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Leading with Passion: How Divya Vellanki Inspires Teams in Digital Health and AI · Speak In Flow

• 0:01
  Melinda Lee: Welcome, dear listeners, to the speak and flow podcast, where we dive into strategies to help you and your team unleash the power of their voice achieve maximum potential and flow. Thank you so much for being here. I have an amazing Futurist speaker leader in the digital AI space. We have divia Valeniki here. She's a solution.
• 0:27
  Melinda Lee: She's exploring health
• 0:29
  Melinda Lee: exploring solutions to our health and AI
• 0:33
  Melinda Lee: digital health and AI, and she's also using that to foster and improve our overall health through innovative research and solutions. Welcome divia.
• 0:45
  Divya Vellanki: Thank you for having me, Melinda.
• 0:47
  Melinda Lee: I'm so glad you're here. I am excited to get started, especially with all of this new innovation and health talk that we're speaking about how I'm curious. I know your your story you told me about, and I think it's so ex inspiring. Can you share that also with our audience, and how you got here today.
• 1:08
  Divya Vellanki: Sure. Sure I'll try to keep it short. But but feel free to cut me off if I go along. I have a tendency to do that. So I am from India originally, and and I'm I'm being the only child I've always been this self determined person and ambitious. I have always made it a point to drive into every opportunity available me available to me. To enrich my experience and
• 1:37
  Divya Vellanki: determine to, you know, push myself out of my comfort zone.
• 1:42
  Divya Vellanki: So I worked in India for almost 8 years. I started out as an individual contributor right out of college. And then I moved on to working, cross, collaborating with multiple teams. And then I decided to do my master's in 2022. That's when I moved to the Us. And that's where my interest in conversational AI and all of the space started getting in
• 2:10
  Divya Vellanki: so I did. My master's at the University of Florida, and that's where I got introduced to all the research labs specifically focusing on how AI can help in the precision medicine, especially in the in this digital age. What AI brings to the whole whole field of healthcare.
• 2:28
  Divya Vellanki: that is, when I started making conscious efforts to having no bad, especially having no background in health. That's where I started having making conscious efforts to being to make myself available in all possible avenues where I can get more information. Kite kind of get more comfortable in this arena, so that I can take a decision of, okay, this is what I want to focus on and help
• 2:50
  Divya Vellanki: and that's how I my entire focus on my during my masters was that and I have been fortunate enough that with with the kind of people that have surrounded myself with the network. That I have built here. It has created a lot of opportunities for me which I'm sure we'll be getting into. But so yeah, that that story. And right now.
• 3:15
  Divya Vellanki: the work that I'm doing at the intelligent clinical care at the University of Florida. It it is specific to the what AI does to the digital health.
• 3:25
  Melinda Lee: Wow! And you just got an award. What was that for?
• 3:28
  Divya Vellanki: So this award was it was something it was given to me at the end of my masters. This is something that's given to every it's it's called an outstanding data scholar engineering award. So this is picked out of a handful of
• 3:44
  Divya Vellanki: all the master students for that year. Combining all engineering disciplines. And this is something to choose based on not just on your course grades, but also the kind of contributions that you have made for the university. so I must say it was. It was not something that I definitely had in my mind that I should apply for it, or probably I I would get
• 4:08
  Divya Vellanki: I would end up getting glowing recommendations. But it just happened like in a flow in in my.
• 4:14
  Melinda Lee: 'kay.
• 4:15
  Divya Vellanki: To learn something new. It just happens so naturally and organically.
• 4:18
  Melinda Lee: I love that I love, cause it sounds like you'd like to put you. You put yourself in these situations, even if they're uncomfortable, and then you go with curiosity. I mean, have there been time? And then you get this award? And it sounds so easy, and it's not. And then there's it sounds like there's some flow to it. Were there times where you're just doubting yourself, like you just not sure. And what what were you doing? What do you.
• 4:40
  Divya Vellanki: Yeah.
