect on your career and the wonderful people you’ve worked with, which coworkers were amazing? You undoubtedly have an extensive list but narrow it down to your top three. It’s tough but necessary work. Think about what makes these three stand out above the rest. Take time with this reflection and make a list of the characteristics that set them apart. Was it technical knowledge? Their intelligence? Was it their empathy or emotional intelligence? What was their secret sauce?

When you look across the list of characteristics, what do you notice? Do you see a trend? Their specific qualities may be different, I suspect what you value about them is their relationship skills. Being smart is important but the secret sauce is being able to navigate people successfully. How many of those relationship skills are transferable from being a great coworker to being an impactful MSL? If someone made a list about your skills, how would it compare? How do you rank yourself? What opportunities do you have to optimize your relationship skills to provide more impact as an MSL?

What are the most important relationship skills an MSL must demonstrate to practice the art of an MSL and to have impact?

Presentation slides

If your presentation slides are packed with text, your audience has to choose: read or listen? Spoiler: they’ll read—and tune you out.

Want to keep your audience engaged? Design your slides for listening, not reading.

Pro tip: Create simple, impactful slides for your talk—and send detailed "archive slides" afterward for reference.

Watch this short video to learn more!

What Moana can teach us about empathy and leadership

Moana is a Disney princess who is proud of where she’s from and doesn’t back down from new challenges. If you’re familiar with the character, there are probably many things you like about her. What stands out for me is how she demonstrates selflessness and empathy for her community as well as each of the individuals with whom she interacts. Her empathy drives her journey.

We talk about empathy as it is an important part of how and why we connect with other people. Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand other people’s feelings and perspectives. That’s the core piece. Emotional empathy is the next level when we can feel what someone else is feeling, which will lead to a deeper connection. And, at its highest level, empathy concern means we can sense what the other person needs from us and calls us to act. Who have you encountered demonstrates this level of empathy? How did it make you feel?

When interacting with your KOLs, how do you demonstrate empathy? Empathy is important to build trusting relationships. There are many ways to do this including through active listening:

·        Give the KOL your full attention
·        Ask good, relevant questions based on what they’ve shared
·        Don’t judge or interrupt them as they share

Are you able to discern what they need from you or are you in problem solving mode? In her journey, Moana demonstrated empathy to many people but it’s perhaps her interactions with Maui where she demonstrates it the most through her patience and understanding despite his reluctance (and arrogance) to support her. How will you show empathy during your next KOL meeting?

Actually solve problems

Here's an idea for meetings that actually solve problems—not just talk about them!

Instead of having attendees bring reports to a meeting, ask them to bring a problem they need help with. To save time, have them write it up in under 200 words and publish it at the meeting.

Set a rule: No repeating the problem—everyone has already seen it. Instead, focus on answering questions and offering suggestions. Crucially, these should be given without debate or defensive responses—only for consideration. This keeps discussions productive and prevents them from turning into back-and-forth arguments.

End each problem-solving session with a simple, forward-thinking question:
"Is there anything here that intrigues you and might get things more on the right track?"

Small shifts in meeting structure can lead to big breakthroughs in decision-making and problem-solving!

Look at the outliers

Next time you review evaluations, don’t just look at the trends. Look at the outliers. They might just hold the key to your next big breakthrough. Watch this video to learn more!

Reviewing evaluations

Next time you review evaluations, don’t just look at the trends. Look at the outliers. They might just hold the key to your next big breakthrough. Watch this video to learn more!

What MSLs can learn from great performers

Have you ever seen anyone do something so well that it takes your breath away? You see what they are doing and then you notice the expertise, the controlled subtly, the mastery at work right before your eyes.

I was re-watching “All the President’s Men” recently and took particular notice of the two stars, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. For a moment, I turned the volume down and simply watched them act. They did so much of it with little moves, eyes, glances, shuffling of papers in a precise way. So well, in fact, that I got used to the volume being off!

The movie won four Oscars, but neither Redford nor Hoffman were the recipients. Jane Alexander was one of two actors who were nominated, she for Best Supporting Actress. So, I went to her somewhat brief scene (and, yes, turned the volume down!) and my goodness what a mix of emotions and inner strength!

As I go through my day, I tend to look for these moments not only in film, sometimes watching television (sound on!), but also my day-to-day check-in with American Airlines, grocery store self-check-out helper, and even a friend or two, volume up!

Actors consider themselves “trained,” sometimes even “classically trained.” But no matter how trained or educated they are, the successful actors are able to convey real emotion in a pretend plot. One actor told me, “My job is to rehearse so much that it all looks spontaneous.”

And I thought of our MSL work. What are you doing that is equal to that standard? More than you think!

- We do look in the mirror ‘til we say “Yes!”
- We do prepare for our day.
- We do know our stuff.

But what are we doing with that little bit of Redford and Hoffman, and certainly of Jane? And what do we do so intentionally that it looks natural and spontaneous?

Take a look at their scenes and let me know what comes to mind about you.

Fearless Facilitation!

This is the title of one of my books co-authored with Cyndi Maxey CSP. We heard recently that someone was teaching our book with closed-ended questions and lectures! As an author all I could think was “Fantastic!” with a big grin. When you facilitate, get others talking and your content will emerge in the same way as when we mix ingredients for that stews and cakes.

Put your colleagues into small groups of three and have them focus on one question for 5-8 minutes then move to a new group. After a few moves ask, “What did you just learn from your group members?” Always avoid the deadly, boring, mind-numbing “Let’s all report out!” or “What did everyone say?” What they learned, leads to others learning, which is the whole point of any meeting.

In fact, on Zoom I learned the Chat Box Waterfall from Caelan Huntress. Simply ask everyone on your Zoom call to go to the chatbox then say “I’m going to give you 45 seconds to type, but don’t hit enter until I tell you so. Here is your question _____...now type…don’t hit enter.” Then I go quiet (we can’t type and listen at the same time!) and after 45 seconds I say, “OK hit enter!” You’ll see a cascade of participation! Then simply pick a person and have them share, then they pick a person and so on. No need to do everyone. Save the chat and distribute.

How to create thunderbolt moments for your KOLs

In my last post, I shared how a simple conversation with a professor reignited his passion—and became a thunderbolt moment for me. But what about our work as MSLs?

How do we create those moments for our KOLs?

Our job isn’t just to report data. Data without meaning is just… data. Our role is to:

✅ Build trust
✅ Deliver useful insights
✅ Help KOLs connect the dots in a meaningful way

Want to make a lasting impact? Try these conversation starters:

- “Now what surprised us was…” → Share insights that shift their perspective.

- “Let me take a time-out…” → Pause to emphasize something they might overlook.

- “I wonder if I could ask you a favor…” → Engage them by inviting their expert input.

- “I may need your help on this one…” → Encourage them to apply data to real-life challenges.

It’s not about dumping information. It’s about creating connections that make them think differently. That’s how you become a trusted, memorable partner.

So, the next time you walk through the door to meet a KOL… bring your thunderbolt.

What’s one way you’ve made an impact in your conversations with KOLs?

Giving others responsibility

Recently I was reminded of the importance of giving others responsibility. Watch this video to learn more and let me know what you think!