Hi!

Last week, we were joined by Biotech Sisterhood CEO Co-Founder Sheila Gujrathi, M.D., The Black Sherpa Founder Nyambe “Yam” Sumbwanyambe, and ​Ovid Therapeutics SVP, Strategy & Corporate Affairs Victoria Fort, who helped us tackle the March Comm Convo topic of confidence.

We discussed where confidence originates and how to encourage that ripple effect.

And something that really stuck with me was when Sheila Gujrathi talked about how her confidence grew once she started advocating for her team.

She said that even when she wasn't always confident advocating for herself, she could do it in spades for her team. That hit home: imagine how we could boost ourselves up if we poured the same energy we use to advocate for others, into ourselves.

Here are some of the other key takeaways and top tips:

1. Own your communication expertise. Enter boardrooms and leadership meetings with conviction in your specialized knowledge, recognizing that scientists and executives need your storytelling abilities to succeed.

2. Build trust through relationship development. Make time to directly understand benchside researchers' and executives' work, demonstrating your commitment to helping them articulate their vision effectively.

3. Position communications as a partnership. Frame your function not as a gatekeeper but as an enabler who makes everyone better at expressing complex ideas to key stakeholders.

4. Prepare with deep knowledge. Over-research topics and industry examples so your confidence comes from preparation rather than needing to appear certain about everything.

5. Acknowledge knowledge gaps directly. Build credibility by openly admitting when you don't have an answer rather than bluffing (this will paradoxically strengthen others' confidence in your guidance!).

6. Address resistance with evidence. When executives challenge communications recommendations, shift from opinion-based arguments to fact-based case studies of similar situations that delivered results.

7. Manage internal doubt deliberately. Recognize that even biotech CEOs experience confidence challenges, and develop personal practices like meditation, journaling, or power poses to center yourself before high-stakes situations.

8. Find your people and places. Work where the communications function is valued, recognizing that constantly justifying your work drains the energy needed for strategic leadership.

9. View confidence as situational. Adjust your approach based on context while maintaining core convictions about communications principles, reading each room to determine when to assert or collaborate.

10. Focus beyond function. Elevate your strategic influence by orienting conversations around shared objectives like patient outcomes, investor understanding, and company success rather than defending communications territory.

This was such a valuable discussion, but if there was just one thing I’d ask you to take away from it, it would be this:

Maybe confidence isn’t about standing tall as an individual, but about recognizing how lifting others up strengthens us, too. It’s all connected.

When we see ourselves as partners in the success of the whole organization, it just clicks.

We belong in those rooms; we deserve to take up space.

And T2B is here to support you in doing so! 💪

Lynnea

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