In today’s life sciences landscape, leadership must do more than keep pace – it must drive change.
Whether it's navigating today’s economic turbulence on top of loss of exclusivity, restructures, shifting regulatory pressures, or embedding AI across the value chain, life sciences leaders are operating in a world where change is constant, complexity is rising, and according to a recent Gallup workplace report, 40% of employees report feeling stressed daily.
All of this is playing out against a familiar tension: how to deliver results in the short term without losing sight of a longer-term vision for innovation, growth, and culture.
Explore what extraordinary leadership looks like today – and the skills leaders need to guide – and inspire their organisations through turmoil, transformation, and growth.
Insights
Here are five standout insights from the conversation:
1. Benchmark Against Excellence, Not Average
Extraordinary leaders amplify what's already strong and aim for the 90th percentile.
2. You can - and should - measure trust
Leaders who can build trust unlock faster decisions, and achieve stronger levels of collaboration and performance.
3. Boldness Requires Balance
Bold leaders make an impact - especially in challenging times - but only when paired with empathy, lack of self-interest and strong relationships.
4. Be Coachable
Feedback is a leader's superpower.
5. Leadership Effectiveness Is Contagious
Extraordinary Leaders lift not just performance, but everyone around them.
Speakers
Jack Zenger
He has worked across sectors as an entrepreneur, HR executive, educator, and coach, and is known for using data to challenge assumptions about leadership potential and performance. Jack is also the author of several influential books, including The New Extraordinary Leader and The Extraordinary Coach, and continues to shape how organisations think about trust, feedback, and strengths-based development.
Ben Shoshan
As CEO & co-founder of Open Water, Ben has led impactful partnerships with leading global life science organisations, strengthening leadership capability, unlocking commercial value, and aligning teams around purpose during periods of deep change. The result consistently delivers measurable trust, clarity, and performance improvement at every business level.
Jonathan Bowder
Jonathan is a certified trainer of NLP, a Certified Master Coach, a Certified Zenger Folkman Extraordinary leader facilitator as well as qualified in organisational change from Geert Hofstede’s ITIM organisation. He is also one of the UK’s few Zenger Folkman Extraordinary Leader Master Trainers.
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