1. "Fostering Excellence" – Effective Leadership as a People Manager
Duane Snavely
Director, Late Development Statistics, Merck & Co.
JSM 2018

2. Why is this role important?
“A Gallup poll of more 1 million employed U.S. workers concluded that the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor. 75% of workers who voluntarily left their jobs did so because of their bosses and not the position itself.”1
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3. What attributes need adapting?
Focus of an Individual Contributor vs. a People Manager
Attribute
Individual Contributor
People Manager
Management/
Leadership
Projects
People
Standards
Follow them
Set them
Knowledge
Be informed
Share information
Quality
Focus on the details
Focus on the big picture
Collaboration
Teams/colleagues
Employees/other managers
Development
Focus on yourself
Focus on your team
Project deliverables
Drive and produce
Consult and review
Impact
Indication/narrow
Therapeutic area/broad

4. What are key responsibilities of this role?
Recruit and build a high-performing statistical group
Develop and retain the talent
match project assignments with development interests and skills
Lead effectively
establish a culture that expects and ensures high quality and timely work as well as strong teamwork
provide strong statistical and scientific input

5. How can I recruit and build a high-performing group?
“Scoring goals is a great feeling, but the most important thing to me is that the team is successful – it doesn’t matter who scores the goals as long as we’re winning.”
Cristiano Ronaldo, World Cup 2018 soccer player (Portugal)
Find inspiring people that:
communicate effectively
provide diversity to your group
are motivated
have demonstrated success and leadership
are technically strong and bring new skills
think critically
work well in a team environment
are smarter than you

6. How can I develop and retain talent?
Communicate effectively and in an ongoing, two-way manner
listen deeply, build trust
be honest, open and transparent
be prepared to have difficult conversations
Advocate appropriately for your group
know the details of what they are doing
Recognize and celebrate successes
and pivots from failure
“Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.”
- Mia Hamm, U.S. women’s national soccer team, 2-time FIFA world soccer player of the year
Empower your employees
don’t make decisions for them or do their work because it’s easier/faster for you
teach them everything you know

7. How can I develop and retain talent?
“I always thought the most important thing a good coach must do is build the team around the characteristics of his players.” - Claudio Ranieri, manager of Leicester City ( EPL Champions)
Match project assignments with development interests and skills
Identify leadership opportunities within projects
Person
Skill 1
Skill 2
Skill 3
Skill 4 1 2 3 4 6 5 7 8 9
Skill level: 0=none to 10=expert
Skill development interest level:
low moderate high
Project #1
Project #2
Project #3

8. How can I develop and retain talent?
Don’t focus on mistakes
acknowledge these and help them learn from them
Provide work-life balance
Have meaningful employee development discussions
help them get to where they want to go
Remember that what you do is important, but how you do it is the key
be positive, have a sense of humor, be in control of your emotions

9. How can I lead effectively?
Establish a culture that expects and ensures high quality and timely work as well as strong teamwork
set fair standards and treat people consistently based upon these
work seamlessly with your employees even if they are based in different regions/time zones
reward high performance and address poor performance
Provide strong statistical and scientific input
stay current with new methods
add value and insight at technical meetings
emphasize the importance of professional development

10. How can I lead effectively?
Be selfish
think about what can you do to facilitate their work
be a buffer for negativity and bureaucracy
remember that their accomplishments reflect well on you
“I've never scored a goal in my life without getting a pass from someone else.”
Abby Wambach, US women’s national soccer team, world record holder for international goals for both female and male soccer players

11. How can I lead effectively?
Provide ongoing, timely and direct feedback
talk to their peers, know their matrix
people want to know how they can improve
Be available to your employees
don’t make them feel like they are interrupting you
Find out what motivates them and feed into it
do they like to do project-related research?
are they interested in process improvement?
Lead by example

12. How can I stand out? Be a leader that:
Make an impactful improvement to the department or organization
Manage everything at the appropriate level
know when to escalate an issue
Be a problem solver…and a problem identifier
Continue to get your employees ready for the next level
you must develop future leaders
if there’s no one to take over your role, it’s tougher to advance
Consumes
Produces
Complexity
Simplicity
Ambiguity
Clarity

13. Summary
“When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average … So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines whether you’re a good player or not.”
Johan Cruyff, Netherlands national soccer player, 1974 World Cup Golden Ball award
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
Pele