• 4:41
  Divya Vellanki: Every time, every time, for instance, the the work that I did in India is completely different from the work that I'm doing right now. So when I was focusing on this work specifically to the conversational AI, I was like, Hey, my experience has always been on the integrations, enterprise integrations. How do I mix both of these? Will it even fit here? Why would even people want me to work in this space
• 5:06
  Divya Vellanki: when my whole experience is out there. So there were a lot of doubts, and and of course, deciding to do masters after 8 years of professional experience. That itself was a big question. Mark to me, like, how good of a decision is this? Really, at this point in my career wherein I could just probably try for something in management or in a higher position outside in the industry.
• 5:29
  Divya Vellanki: But I made that conscious effort. Okay, let me give it a try, because I want to step outside of the comfort zone that I have developed over working in the same company for almost 8 years.
• 5:40
  Divya Vellanki: So I wanted to put myself again in the challenging position. And see, let me give it a try and see if I can get out of it.
• 5:47
  Melinda Lee: So you're led by the challenge, you're led that that seems to guide you if it's something.
• 5:52
  Divya Vellanki: Thank you.
• 5:52
  Melinda Lee: Challenging that stretches you like. Okay, that might be the direction that I want to go. And you did go there. And it sounds successful. And now you're leading teams in this space. Tell us more about that. Tell us more about the team that you're leading some of the effective communication skills that you use.
• 6:10
  Divya Vellanki: Sure. So right now, so, as I said, I started out as an individual contributor, so
• 6:17
  Divya Vellanki: and then, I moved on to working with
• 6:19
  Divya Vellanki: within a team, and then at the same time also cross, collaborating with multiple teams at the same time right? And at every step of my career. I have realized
• 6:29
  Divya Vellanki: how important communication is. And it's not just about being able to speak the same language like everybody else in the room. But it is also about how beautifully you're able to articulate the objective of what you're trying to convey. So right now as the work that I'm doing here. I have a team of 3 with me. And at the same time
• 6:54
  Divya Vellanki: it. It's not. It's it's not about you having a team. It's not about you assigning tasks to them and making sure they're getting it done, you know, following up with following it up with them. Hey! Where are we on this? Where are we on this? It's not about that for me.
• 7:09
  Divya Vellanki: but for me. It's about how we, as a team are working together on this one or 2 to 3 different projects that we are working on? Are we all on the same page in terms of what our final objective is. So because that I I have experienced personally like what it means to not have the complete picture. And someone says, Hey, this project. You need to do this, but I don't. I have no idea what me doing this is gonna do for the entire project.
• 7:38
  Divya Vellanki: so so so this is what my focus has been. with with my team that I have and it's it's really interesting, because every day you learn every day. I am learning something new. I kind of find my pitfalls, and you know we are trying to all work together. So it's it's been really exciting.
• 7:57
  Melinda Lee: Wow. So then, it sounds like the the vision, the vision that you have for the project and helping everybody to see their role. It's not
• 8:04
  Melinda Lee: the the little things that they do or the big things that it's more like. Here's the big vision that's the direction that we're going, and you are trusting that everything that they do is directed toward that big vision.
• 8:16
  Melinda Lee: Have you ever any doubt of communicating that big vision? Especially if the English is your second language.
• 8:23
  Divya Vellanki: Read.
• 8:23
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, how was that for you?
• 8:26
  Divya Vellanki: I must say that in the team of 4, 5 that we have we are such divers. So I'm an Indian we have, we have a, we are group of Asians, and then we have.
• 8:36
  Melinda Lee: Great.
• 8:37
  Divya Vellanki: Americans, and it's like a mixed group. so it's it's it's for me. The focus has been more on.
• 8:48
  Divya Vellanki: you know it's
• 8:50
  Divya Vellanki: being an active listener. It's not about. It's okay. It's gonna take time for you. If you think you know, to articulate whatever it is that you wanna say.
