As we close out 2024—a year marked by political, social, and industry challenges—this conversation explores how biotech leaders can prioritize renewal and resilience. Join Michèle Berg, Managing Director of Envisage Consulting and executive coach, content consultant and facilitator for the Termeer Fellowship, and Erica Mawby-Roche, Senior Director of Programs at the Termeer Foundation, as they explore actionable strategies to help leaders, including first-time CEOs and founders navigate the demands of leadership while fostering a culture of well-being and sustainability.
With insights tailored to the biotech industry and the current funding landscape, you’ll gain fresh perspectives on managing stress, setting long-term intentions, and staying adaptable in today’s dynamic environment.
Let’s end 2024 strong and start 2025 with renewed purpose and energy.
Read the transcript
Erica
Hi, I’m Erica Mawby-Roche. I’m the Senior Director of Programs at the Termeer Foundation, and as we approach the end of 2024 and look ahead to 2025, we thought that this was a perfect moment for reflection and renewal, a chance to recharge and realign with your purpose as a leader. This year has brought its share of challenges, from political and geopolitical turbulence to industry-wide market shifts, leaving many of us stretched and reflecting on opportunities to refocus energy in order to approach the new year with clarity and resilience.
That’s why I’m thrilled to sit down with Michèle Berg, Managing Director of Envisage Consulting, a human capital consulting firm that helps individuals and teams envision the futures they want to create and reach their full potential. Michèle is also an integral member of the Termeer Foundation community as an executive coach, content consultant, and facilitator for the Termeer Fellowship. Thank you for joining us today, Michèle.
Michèle
So happy to be here. And this is one of my favorite subjects that we’re going to talk about. Fantastic.
Erica
So, to start this conversation, I’m wondering if you can share some thoughts on how leaders can build their own self-awareness and internal navigation to better understand when it’s time to recharge.
Michèle
Yeah, I think it starts with making the time to check in with yourself and to have moments every day to understand where you are mentally, emotionally, and physically. It’s so important and a lot of times, especially when first-time CEOs and founders are running companies. They’re so focused on what they need to do.
Sometimes, it’s hard to think about, “How am I doing and how am I in this process?” And so I often use an analogy that they’re a corporate athlete, so there is a holistic way to look at themselves. Pick your favorite Olympian or professional athlete. We would never tell them to just keep training, skip meals, or ignore everything that they need.
But it is building in that reflection on, “How am I feeling? How am I doing? What is my mental clarity at the moment?” So that they can keep enduring and building all the skills that they need to do what they are tackling.
Erica
That’s such a great comparison. And you’re right; we would never expect that of anyone else or an Olympian.
How do you encourage CEOs and founders to define and measure success in ways that include well-being as a sustainable factor? If we piggyback on the corporate athlete or the Olympic athlete, the game that they’re playing is a long-term one. It’s not a sprint.
Michèle
It’s more of a long-term approach, and in order to be able to do that, they really need to think about, “How am I going to be able to set things up for the long term?” And “How am I building a culture that allows everybody to be engaged, feel good, and contribute in the best way possible for something that is not just in this short sprint, but for the long term and the milestones?”Obviously building companies and running startups requires many different tools and abilities, and the journey is not a perfect line. And so, they want to think about, “Hey, what do we need at this moment to feel at our best?” And also, being able to continuously check in on that. It’s not a one-off. You don’t go to the gym once and get in perfect shape. It’s committing to consistency and having a good cadence on what you’re doing to support yourself.
Erica
Thank you for that. In our community, many leaders are stepping into the role of a first-time CEO for, as I said, the first time. For leaders in that situation, what’s your biggest piece of advice for integrating self-care and team care into their leadership approach from day one?
Michèle
Many of the people I work with know that I will encourage them to think of what is their BSF. Their “best self-formula,” and that is personal to everybody. That’s a very individual thing. Now, there are three metrics that typically feed into that, which we’re all affected by as human beings. And that’s usually sleep, diet, and exercise or movement.
And there can also be engagement, such as “Am I spending time with my family?” “Am I spending time with my dog?” “Am I spending time in my garden?” But everybody should reflect on what you need to feel good, to feel in flow. You can call it that. When I work with different CEOs and founders, I have them do some reflection on what are the elements that really encourage and influence you to just feel great.
