For many years, having worked in industry and academia, I could not think about these two words going together. I thought that to be effective you must be hard nosed, ruthless and driven. Therefore, it seemed logical that when you manage people well and achieve goals they won’t like you. However, if you are nice people will like you but you will not achieve results.

This misconception was swept aside when I met Kevin Taylor, Professor of Pharmaceutics, Head of Department and a leading scientist on drug delivery systems.  When I met people who know Kevin they said, ”He is one of the nicest people you will ever meet”. People who work for him say the same things but also add that, “he is an excellent manager”.

Our group visited UCL School of Pharmacy last year and I met Kevin for the first time.  From the moment I met him…