Why diverse leadership in life sciences is so important
22 Jun, 20264 minute read
As a talent solutions provider in life sciences, we have significant exposure to the challenges associated with the lack of diversity within positions of leadership.
For years now we’ve been advocates of sparking conversations about this topic and raising awareness of its negative impacts on both people and the industry as a whole.
As well as publishing two reports about the gender leadership gap, we brought people together at our London and New York events in 2025 – where seven remarkable speakers shared their perspectives and experiences of DEI (or lack thereof), particularly at leadership level.
Below we’ve outlined what happens when leadership lacks diversity and why changes must be put in place as soon as possible.
Some of this content is taken from our 2025 report titled, The Importance of Addressing the Gender Leadership Gap in Life Sciences. If you’re interested in reading more, you can download the full version here.
Groupthink and missed opportunities
A major issue caused by an absence of diversity – especially at leadership level – is groupthink.
Groupthink happens when people in a team or leadership structure are too similar in background, worldview, experience, and even personality. It creates a culture where ideas aren’t challenged, and poor problem-solving contributes to bad decision making. Creativity tends to be reduced, too.
In an industry that’s as quick to evolve as life sciences is, C-suite teams that think too similarly can be detrimental to overall progress and success. As mentioned in this report by Bench International, it causes “many organizations to struggle to identify and address critical leadership gaps, leading to a cascade of negative consequences”.
It is so important to have a multi-ethnic, multi-skilled, and mixed-gendered group of people in charge of decision making. When people from different backgrounds can offer their unique views and personalities, they are better equipped to spot risks, avoid unconscious biases, and maintain an environment where employees don’t feel pressure to conform.
Clinical trials are negatively impacted
Non-diverse leadership teams do more than negatively impact business decisions and its employees; they’re also detrimental to medical research and clinical trials.
As noted in one report written by the Institute of Cancer Research, the absence of women in decision-making roles has resulted in science having more evidence for men than women, with the “male” being accepted as the norm in study design.
From textbooks containing mostly images of male bodies to men being historically treated as the ‘default’ patient, the current healthcare system has been designed to fit the needs of only half the population. Unless we see more women in top positions in the industry, this trend is likely to continue.
The same applies to people of color. Black people make up the smallest percentage of the life sciences workforce (>1%) and are also significantly underrepresented in clinical trials. An analysis of over 433,000 patients who took part in clinical trials in the US between 2010 and 2021 revealed that:
Black individuals comprised of only 8.5% of participation in oncology trials, despite accounting for 15% of the population
For Alzheimer’s disease trials, this figure dropped as low as 5%
With new drugs being tested on mostly white people, people from other backgrounds become compromised and end up receiving worse overall health outcomes. Increasing diversity in leadership and research teams is one step we can take towards making clinical trials more inclusive.
Top talent from the market is lost
One final element that is important to note – organizations that aren’t diverse miss out on the best talent that the market has to offer.
When women and race minorities don’t see themselves represented in senior roles, many either leave the workplace entirely or are prevented from rising up the ranks.
And without the best talent, company performance will most likely dip. Research continues to show that diverse leadership teams increase overall performance, which is essential for keeping up in an industry that’s so quick to evolve.
