Naji Gehchan: Hello, leaders of the world. Welcome to “Spread Love in Organizations”, a podcast for purpose-driven healthcare leaders, striving to make life better around the world by leading their teams with genuine care, servant leadership, and love.
I am Naji, your host, for a special episode in partnership with Jill Donahue for her new book “A Dose of Inspiration: 100 purpose stories from Pharma Leaders”. I am joined today by Angela Giannantonio, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, and member of the executive team at Travere Therapeutics. She has more than 15 years of experience in human resources management, with a strong track record of delivering a best-in-class employee experience and keeping patients at the center, while also driving successful growth and innovation across complex and global organizations. Known for her relentless focus on employee experience and engagement, Angela most recently was the head of human resources for Alexion Rare Disease where she led the company through its integration with AstraZeneca. She previously served as head of human resources for global commercial operations and corporate functions, leading the organization through hyper-growth and a complex pandemic while ensuring high employee engagement and performance worldwide.
Angela, It is such a pleasure to have you with me today!
Angela Giannantonio: Thank you, and it is a pleasure to be here.
Naji Gehchan: Can you first share with us your personal story? What brought you to HR, specifically in the pharma world, and now leading at an executive level in biotech? What’s your purpose story?
Angela Giannantonio: Absolutely. I reflected on this, and it is a bit ironic, because I didn’t intend to be in HR.
I didn’t necessarily intend to be in the pharmaceutical industry. But as I took the time to reflect on this in partnership with Jill, I really started to think back on my childhood and my mother and the compassion that she had with me growing up. Um, she was a young mother, a single mother, really focusing on her daughter and not herself and making sure that I was set up to have a strong life and childhood.
And during that time, I didn’t necessarily realize all that she was putting on her shoulders. Um, and during my childhood, she also took on, uh, being a caretaker for my cousin Kenny who had been diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. And now that I’m older and reflect back, I realize that it was something that was instilled in me that I wanted to help others.
And whatever I wanted to do, I wanted to be like my mom. And so as I went through my career, I gravitated towards people while I was in business and operations and sales, I always wanted to do something better for the people. And as my journey took me, I moved into HR because I realized that if I help the people internally, I can help more people externally.
And as that came to a realization for me, I also wanted to find a purpose driven organization. And so as I moved somewhere where it was really helping people in the company that I was in, I saw that it was the best opportunity for me to make a difference. Thank you
Naji Gehchan: for sharing that. Uh, you, you talked about HR and helping people internally, so I’m really interested and I’m going to immediately go there before we talk about the purpose.
Is it only a matter of HR helping people internally or employee experience? As you talk about it, I’d love to get your thoughts on this as you help, I imagine, several other leaders in the
Angela Giannantonio: organization. Absolutely. And so first, what I always say to my team is that we have to start with ourself. Because if we don’t take care of ourselves, then we can’t take care of others.
And I think a lot of times, when you’re in an organization under a GNA function such as HR, you really only focus outward. And so we start with taking care of ourselves, and that enables us to help the rest of the organization. And so for me, it’s helping leaders lead. And it’s also helping managers grow.
It’s helping each individual be their, their best selves. And so what we can do, um, around that is really critical. And I think for me, the change point for HR is that it used to be considered something that was in the back office and reactive and really operational. And that has changed. It has changed dramatically over the past few years.
I think as mental health has become an awareness, I think during COVID, HR became pivotal in helping employees navigate all of that was going on. And so with that, it just is this opportunity to really set up the organization and the external partners that we have to be their best selves.
Naji Gehchan: Yeah, certainly.
And I, you know, I relate to that. I’ve never been in HR, but I feel that the accountability of every leader is also making sure that we can create those positive experiences and people for people to be at their best. And your role is definitely crucial within an organization. create this. So as you have been passionate about employee experience and keeping patient at the center, you talked also about being in a purpose driven organization.
I would love to learn more from you on how do you do this. on a daily basis with your people, ensuring that those are really at the center of what they do every day.
Angela Giannantonio: I would say that, you know, I’m a very authentic leader. And so what you see is what you get. And so when I’m, I think it’s really important to, to create that trusting environment.
And so when we think about purpose at the core of what we do, Where I am today and where I’ve been previously is for our patients. And so we have our meetings where we come together and we’ll either share a story of a patient to ground us or we’ll share our wives and why we have chosen to be at the company that we are at.
And as you learn about everyone has a history and a path that they’ve gone on. And it creates sort of this trust and ability to think forward on what we need to do and where we need to focus on and let the small things really go. And so we can have a really crazy week. We can be in the middle of doing 150 things.
And if you stop for 5 minutes. And reflect in either one show appreciation or talk about someone who, while we think it’s really hard to have a 12 hour day for some people, it’s really hard to put on their shoes and to be able to go outside. And when you stop and really think about what matters, it changes your whole focus.
