Veteran quality leader Edward Armstrong, Vice President of Quality at Vedanta Biosciences, joins Nicholas Capman to tackle a critical but often overlooked responsibility of leadership: developing the next generation of professionals.
With 30 years in life sciences quality, Ed shares candid stories of mentorship, hard lessons from career setbacks, and practical frameworks for cultivating future leaders who can sustain compliance and culture long after today’s executives move on.
A few key takeaways:
Leadership isn’t just about titles—your best mentors might be senior specialists or document control staff guiding new colleagues.
Transparency builds trust: share what you know, admit what you don’t, and hold yourself accountable to your team’s growth.
Career ladders clarify options for both high-functioning individual contributors and aspiring leaders.
Helping people grow—even if it means leaving your company—creates lifelong allies and strengthens your reputation.
True mentorship blends into daily work: seize critical moments, model your thought process, and invite team members into high-stakes decisions.
Each generation in the workforce—Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z—brings different needs and expectations. Great leaders adapt mentoring styles accordingly.
Grab Nick Capman’s book The Passionate Workforce for a deeper dive into building high-trust, high-performance cultures: https://www.amazon.com/Passionate-Workforce-Maintain-Employee-Engagement/dp/1544544472
Veteran product strategist Henry Kim joins Nicholas Capman to expose “conformity bias”: the subtle pressure to fit in that can smother innovation and hide risk. Learn practical tactics for spotting group-think early, creating psychological safety, and keeping data—not hierarchy—at the center of decisions. Perfect listening for leaders who want candor without chaos.
A few key takeaways:
Conformity bias accelerates consensus but kills creativity—and can trigger costly ethical failures.
Psychological safety is the antidote: invite dissent, ask “Who haven’t we heard from?”
Leaders should speak last; their early opinions often silence the room.
Simple tools (thumb-up/down voting, round-robin sharing) surface hidden viewpoints fast.
Assume you’re biased—say so aloud—to keep the team focused on evidence over rank.
Grab Nick Capman’s book The Passionate Workforce for a deeper dive into building high-trust, high-performance cultures: https://www.amazon.com/Passionate-Workforce-Maintain-Employee-Engagement/dp/1544544472
Nicholas Capman sits down with Liz Troll, an executive-level quality management consultant with over 40 years of global experience in pharmaceutical compliance and quality assurance, on the latest episode of The Passionate Workforce Podcast. Liz discusses feedback as both a powerful guiding tool and a potential anchor that can hinder growth if mismanaged. Leveraging her extensive background in GCP, GLP, GMP, and ISO compliance—including roles as VP of Quality at Endpoint Clinical and Group VP at Neovance—Liz provides strategic insights into managing effective feedback to drive performance and professional development.
Key highlights from their conversation include:
Feedback as a Guiding Light: Effective feedback bridges the gap between performance and clearly defined expectations. Liz emphasizes the critical importance of aligning expectations using SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely).
Feedback as an Anchor: Conversely, feedback becomes restrictive when it fosters complacency or resistance to change. Leaders must continually reassess whether meeting baseline expectations is sufficient for achieving growth and organizational objectives.
Structured Frameworks for Feedback: Liz advocates using structured career progression matrices, clearly connecting competencies with job descriptions to outline pathways for professional development. This approach empowers individuals to actively manage their career trajectory.
Navigating Challenging Conversations: Liz underscores courage, openness, and honesty in feedback dialogues, especially when expectations evolve or career paths shift. Clear, compassionate conversations can lead to better alignment or informed transitions.
Accountability and Empowerment: While leaders clarify performance gaps, accountability for closing those gaps ultimately resides with the individual receiving feedback. Coaching and mentoring provide targeted support to enhance competencies or explore career aspirations.
Mentorship vs. Coaching: Liz clarifies coaching as tactical skills training and mentorship as strategic, reflective guidance, helping individuals navigate career decisions, aspirations, and opportunities.
Liz’s practical guidance, grounded in decades of global pharmaceutical leadership—including extensive audit experience, regulatory inspection readiness, and quality systems implementation—equips leaders and employees to master feedback processes that improve performance, foster meaningful careers, and enhance organizational health.
Learn more about The Passionate Workforce on Amazon.
Nick Capman sits down with Joseph Carleone, author of "The Touchstones of Leadership: Essential Principles for Business Leaders," to explore the core elements of effective leadership across diverse industries. Joseph shares his extensive experience from leadership roles in aerospace and pharmaceuticals, highlighting the universal aspects of leadership and management despite apparent industry differences.
Joseph Carleone holds a Ph.D. in engineering and has had a distinguished career that spans over multiple decades. Initially involved in aerospace and defense, Joseph transitioned successfully into the pharmaceutical industry, bringing valuable insights and strategic acumen to both sectors. He has experience running several companies, focusing on pharmaceutical services, manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients, and biologics. His career includes significant involvement in mergers, acquisitions, and corporate restructuring, including taking companies public and leading them through privatization.
Joseph outlines his unique leadership model, structured like a house, comprising four critical components: Managing Oneself (foundation), Interpersonal Skills, Management Skills, and Strategy and Organizational Alignment (roof). He emphasizes that effective leadership begins with self-management, focusing on prioritization, continuous improvement, and trustworthiness, encompassing both character and competence.