• 8:59
  Divya Vellanki: but be an active listener. Give them time to you know. Ask questions. Follow it up. because I I think I came across one of your communication snippets that you put out like we sometimes create our own glass ceiling of communication. Right? I I really love that line of yours. Mel. Melinda, because
• 9:21
  Divya Vellanki: it so happens that you know if English is not English is not my native language, and if I have a group of people whose native language is English, and I wanna ask something I might be like, will they even get whatever I'm trying to say, does it make sense? Is it gonna make an impact? You're gonna have those judgments. Right? You wanna have those self doubts about yourself. So it's important. Someone brings that up
• 9:43
  Divya Vellanki: and says, it's okay. It's completely fine.
• 9:46
  Divya Vellanki: Do communicate whatever it is that you wanna say it could be. And and that's the reason why I always carry a pen and paper with me, because it's so easy to know to write stuff, draw stuff, if if you know, and communication is not just always about stocking right? It could be anything. It could be any form of communication.
• 10:05
  Melinda Lee: I could feel your passion
• 10:07
  Melinda Lee: gonna be led by your passion right? Even if you, even if English, was not your second language, even if English is your 1st language, we still all get miscommunication misunderstood.
• 10:17
  Divya Vellanki: Yeah, the most like.
• 10:18
  Melinda Lee: They're led by your passion, and they're led by your your authenticity. And they're led. So when you yeah, I love that, you're placing so much focus and emphasis on your passion. I'm not gonna let any like doubts like get in my way, and just like, continue forward and allow them to like you mentioned. Ask questions. Take notes, take the time to ask them questions. So that's amazing. And what's the impact that this has had for you and your team.
• 10:45
  Divya Vellanki: So the kind of impact I must say is I, I can give you a quick example. So when I came in for one of my. I was onboarded to a new project. when I was new to the team. There was this project that has been going on for some weeks now, and I see, and as I was invited to a meeting where they were
• 11:06
  Divya Vellanki: around 10 people sitting in a conference room, and I was a new member of the project. So the whole idea of that meeting was to see where we are at. With respect to the project. What are the tasks that we have to do? And all of it?
• 11:19
  Divya Vellanki: And that meeting was supposed to be for an hour in extended for another 30 min. But the whole discussion during the meeting was everybody giving their own viewpoints like this is what we need to do. Probably this is what we need to do. But nobody taking like a thing of okay, this is what we have. This is what the next steps are. This is what we want. This is the person who will be doing this, you know, there was nobody who was taking the stand to just say, Stop, let's let's appreciate, appreciate everybody's viewpoints, but we need to get it somewhere.
• 11:49
  Melinda Lee: I'm here.
• 11:50
  Divya Vellanki: And it was then I think it was the last 15 min. I was like, Okay, this is not gonna work, because next week. We're gonna have the same meeting for the same duration. It's gonna be the same discussions happening with all the 10 members. So I was like. And there was a whiteboard right next to me. And I was like, Okay, stop
• 12:08
  Divya Vellanki: and I will. And I had no idea what the project is about because I was just new to it. I was like, Okay, stop. This is what I got. And I took the whiteboard. I took a marker and I was like, this is what I understand. We have. This is what we have. Okay, this, this is, this is, can we do this? Would this person work for it, and it was only the last 15 min of the meeting. Something came out of it.
• 12:28
  Divya Vellanki: and it so happened that for the next meeting. We did not need that project, in fact, did not need 10 members. All it needed was a team of 3.
• 12:35
  Melinda Lee: Wow!
• 12:37
  Divya Vellanki: So.
• 12:38
  Melinda Lee: Singing.
• 12:39
  Divya Vellanki: So when that happened and everybody knew what they were supposed to do, it was then the project take started taking some direction. People like, okay, we are trying to. We are meeting the objectives. We are meeting the deadlines.
• 12:52
  Melinda Lee: Oh.
