Why an exec at biopharma giant Gilead Sciences prefers energy management over time management

For Johanna Mercier, Gilead Sciences’ chief commercial and corporate affairs officer, leadership starts with a clear accounting of what sustains performance across a global role. In a job that rarely conforms to fixed hours, she focuses on her energy: what drains it, what restores it, and how to protect enough of it to lead with steadiness in a business where the stakes are measured in patients’ lives.

Mercier describes energy as a kind of running reserve, something she tracks with intention.  “I think about it like a piggy bank,” she told Fortune Next to Lead. Some meetings, tasks, and decisions draw heavily from it, particularly long discussions that go in circles, internal debates that take too long to resolve, and periods when reaching a decision is slowed by overly bureaucratic processes.

Other parts of the job restore it: visiting teams around the world, hearing what they are building, sharing best practices, supporting local strategies, clearing obstacles, and staying close to patient stories, healthcare professionals, and the communities Gilead serves.

What matters is how she responds when that reserve starts to run low. “It’s about........

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