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Every industry needs effective and ethical leadership, for reasons both moral and practical. A leader who makes effective decisions, treats their team with respect, and operates with integrity in accordance with a well-defined set of core values is a leader who is able to guide a company through struggles and come out stronger both individually and as a team. This is especially true in the healthcare sector, where companies and organizations are working with patients’ physical and mental well-being, and their personal information. A leader who fails to keep sharp, leads without integrity, and makes poor decisions is a leader who not only fails their team, but opens their company up to litigation and entirely avoidable trouble.
With over 15 years of leadership experience as a healthcare executive, Nickolas “Nick” Mitilenes understands the importance of ethical leadership. His experience spans national clinical laboratories, health systems, and diagnostic services, and he’s led businesses through transformations, P&L growth, complex mergers and acquisitions, and product innovation. With his recent roles including Vice President and General Manager of the Pandemic Response Laboratory at Opentrons, and prior president-level roles within Eurofins Clinical Diagnostics, Nick Mitilenes has established himself as a leader who builds high-performance teams, fosters accountability, and delivers outcomes-driven solutions wherever possible.
Mitilenes could not have achieved this level of success and become the leader that he is today without developing his skills, building strong and lasting relationships with mentors, and tailoring his career to grow in alignment with his values. All together, his experiences represent a constellation of choices that form a pattern he thinks can be passed on to future leaders, and he’s eager to share the wisdom he’s gained through firsthand experience.
“To me, success as a leader isn’t measured in one day, quarter, or year; success is the sustainable creation of economic and moral value,” Nickolas Mitilenes explains. “In this way, you not only create momentum that is in line with your and your organization’s values, but inspire those around you to do the same long after your time as a leader has concluded.”
Nick Mitilenes grew up around clinical laboratory diagnostics; his grandfather founded a laboratory in 1951, and the family has been in the business ever since. While those early inspirations—both in healthcare and in business—were major influences in Mitilenes’ career decisions, his aptitude for leadership and his vision for growth came naturally. He was drawn to the idea of serving many patients at once, rather than one at a time, and saw best-in-class technology, data analytics, and robust processes as his vehicle for doing so.
“After growing up seeing my family manage a community-based lab, with all its trials and tribulations, I felt compelled to bring in fresh ideas, which, at that time, was the power of molecular diagnostics for infectious disease testing,” says Mitilenes.
It was a direction that wasn’t without its challenges, but challenges are opportunities for learning, growth, and new development. It’s the one piece of advice Nickolas Mitilenes wishes he could give his younger self: to seek challenge as much as possible, whether that’s surrounding himself with more successful peers or taking on a role with prerequisites that are somewhat beyond him. It’s advice he gives to others who look to him for mentorship; embracing challenging roles and circumstances gives a young professional the diversity of experience they’ll need to solve problems and innovate.
“Challenges sought out in a healthy manner make us more productive in the near and long term; diversity of experience makes us think about the same thing in new and unexpected ways,” says Mitilenes. “By pushing the limits of our capabilities and comfort, significant self-improvement can be achieved as well as inspire others around you to do the same.”
For a leader and professional to find success, they need to be seeking out new opportunities to learn and grow—otherwise they’ll just be left behind. This means putting in the work, even outside of exciting new challenges; reading industry publications, attending conferences, building a strong professional network, and otherwise maintaining a robust and up-to-date knowledge base is essential.
It’s incredibly important for leaders to avoid knee-jerk reactions and underinformed decisions, but those are precisely the kinds of responses many people leap to when times get tough and the stakes are high. Unfortunately, those responses most commonly only make the situation worse. That’s why Nick Mitilenes, as both a business executive and industry leader, values deliberate, decisive, and grounded action, especially in high-pressure situations.
“Instead, I stay focused on overarching goals and areas of responsibility, aiming for a balance of speed and thoughtfulness that advances progress without bypassing team consensus,” Mitilenes explains. “Once a decision is made, I believe in maintaining momentum while remaining open to new, material information that may warrant adaptation.”
It’s these moments of tension that define someone’s leadership capability, in large part also because they test their integrity as an individual. It’s easy to hold to values and vision when everything is smooth sailing, but it’s just as easy to abandon them in stormy waters. Nickolas Mitilenes has experienced this firsthand on many occasions; for him, these instances often had him choosing between the insufficient (but easier) status quo and/or stakeholder expectations, and the regulation-compliant and correct (but harder) alternative route.
“For instance, I once had to pull a lab test from the market because I believed clinical performance was not appropriate for the intended audience, even though analytical performance was acceptable,” he recalls. “This was damaging financially as well as for staff morale; however, it was ultimately in the best interests of our patients, clients, and our organization in the long term.”
Being a leader worth following requires integrity and a grounded position in one’s own values, the company's goal, and the team’s vision, and there is no better time to prove it than during times of hardship. Staying grounded has another benefit, and it’s the gift of mental clarity, even in high-stakes positions.
“When trying to meet operational, financial, or quality goals, it is easy to get lost in the details and stray from balance and clarity of thought,” says Mitilenes. “By remembering that patients are the North Star, and that decisions should be made that put them first as well as enable the organization to best serve them now and in the future, you can often push away distractors and focus on what will truly drive the best outcomes.”