You can take a step back. You can breathe. You get done what you need to get done, but you also appreciate
Naji Gehchan: what you have. Going, going back to why we do what we do and wake up every morning. And as you said, I’m fascinated by how people in pharma and in healthcare industry are always here for a reason, right?
We all have this purpose. Sometimes we didn’t work the story behind it, but we’re all here for a reason. And this is why we wake up every morning. It is. Yeah. And you’ve led companies through growth, acquisition. So I imagine growth is something positive. It also comes with challenges when it’s like extreme growth, how you keep the culture and you’ve been accountable, uh, somehow with, uh, with the leaders you have and across the company on making sure that those happen in the best way for people.
This is your passion and what you do. So what is your biggest leadership learning? Throughout those experiences of expansion or and or
Angela Giannantonio: acquisition transparency. It is needed. You need to celebrate and own the mistakes and be okay with it and communicate those. Um, and and if you because what that does is goes back to that word.
I’m going to continuously use. It creates trust. And when you have trust in an organization, the ups and downs don’t matter because you’re all in it together. One of our core values is stronger together. And so that is something that is just a part of who we are. And I’ve seen that at every organization that I’ve been at, you know, where we, when we’re able to, and when I say be transparent, that’s all leaders.
That’s not just myself. It’s really critical. For the C. E. O. For the C. F. O. For people, managers to be equipped and be okay and feel comfortable to be transparent and own what we’re going through and that maybe it’s hard or that maybe we made a wrong decision and we’re going to pivot and pivot quickly and come together.
The other piece, I would say, on top of that is creating a speak up culture environment. Where employees feel safe to share what they’re feeling and how they’re feeling. You can do that anonymously, but you can also create an environment within your team so that they feel as though they have the right to speak up.
Because when you’re going through tremendous growth and change, they are the people that can help drive to success. They see the ins and outs. They see the holes. They also have great suggestions that we may not have. Um, and they can be a tremendous asset to helping build and maintain that culture.
Naji Gehchan: I definitely agree with that, especially on the speak up, uh, and obviously the trust.
It’s all about what, you know, we talk about in this, uh, in this podcast. I want to double click on speak up though, as you’re going through again, speed growth or speed acquisition, we’re always feel, and we’re all as leaders, always impatient and we want things to be done fast. How, how did you always ensure that we, there is a culture Where a speak up is not only said that it’s important, but it’s actually done and done in a proper way while balancing the speed to I several discussions I have said, Oh, well, it’s going to slow us down if we want to hear everyone, etc.
But at the same time, as you said, like, it’s the only way actually to accelerate. So I’m interested if you can give us some tips on how you ensure this speak up culture is always really done as you go through those changes.
Angela Giannantonio: Well, first, I’m going to say that we, I, have made many mistakes along the way in this, and so I don’t think that there’s a perfect science, but some, some things that I would say worked well are, one is, you know, always having the ability to have an external resource as a survey, um, and so having the right platform in place, you can very quickly gather sentiments from your employee base and see it in, and so to your point of not slowing things down, um, You can see it in a word cloud.
You can see a heat map of how people are feeling within 24 hours of putting a survey out and you can make it quick. But I think in other ways that have worked is helping them be involved in the change and the growth. And so you do that. And by doing that, you get a good sense of how the employees are feeling.
And really asking them to share in what we want to do in the purpose of driving us forward. And so you can do that. You know, we’ve had to pivot, but previously it was coming together in small groups and brainstorming and sharing here are our cultural values. What are we going to do to keep that and bring that forward?
What are we all going to commit to? And really making them a part of the process. So you’re not slowing it down. You’re embedding them in it because quite frankly, if you embed them in creating it, then you’re not going to have to come back and fix it. And so in the end, you’re not slowing things down.
You’re actually speeding it up.
Naji Gehchan: I’m going to give you a word now, and I would love to get your reaction. So the first one is leadership. Authenticity.
What about employee engagement? Critical to success. Can you tell us a little bit more? I know it’s a big passion of yours. Yes.
Angela Giannantonio: So if you’re employees, you have to find the secret sauce for your organization. And for us, it’s purpose. And as I said before, as you learn about each employee, every single one of us has a story that we go back to.
And when you really, truly understand your employee base and build that trust, The engagement comes and employees are willing to do and give 110 percent all of the time. And what’s even better is that with that, they feel fully satisfied. And so if you have a fully satisfied employee, because they are engaged.
Your company is going to do well, but in the end, you’re also all feeling really good about yourself and to do a full circle of that. I have to call out the importance of mental health. And when I think of employee engagement, I don’t just think about how an employee is engaged at work. I think about how they’re engaged all the time.
And so we need to make sure that we’re putting the right tools and support in place for our employees from a mental health perspective to ensure that they can be engaged both at work, but also at home.
Naji Gehchan: So how are you thinking about, uh, about this specifically, right? Like there’s several times and I obviously think about it all the time as a leader and, and people, uh, people manager.