And it can be different. I’ve heard so many different variations. I have one CEO that I’ve worked with; for him, it’s a run, a sauna, a green juice, and then a face mask thing, which always makes me laugh because I’m like, what is a face mask thing? He said, “I don’t know. It just makes me feel like it’s complete. And I go into those important meetings or when it’s really stressful. And I just feel like I’ve taken care of everything.” I’ve got other leaders I’ve worked with who said, “I need to sit in my garden with a cup of tea and just be calm. And then I know I can go into the board meeting feeling ready and on it, and I know I’ll have a good reaction to everything going on.”
So the “best self-formula,” again, is something to figure out. It doesn’t mean that you do it perfectly every time. Probably not, but you give yourself a much better chance of managing how you show up and how you feel if you think and prepare for it.
Erica
That’s awesome. I love the mask. How would you encourage leaders to have those same types of conversations with their teams? Or would you recommend that they delegate to a specific department? Can you talk a little bit about that?
Michèle
When you’re a CEO, you are visible. And so, I think there’s an opportunity to have a conversation or talk about a culture or create something into the culture, such as, “We believe people should take care of themselves.” As a CEO, if you are somebody who is working yourself to a grind and you’re not taking any time and you’re sick and you don’t look well, you’re not setting a great example for people. Is it the thing to tell people, “Oh, you need to run and drink green juice and wear face masks or do whatever?” No, I think it’s encouraging people that…”Hey, we are here building something. We are here doing something important and incredible. And I want to encourage you to figure out what it is you need to be your best self.” And so, if you’re feeling like your best self, then you’re going to bring in your best contribution to the company. You’re going to be engaged. You’re going to feel good.
You’re going to be well. And that’s where I think the leader or the CEO can set something up. Staying with that theme of the leader as the model or the example reflection often focuses on challenges, but how do you encourage leaders to take time to celebrate those wins with their teams, too, whether they’re big or small, to be intentional and to build that in. I was just working with a founder CEO who said, “Oh, I have to have this meeting, and we’re going to do a retrospective and look at everything that didn’t work.” And I said, “Oh, okay. What about looking at what has worked so that you can replicate that more?”
And also, so that you bring some of the energy up in the team.
Just keeping that mindset that just because you’re celebrating and looking at what’s going well doesn’t mean that you’re going to take your foot off the gas. We know that when people acknowledge what is going well, when we give gratitude, and you know we’re about to go into a holiday this week about giving gratitude and being appreciative of what is working and what is not working, what are our blessings?
We know that when our energy goes up. We feel better. It’s more positive. It’s actually good for immune systems. But I would say it’s having a strong intention to be mindful that we need to celebrate the wins along the way, and we can still be looking at the milestones.
And I think sometimes there is a lot of stress when you’re running a company when you’re a CEO, and it feels like you just have to keep going towards, “What’s next, what milestone, what goal?” And I’m encouraging a lot of the people I work with to take a step back and be appreciative and be acknowledging of how far you’ve come and what is the contribution of everybody around you.
And that’s a force multiplier for people from an energy perspective. It also helps people focus. If you’re only looking at, “Oh my God, what have we done wrong? Or what do we have left to do?” That just creates a lot of extra stress.
Nobody needs extra stress right now. Also, speaking of taking a step back, we all have good intentions when it comes to reflection, creative time, and innovation, and building that into our schedules is really difficult.
Erica
We’re all busy. We’re all trying to pack a lot of things into the day. So what do you recommend for preserving and honoring this time to be creative, to be innovative, to reflect?
Michèle
First and foremost, it’s figuring out when does it serve you to put in this time. So some people are morning people, some people like to have a break in the afternoon.
I work with some night owls who say, “Oh my God, between 10 and 12 is my most amazing reflective time.” So, it’s guarding that time. And you can do it a couple of different ways. I like to call it green time. The time that you have on your calendar to be open, reflective, and creative. Think about doing some visioning if that is what you know works for you, or allow yourself just some white space to really create.
You can have it be a recurring meeting on your calendar. When people tell me, “Oh, my assistant’s controlling my calendar.” Then you tell them that they’re going to guard the green time, and you can do it first thing in the morning. We know from a lot of neuroscience research that this is typically when people are their most creative.
You might think, okay, but I need a cup of coffee. Okay. You can build it into a morning routine for some people. Maybe it’s, “I’m going to get up, and I’m going to exercise, and I’m going to use that as my reflective time.” I think, to your point, yes, it sounds idealistic in some ways.