• 12:52
  Divya Vellanki: So that is the kind of impact you know, you just simply standing up and saying, Wait, let's all take a minute and put in words, what is it that we want to do? And this has really and this again ties to my whole point, and everybody should understand what the actual objective of that project, or whatever it is that they're working on, because it's only then they'll make a sense of the individual tasks that they are working on. So so, yeah, so so this is, yeah.
• 13:22
  Melinda Lee: Were they? Were they talking about? What is everybody doing for our like over an hour? They're trying to figure out what everybody was doing, or figure out what is wrong, or what is it.
• 13:32
  Divya Vellanki: It was everything combined. So it will it not? Everybody was working on the project, but it was more of like, hey, we have this. We probably have to make enhancements to this. But how do we go about it? And everybody.
• 13:45
  Melinda Lee: Is a problem.
• 13:45
  Divya Vellanki: But we can do this, we can do that. But nobody was like, what exactly does the client want? Where are we with respect to that. What are our limitations? Who in our team has that experience of working with that? Nobody was talking about that. That's why it was not going anywhere.
• 14:00
  Melinda Lee: Got it. Got it, and they were. They are talking about the specific thing. But you don't even know if that's even what the goal is, or what the client wants, and I see I see I love that, and you're able to take the initiative. You're new to the pro project. You took the initiative, and it turned out there was only 3 people that really needed to be on it.
• 14:17
  Divya Vellanki: Yeah, yeah. And and it turned out, now that I am leading that project now.
• 14:23
  Melinda Lee: You are.
• 14:23
  Divya Vellanki: Yeah.
• 14:26
  Melinda Lee: I love that that's great, that's great. So what other moments have there been where there are poor communication skills on a team? Have you? Are there other examples of that? And what was the impact of that.
• 14:42
  Divya Vellanki: For communication. I think there were a lot of things, some of the issues that I definitely saw was it resulting in duplicated efforts or overlooked tasks, because your team members are not on the same page as you. and it was. And and that was impacting your project deadlines. Obviously. It leads to confusion and and honestly decreased morale right
• 15:08
  Divya Vellanki: every week you're attending meetings, but there's nothing happening, and
• 15:12
  Divya Vellanki: the hour that you're spending on that meetings, you could actually end up doing some, some work that that you are supposed to deliver. So so these were some of the things that I definitely see with respect to, you know. Ha! Not having proper communication, not being able to articulate whatever it is that we want to achieve.
• 15:31
  Divya Vellanki: But some things that I that really worked was you know. To address these questions promptly by facilitating discussions to clarify all these misunderstandings, ensuring that everybody has a clear understanding of what their responsibilities are. Now, I'm I'm not a big fan of having these regular team meetings, but for me. What I have seen is
• 15:55
  Divya Vellanki: these, quick 1510, 15 min checkup like. If if you are working in the same office, go by to the desk and say, Hey, where are we with it? Are you? Are you clear on this? Or or, for example, here we use a lot of these collaborative tools like we have the slack teams and all of it. Why, we do not have a choice of those collaborative tools because it's completely up to the enterprise whatever solution they went with.
• 16:20
  Divya Vellanki: For instance, we use teams here. So what we do is in teams. We kind of create this group chat an informal group chat where we are saying, anytime we have questions about that project, or like, Hey, where are what can someone tell me what what is going on here? you know, are there any documents that you can share? And and it's quickly like a very informal chat which doesn't require you going to your email checking if someone
• 16:44
  Divya Vellanki: has as your follow up question. So it's it's all about those little things. You don't have to look everything at it in a formal perspective, like, let me drop a mail to this person and ask for these details and wait for the responses. Let's ma, let me just quickly, you know. Create a group chat and and get this sorted out.
• 17:01
  Melinda Lee: Right right? Cause. Sometimes, like you said, it's these little interactions that spur the moment touch in with one to one because sometimes they don't. Sometimes at the group large group meetings. They don't get a chance to really speak, or they may not on their mind, and so opportunity to touch base immediately, one to one.