There was always this misconception or the reality, maybe some years ago, of you put your things outside the door and you come physically probably to an office, which we don’t have anymore. But really kind of this disconnect of what’s happening at work and then your life. Where I feel these days, it’s so blurred and we live.
the craziness of our current world with unfortunate events constantly happening and more hate than than love and compassion. And it’s just so hard to put them outside of work. So how do you think about this these days, ensuring that obviously we talk about it, we ensure there’s an environment where people feel safe to bring them their true selves and don’t feel You know, they cannot do that.
So I’m intrigued on how you think about this because you mentioned mental health beyond only at work. So how are you thinking about it as an HR leader?
Angela Giannantonio: So I would say, you know, it first starts with me and my leadership style. And so I’m a working mom. And you know, when you ask me who I am, I’m a mom first.
Um, and you know, head of H. R. comes after. And I struggle with that. And so I’m using that as my, you know, one example here is that I show my team, but I also show Trevere and others. When I’m struggling and when I need to go be a mom and when I need to be present at work because I want to give permission for others to do that so that they can find the right balance in their lives.
Um, and so I think it’s really important as leaders to show that to show that we all have. This balancing act that we’re playing, whether we’re a caretaker, a mom, we have a pet that is new to the family, whatever it may be. So that’s the first piece, right? And so showing my vulnerability in that there are days where they’re tough, it’s tougher for me.
And that’s okay. Or there’s days where I’m on an executive call, and I’m cheering for my daughter at a soccer game, and they’re all comfortable and supportive of that. And that is something that is so critical, I think. And that’s not just me, that’s our leadership team in creating that environment. But then secondly, when there are events that happen, which seem to happen on a consistent basis, it’s when those happen, and I’m either with my own employee.
In a group setting, whether it be with the executive team or leaders, before we get into what we’re getting into, I stop. How’s everyone doing? What’s one word to describe how you’re feeling today? One word. We go around, we share our one word, we talk for a bit, and then we move on. It just allows for that moment again, because to your point, we are all working so hard and you just get into the day to day to day if you stop and take that moment that is so critical, it really helps people to feel as though, okay, I’ve been able to share at least how I’m feeling today.
It could be I’m exhausted. I’m overwhelmed. I’m really sad about today’s events. Um, it allows for that, that ability to be able to do. So this is such a
Naji Gehchan: great tip. I’ll, I’ll use it. I checked on emotions. I do it. Um, I learned how to do it. I should say from my daughters. Actually, since you shared about being a mother and It’s so powerful, but I love the idea of putting one word behind it.
I’ll try it. The third one I’m going to give you is D E I B.
Angela Giannantonio: It’s a must. And so, you know, as we think through, I think there’s, there’s so many different ways to think about it. I think it all starts with inclusivity and having that sense of belonging, but you need the diversity of thought, of background, in order to have it all come together. Um, and it goes back to that ability to have that speak up culture and to share what you’re feeling and what it may be right or what it may be wrong.
And again, goes back to vulnerability and being able to say, I’m not sure I quite understand that. Could you explain it to me? It’s an education. It’s an evolution. Um, but it’s an absolute must because without that a company can grow stale.
The last word
Naji Gehchan: is spread love and organizations.
Angela Giannantonio: This one just brings a smile to my face because, oh well let me think of the one word first, um, powerful.
Naji Gehchan: I want to know why it brings a smile.
Angela Giannantonio: Well, I think that, you know, love can be seen as something as, I think, a weakness at work, um, and it’s not. And I think that’s why, for me, it’s, if you have the compassion, you have the trust, the integrity, It automatically creates and builds high standards throughout your organization.
And if you spread that, it is such a powerful thing. And I’ve been at organizations that may not spread love, and I have been at organizations that do, and the differences are tremendous. You wake up every day and no matter what is happening, you feel safe and welcome at your work. You spend a lot of time at work.
You want to feel welcomed. You want to feel as though you can succeed. And if you have an environment where it’s safe and people are spreading love, it is truly a different experience and no one’s ever going to want to leave.
Naji Gehchan: Any final word of wisdom for healthcare leaders around the world?
Angela Giannantonio: I would just say continue to be your authentic self with your teams. I think it can go a tremendous way and it builds an opportunity for others to be able to lead in that same way. And the other piece that I just want to say is there are quiet people on your team, pull them out.
Don’t necessarily put them where they’re uncomfortable, but seek their opinions and their thoughts. Because a lot of times. They don’t share them, and they have some really great insights that may be overlooked or missed.
Naji Gehchan: Well, thank you so much, Angela, for being with me today and this inspiring chat.
Angela Giannantonio: Yes, thank you. I’m honored to be here.
Naji Gehchan: Thank you all for listening to SpreadLove in Organizations podcast. Drop us a review on your preferred podcast platform
Follow us on LinkedIn and connect with us on spreadloveio.com. We’re eager to hear your thoughts and feedback. Most importantly, spread love in your organizations and spread the word around you to inspire others and amplify this movement, our world so desperately needs