Know your audience!

I hosted a workshop on crafting meaningful personal development plans at the Medical Science Liaison Society's 13th Annual Meeting last week. My content was directed to leaders who would be working with members of their teams as they consider their areas for development, and it was on the MSL Leadership track of the conference. Low and behold when I started my presentation and “read the room”, it was clear the bulk of my audience wasn’t the team leaders I was expecting, but Medical Science Liaisons interested in their own personal development. A nice surprise but one that required a different approach to the discussion.

Boy, was I glad I uncovered my actual audience early in the discussion! It’s an easy topic to pivot on, especially since developing MSLs was the core of the discussion to begin with. The discussion was robust as I shared my framework for personal development conversations. It’s good for the MSLs to consider what managers think about the skills and resources available to them to prompt their thinking.

The first step is to think about mastery of your current role. This is an easy one as everyone has room for growth, even if they are seasoned in the role. Perhaps this is learning the science more deeply, working on your ability to break down barriers with hard to access key opinion leaders, or maybe it is taking a deep dive into a disease related to a pipeline product.

The next step is to focus on developing something about you that will optimize your impact in your role. As an MSL, this could be active listening, asking good probing questions, or perhaps gaining meaningful insights.

These are focus areas that may seem basic, but everyone has something to optimize if we’re being honest.

What is your approach you your personal development?

How do you approach this conversation with your team?

What’s your method to understanding and pivoting for your audience?

I appreciated the enthusiasm for personal development from everyone in the room. Considering there was an AI workshop just around the corner, it was happy to have a full room with interested people who were open to sharing their ideas and asking questions!