#023: Beyond the Paycheck

Your True Calling

There's an old story about two stonemasons working on a project. When asked what they were doing, the first grumpily replied, "I'm building a wall." The second, with a voice full of pride, said, "I'm building a cathedral."

Similarly, when President Kennedy visited NASA, he asked a janitor with a mop what he did there. The man replied, "I'm helping put a man on the moon." That was his enlightened career perspective.

But I suggest there was a third Mason and a second janitor whose purpose was even deeper.

The second Janitor would have said “I’m helping humanity understand their place in the universe.”

The third Mason might have answered -"I'm bringing people closer to God."

You see; one has a job. One has a career. And one has a calling.

Welcome to this week's issue:

How can you discover, articulate, and pursue your true calling in the pharmaceutical industry?

I've included my approach for connecting your daily work to your deepest purpose, regardless of which company's logo appears on your payslip.

When Pharmaceutical Professionals Find Their True North

We recently onboarded a new client, a VP who wanted to double his impact and take his team with him. When I asked him why he did what he did he said “I’m going to see cancer cured in my working life, and I have 15 years left”. Calling.

Now picture this: The Pharma Coach team facilitating a career purpose workshop for a cross-functional leadership team in Cambridge last year.

The metrics-focused Commercial Director described his role as "driving sales of life-changing medications." The meticulous Compliance Head defined her purpose as "ensuring compliance with global requirements." The innovative Medical Lead characterised his contribution as "advancing scientific knowledge in oncology."

These weren't incorrect answers, but were they complete?

They described careers, not callings.

As our workshop progressed, something remarkable happened. When asked to articulate why they chose pharmaceuticals over other industries, each leader's language transformed:

The Commercial Director: "I'm connecting patients with treatments that give them more time with their loved ones."

The Compliance Head: "I'm protecting vulnerable patients from potential harm while accelerating access to breakthrough therapies."

The Medical Lead: "I'm expanding the boundaries of what's possible in human health."

Same roles. Same responsibilities. Profoundly different perspective.

This is the difference between pursuing a pharmaceutical career and answering a pharmaceutical calling.

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Resource: Discover Your Pharmaceutical Calling

This week, I’m sharing The Pharma Coach’s ‘Discover Your Pharma Calling’ reflection tool to help you discover your unique purpose. I recommend blocking out an uninterrupted 30 minutes to work through the questions and prompts. The PDF file includes examples of Pharma-specific callings to help you refine and articulate your own.

The full resource is linked here.

Here's a sneak peek:

The Calling Connection Questions:

"If money and advancement weren't factors, what aspect of your work would you still find deeply fulfilling?"

The Cross-Company Calling Framework:

"How does your current position allow you to express your core values?"

The Legacy Orientation:

"What meaningful change in patients' lives do you hope to have contributed to by the end of your career?"

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Here's my most effective technique for pharmaceutical professionals navigating career evolution:

The Job-Career-Calling Map

Map your pharmaceutical journey across these three dimensions:

• Job-Focused professionals see their work primarily as a means to financial security, doing what's required but rarely more

• Career-Focused professionals are motivated by advancement, recognition, and building impressive credentials

• Calling-Focused professionals connect their daily tasks to a larger purpose that transcends organisational boundaries

Your development should systematically move you toward the calling orientation, recognising that this mindset creates both greater fulfillment and paradoxically, greater career success.

Your Team: Pharmaceutical Calling Challenge

In your next team interaction:

• Listen for whether colleagues describe their work as a job, career, or calling

• Share one aspect of your work that connects to your deeper purpose

• Invite others to articulate how their role serves patients beyond its formal description

• Watch how energy and engagement naturally shift

Remember: In pharmaceutical leadership, your ability to connect your team's daily work to their deeper calling can be the difference between a group that merely executes tasks and one that drives genuine innovation.

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Workplace Wellbeing: Burnout Detection

Burnout whispers before it roars. As we focus on finding a deeper calling this week, here are some tell-tale signs your team is disconnecting from theirs and is in danger of burning out as a result.

The Critical Warning Phrases

When team members say:

• "I'm so exhausted"

• "I just don't care anymore"

• "What's the point?"

They've already started the burnout journey. These represent the Maslach Burnout Inventory's three hallmarks: exhaustion, cynicism and diminished accomplishment.

Three Actions This Week

1. Apply the Pressure Performance Curve with direct reports. Five minutes mapping their position prevents months of productivity collapse.

2. Deliver empathy plus action. Only 57% of pharma employees receive tangible support alongside empathetic listening. Make specific workload adjustments.

3. Connect wellbeing to calling. Help team members see beyond immediate pressure to their deeper healthcare contribution using the Cross-Company Calling Framework resource.

The Pressure Performance Curve

Burnout happens fastest when people disconnect from purpose. Your leadership challenge? Creating conditions where pressure becomes productive challenge rather than crushing weight.

Which team member needs a Pressure-Performance conversation today?

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The Turning Point: Calling Across Functions

After studying purpose orientation across pharmaceutical organisations, we developed our Calling Clarification Protocol:

The protocol transformed their approach through:

Cross-Functional Mapping: Helping each department articulate how their work served a common patient-centred purpose.

Calling Conversations: Structured dialogues that connected individual strengths to meaningful impact.

Purpose Storytelling: Creating platforms where employees could share how their work connected to patient outcomes.

The impact was remarkable: post-merger retention improved by 32%, cross-functional collaboration increased by 47%, and employee-driven innovation submissions doubled within six months.

This reinforced a vital insight: pharmaceutical professionals don't fundamentally commit to companies; they commit to callings that companies enable them to pursue. By helping employees articulate purpose that transcends organisational boundaries, these leaders created a culture where company changes became merely new avenues to pursue unchanging personal missions.

Secret Diary of a VP: The Path Across Pharma

Ben & The Pharma Coach team are talking about finding your calling this week - well here's my story - may it help you navigate your own cross-company journey.

Twenty-two years, five pharmaceutical companies, eight roles, and one consistent calling. That's how I'd summarise my career journey to date. Early on, I made the mistake many do - confusing company loyalty with purpose loyalty. I remember the identity crisis I experienced during my first company transition, worried I was abandoning "my team" and questioning my own professional character.