Finding the ROI in Leadership Roles: The Bigger You Go, The Bigger the Rewards Are

By Denise Carter

It was a privilege to serve as AIIP president for the recently concluded 2022-2023 term. I am delighted to remain on the Board as immediate past president, where I get to continue working with a great team of infopreneurs.  

I have written previously about the importance of self-reflection. Now, after taking some downtime following the AIIP23 conference and handing over the reins to new AIIP President Janel Kinlaw, I want to reflect on my term and what I have gained from the experience. What has been the return on investment (ROI) of my time and effort? Here are my Top 6 takeaways:

1. Understanding member benefits. AIIP membership comes with great benefits. I became more aware of those opportunities and of the advantages they give members. The key is finding and making the time to discover and utilize all of them.

• Improving my people skills. This is always difficult to self-assess. I managed people and teams for over 20 years before setting up my own business, but working with people in volunteer roles requires some subtle shifts in people skills.

An Insights Discovery course I took once provided me with a set of valuable tools for working in a corporate setting, but also for working with clients, volunteering, or socializing – any time I meet new people or need to engage in a fresh way. Understanding how you respond in different circumstances and what helps you work well is key. I have been able to hone those skills and use those tools even more effectively through my AIIP leadership experience.

• Building my leadership skills. I have never considered myself a natural leader.  I think I make a good team manager, but I believe leadership and management are different.

Managing is about facilitation and making sure people have what they need to do what they are supposed to. Leadership includes management skills but is also about thinking more strategically – making a team cohesive and fundamentally moving in the same direction. Serving as AIIP president put me square in that role. Each time I take on the leadership role – decidedly outside my comfort zone – I learn a little more, including what not to do again.

• Gaining project management skills. Acting as the Chair for the AIIP23 Conference as well as AIIP president and managing 42 hours of client work a week taught me how to prioritize and delineate clearly between critical, important, nice-to-do, and irrelevant activities. These skills easily transfer to helping me improve the way I run my business.

• Challenging myself. I think the most rewarding benefit is that I have improved my self-belief. I put myself in a challenging situation, I managed to live up to the challenge, and I did things I haven’t done before. Each time, it helped me sweep away any self-doubt that crept in.

• Developing a greater sense of belonging and community within AIIP. The ROI for my membership and conference fees weighs very positively in my favor. I have gotten to know many more people in AIIP – some who will be lifelong friends. AIIP members have an amazing variety of skills, experience, and backgrounds. Finding out more about who they are, what they do, and how they work was a tremendous benefit.

AIIP members gain a lot from volunteering in the association – it is a good way to learn new skills or refine old ones that benefit our businesses. Contact volunteer@aiip.org to find out more. There are plenty of great opportunities right now, including a committee chair role and a vacant Board seat. If you want to start smaller there are other opportunities, but the bigger you go, the bigger are the rewards.

Denise Carter serves as 2023-24 AIIP immediate past president. She started DCision Consult in 2013, providing research and analysis to support the competitive intelligence activities of pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. Denise is based in Geneva, Switzerland; her clients are located all over the world.