Key insights from the discussion:
Managing Oneself: Leaders must continuously prioritize tasks, engage in ongoing professional development, and focus on elements within their control, fostering a stable foundation for effective leadership.
Interpersonal Skills: Relationship-building, trust, and effective communication are paramount. Joseph emphasizes creating environments where feedback flows openly and where leaders actively seek insights from team members across all levels.
Management Skills: Beyond visionary thinking, effective leadership involves teaching, empowering employees, recognizing inherent talents versus trainable skills, and placing individuals in roles aligned with their natural strengths.
Strategy and Organizational Alignment: Joseph highlights the necessity of defining clear, differentiated strategies that set organizations apart, maintaining focus, and adapting to evolving circumstances, notably emphasizing strategic supply chain management.
Joseph introduces the concept of the "Responsible Realist," balancing ethical responsibility with practical business realities, suggesting that good judgment rooted in trust and respect underpins successful leadership.
Addressing the evolving business landscape, Joseph also touches upon artificial intelligence's transformative potential in fostering innovation, creativity, and enhancing processes, particularly within pharmaceutical and manufacturing sectors.
Learn more about The Passionate Workforce: Amazon.
Nick Capman sits down with Jill O’Mullane, Vice President, Head of Quality Systems at Astellas Pharma Europe, to discuss how leaders can foster employee engagement, development, and retention in a rapidly evolving workplace. Jill shares her extensive experience from over two decades in the pharmaceutical industry, offering practical insights into creating pathways for growth, balancing development with individual aspirations, and ensuring organizational readiness through succession planning.
The conversation dives into the challenges leaders face when investing in people development, the value of competency models and mentoring programs, and strategies for addressing common misconceptions about advancement. Jill also reflects on the importance of tailoring development plans to employees’ unique goals and creating an environment where they feel valued, challenged, and supported.
A few key themes and takeaways:
Learn more about Jill O’Mullane’s approach to leadership and employee development in this engaging and insightful episode of The Passionate Workforce.
Learn more about The Passionate Workforce: Amazon.
Nick Capman sits down with Dr. Gary Epler, a Boston-based medical doctor and thought leader specializing in optimal health, high performance, and leadership, to discuss authentic leadership, stress management, and how leaders can cultivate authenticity to inspire and engage their teams effectively.
They practical strategies and thought-provoking insights into the psychological and emotional challenges leaders face and how they can overcome them.
Dr. Epler is the founder of "quantum biology" and the creator of the "Eplerian Life Philosophy," which emphasizes strategies for achieving maximal performance, enduring joy, and optimal well-being.
His philosophy centers on helping individuals and leaders harness the potential of their human brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex, to foster innovation, creativity, and authentic leadership. He advocates for reducing stress, eliminating ego-driven behaviors, and adopting a people-centered, values-driven approach to life and leadership.
His work has gained recognition through hundreds of podcast appearances, where he shares practical insights and actionable strategies for improving personal and professional lives.
A few key themes and takeaways:
Learn more about Dr. Gary Epler and his work: https://www.eplerhealth.com/
Learn more about The Passionate Workforce: https://www.amazon.com/Passionate-Workforce-Maintain-Employee-Engagement/dp/1544544472
In this special cross-post episode of The Passionate Workforce Podcast, we’re excited to share Nick Capman’s recent conversation from Steve Ramona’s podcast, Doing Business with a Servant’s Heart. Nick delves into two critical topics: expertly navigating FDA regulations and building a passionate, high-performing workforce.
Nick shares his deep experience in helping life sciences companies streamline their regulatory processes, prevent costly delays, and achieve smoother approvals. Shifting gears, the episode explores how business leaders can transform workplace culture by embracing bold strategies like profit-sharing and unlimited paid time off. Whether you're in the FDA-regulated industry or simply looking for ways to ignite passion in your team, this episode offers valuable lessons in both leadership and service.
In the inaugural episode of The Passionate Workforce Podcast, Nick Capman sits down with Jennifer Mascioli-Tudor, a seasoned Quality and Regulatory Affairs Executive with over two decades of experience in the life sciences.
They discuss key topics such as leadership, organizational agility, and continuous improvement, providing practical advice for leaders aiming to navigate the new work paradigms.
They discuss:
Jennifer shares her insights on adapting to the post-pandemic work environment, emphasizing the need for flexibility and continuous learning. She also discusses the importance of psychological safety in promoting a culture of innovation and how leaders can foster open communication and trust within their teams.
About The Passionate Workforce:
Does passion or resentment drive your workforce? Many employees find themselves along a spectrum, closer to either passion or resentment for their work. Even a little resentment, though, goes a long way in threatening engagement and derailing outcomes.
How do you cultivate passion among your team? As an executive, how do you leverage your leadership skills to ensure dedication and optimize performance?
In The Passionate Workforce, Nicholas Capman introduces tactics to motivate your team and become the leader your employees need to succeed. Nicholas features fifteen pillars in his Passionate Workforce Assessment that reveal the type of leader you are and the disposition of your employees, enabling you to take immediate action and implement impactful strategies. More passion equals higher performance. Learn how to elevate your business by strengthening your workforce with this must-read guide for expedient solutions, reduced stress, and widespread peace of mind.
Buy the book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/gNL7cWF
