Francois Nader is Chairman of the Board at Acceleron Pharma, Talaris Therapeutics and Benevolent AI. He’s also Board Director at Moderna, and Senior advisor at Blackstone Life Sciences.
I was excited to host Dr. Nader in my series, Conversations Life Science Leaders Aren’t Having, because he has a deep passion to share his wisdom and pour into new CEOs. In fact, Dr. Nader almost exclusively supports CEOs who have just taken on their first CEO role.
Additionally, from the first time I spoke with Dr. Nader I knew he was not looking to prove anything through our conversation. This quality always leads to the richest and most authentic conversations.
Listen in and here’s what you’ll learn:
- The major falsehood we believe as leaders and the surprising ways it unravels the success of the organization.
- The unspoken pillars of organizational success for Life Science companies and why they are often overlooked.
- The fundamental role culture and values play in getting your team operating at a high level, providing guideposts through crisis, and much, much more.
Key Timestamps
2:40 Learn how the definition of success is changing compared to 30 years ago and how Francois defines success personally.
4:20 The single most important conversation he has with CEO’s about success.
10:00 Why trust is the key to breaking through the wall of fear around showing up authentically as a CEO and how the relationship between CEO and chair plays into this.
14:50 Learn what Francois believes are unspoken about pillars of organizational success and how Life Science companies get into trouble without them.
18:52 Learn why values are important, why they often don’t work and how to cement them in your organisation.
24:40 The key role values play in times of uncertainty, crisis, emergency.
33:07 Learn the secret conversation Francois would have with this younger self.
Standout Quotes from Francois Nader
“The key is for CEO’s to be authentic to what they claim is success for them.”
“As a leader, one of your primary accountability is to recruit, retain and reward smart people.”
“The biggest fallacy is we think as leaders is that people don’t see straight through us.”
“It’s impossible to hide who you really are as a leader, and therefore authenticity is the key to success.”
“The role of CEO is a lonely job — it’s why the relationship with the chair is so important.”
“The relationship between CEO and chair is a pillar of success in the organization.”
“Culture and values get attention but not as the backbone of your organization.”
“What the company stands for is the backbone of the organisation and this is materialized in the values.”
“Culture attracts the exact people who are attracted to your kind of culture.”
“Values are the intangible engine of your organisation. It gets all your people going in the same direction.”
“Values have to be embraced and the only way they can be embraced is their leadership demonstrating them.”
“In business, the only certainty is that a crisis will happen. But with the right values, we can at least mitigate the impact.”
“Drive your culture, or it will drive you.”