Michael Pietrack, Managing Director at Kaye/Bassman, Authored “Leadership Lab: When Senior Leaders Are Asked To Carry Too Much,” Featured in BioSpace

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Michael Pietrack, Managing Director at Kaye/Bassman, Authored “Leadership Lab: When Senior Leaders Are Asked To Carry Too Much,” Featured in BioSpace

Plano, TX | 2/23/2026

Michael Pietrack is a Managing Director at Kaye/Bassman International, an executive search and recruitment firm. Michael is a practice lead for Kaye/Bassman’s pharma and biotech recruiting team and host of “The Pharmaverse Podcast.” The following is an article published in BioSpace:

In this column, Kaye/Bassman’s Michael Pietrack shares a framework that helps leaders identify when their team members are thinking about heading for the exit—and how to address it.

Many leadership challenges in biopharma aren’t caused by bad decisions or weak leaders, but by systems that put more weight on senior leaders than they were designed to bear.

To illustrate, a bridge is designed with a clear purpose and a defined capacity. Engineers calculate how much weight it can carry, how traffic should flow and where stress will be absorbed. Under normal conditions, the bridge performs invisibly. Cars pass over it every day without incident. Problems begin when lanes close unexpectedly, and the same volume of traffic is forced through fewer supports. The bridge does not fail immediately. Instead, strain concentrates in places never meant to bear it.

That is increasingly the position senior biopharma leaders find themselves in today.

Too Much Strain Topples Structures

Across the industry, downsizings have become a recurring reality rather than a singular event. Teams are leaner, budgets are tighter, yet expectations have not meaningfully adjusted. When roles are eliminated, the work does not disappear. Much of it moves upward, landing on senior leaders who are already accountable for strategy, performance and culture. Like a bridge still carrying traffic despite closed lanes, leadership structures appear intact. Work continues to move. Outcomes are still expected.

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