And how do we make it realistic? It’s figuring out where you can populate it and maybe experimenting with it. There’s no magic number. I think it’s great if you can give yourself half an hour every day to take a step back and do something reflective. And again, one day, it could be walking your dog, being quiet, and just listening. Another day, it could be getting up and journaling. Another day, it could be, “Hey, I’m going to go walk to a park and take things in.” You could go to a museum.
There are a lot of different things that you could do, but what we’re trying to encourage is not just be sitting in front of your computer screen all day long, being in one meeting after another, and not allowing yourself a little bit of a step back to reflect on things.
Erica
Continuing with this theme of not being in front of the computer all day long it really feels at times that there’s no off, right? We have access to email; hybrid work means that we’re working from home at times, and it’s just way too easy to work too many hours.
What recommendations do you have for managing this aspect of life?
Michèle
Again, I’ll stick with the word intention, and you have to also come to agreements. If you’re running a team, is there an expert, is there an agreement on, “Hey, we don’t send emails after X time.” Or we’re very specific: having really good email and meeting hygiene can take down the burden of a lot of this.
I hear from a lot of people, “Oh my God, my inbox is crazy. There are so many messages.” What kind of agreements do you and your team have around hygiene on this? Sometimes, simple things, such as writing in the subject line, “Decision needed, urgent,” or “For your information,” or if there are more than two decision points, pick up a phone, or do something different in meetings. Do you really need to be in all the meetings that you’re in? Do the meetings actually need to be on screen? So, in my coaching practice, if we are looking at documents. Yes. Oftentimes, we will be on a Zoom or Teams. If we don’t, I will encourage my clients to go for a walk [during our meetings]. Let’s do something restorative, and we can still talk and listen to one another.
Digital detox at home: is your computer getting into bed with you at night? Probably not great. And I would say that we know after a while, if you’re just staying connected to everything, your cognitive ability is going down, but it’s starting experiments. Maybe you’re not doing anything work-related after 8:30 at night; give yourself some time and space. Now, every now and then, there may be something that’s on fire that you really have to take care of, but if you can stay in a good space on this, 80 percent of the time, you’re going to feel so much better, and your work’s going to improve.
Erica
And again, leading by example. Correct. Thank you for all that, Michèle. What are some recommendations you make when it comes to managing stress during these challenging times, especially when thinking about startups? And then I’d love to pause and talk about the long-term vision and stamina that’s needed to get that startup to the finish line.
Michèle
Again, going back to what makes you feel good. So, managing stress, what takes you out of that frenzy?
Marty Seligman has a whole thing on the PERMA model about what we need in life. There are different things that make people feel connected and calm—again, going back to the three basics of your sleep, your nutrition, and exercise. Those are three things that I think if people are aware of that can help bring down the stress.
So, I’ll pick on the Swedes a little bit, as I do a lot of work over there. Sometimes, there’s so much coffee everywhere. If you’re really stressed, maybe drinking six cups of coffee is not going to help you. You might have your heart racing for a whole other reason.
A little bit of self-care, taking a break, and calling a friend who is in your support system. We see such amazing things happen with our Tremere Fellow cohorts, right? There are WhatsApp channels; people are reaching out and calling one another when something is not going great.
And it’s, “Oh, this person understands me, and there’s no judgment.” And tapping into things that you can do for yourself: reaching out, asking for help, getting a sympathetic ear, and making time and space.
Some people work with a coach to have dedicated time and space so that they know that they can unpack their stress and look at it and have somebody who’s an objective listener and support system.
Erica
So, there are a lot of different things I think that you can do on that. It makes me think back to a Psych 101 class and the hierarchy of needs, and we so frequently forget that those basic needs are going to help us in the future.
Michèle, it’s been so great to spend this time together today. Thank you again for all of your advice, thoughts, and action items as we look to 2025. So, I wanted to just see if, as we close out our session, if there were any other last pieces of advice that you wanted to share with us.
Michèle
Thank you for having me. And I think this is an important and meaningful subject.
I would just encourage, as people go into the end of the year, getting ready for 2025, to give yourself some moments to take a step back and to reflect on, “Hey, what do I need to be my best self?” And 2025 will bring more ups, downs, challenges, opportunities, and excitement.
And so maybe there can be an opportunity, an experiment to run with yourself: “I’m going to try one or two different things.” And maybe you time-bound it and see how that improves or impacts you or how you feel over the long haul while also building endurance, having more fun, enjoying yourself in the process, and being a great role model to the people working with you.
Erica
Fantastic advice.
Thank you so much.