• 17:20
  Melinda Lee: It's so powerful and and and helps your team. So it helps your team deliver. What? What is the impact of that when you're able to have these little micro interactions with them
• 17:30
  Melinda Lee: what do you think helped and what is the impact of that
• 17:34
  Divya Vellanki: So what it has impacted is especially with my team. What I've seen is they've become a bit
• 17:42
  Divya Vellanki: open to me in terms of you know that comfort aspect that comes in like, hey, who is this new person who's coming all of a sudden and saying she's the lead of this thing.
• 17:52
  Melinda Lee: Right.
• 17:53
  Divya Vellanki: You know? so what? So eventually doing, these all these feedback sessions? And so I I constantly have these feedback sessions. I'm like, Hey, I really like the work that you're doing, but probably you know a kind of constructive feedback. I I have this this is habitual to me wherein I'm constantly like appreciating, I make it a point to appreciate the work others are doing if I like something.
• 18:17
  Divya Vellanki: if if I if that is something I really like on. I wanna learn I would make it a point to go to them and ask for help. I do not see the hierarchy. It it really doesn't matter to me at all, and it should not.
• 18:30
  Divya Vellanki: and the and and I see it's it. It slowly means that they trying to get out of their comfort zone, they are opening up to me and asking, Hey, diva! I know we talked about this, but I'm still not clear if this is what you know we want. and a 1 advantage that really comes is me having the technical background.
• 18:50
  Divya Vellanki: It. It really gives them that much more ease to not just talk about superficially in terms of hey, this is some issue that we're working with it to fix it. But they can actually talk to me about this is why we need it and this, and see if I can help. You know, help them debug it. So mix, having the technical plus that management kind of thing. It
• 19:13
  Divya Vellanki: it kind of makes it even easy for me to kind of connect with them and see where we are heading, and it also opens up more communication for them.
• 19:23
  Divya Vellanki: And I have seen. I I have. There were, there were a couple of people who came up to me and said, I really like the way that you know you took up the initiation to, you know. Write something on the whiteboard, and, you know, take the lead. I wish we could also do that, and it's like, yes, you can do that. This is something I never planned. Right? So so I so one impact, I see, is
• 19:45
  Divya Vellanki: you being the reason for others to get inspired and motivated. so so that's something I I and this is this is very it's an ongoing journey. It's it's not gonna stop but but these are some of the beautiful impacts that I have seen out of having these effective communication channels.
• 20:05
  Melinda Lee: Yes, having that courage, that step up that leap of faith to get up in front of that team like that that day took a lot of courage.
• 20:13
  Divya Vellanki: Yeah.
• 20:13
  Melinda Lee: And and and leadership, and so I commend you for that. And now look at your owning the project. You're the lead of the project.
• 20:21
  Melinda Lee: So that's the power of presentation skills and getting up to speak in front of a group. Because you you're automatically seen, as now, the lead of this? It does take courage, though, so congratulations on that. And it was.
• 20:32
  Divya Vellanki: Thank you.
• 20:33
  Melinda Lee: Cool and then, now you're able to. Also, I love the balance of having the technical capabilities and also the people skills the communication skills to be to go to your team what they feel comfortable with you. So not only is the only just the communicating, but it's also the openness and the genuine curiosity of how they're doing.
• 20:51
  Divya Vellanki: Yes, yes, yes.
• 20:53
  Melinda Lee: Makes you a powerful, effective leader. And so I really appreciate your your time and sharing your experience today with us, I've learned so much.
• 21:05
  Melinda Lee: and I'm just so honored that you're here and sharing all the things that you've been doing and so I like to ask if all for all my guests. One thing at the end, which is the leadership, golden takeaway that you'd like to share with the audience. What would that be?
• 21:23
  Divya Vellanki: So my leadership goal and take away would be
• 21:27
  Divya Vellanki: to share the importance of leading by example
• 21:32
  Divya Vellanki: that has worked out beautifully for me while it has its own ups and downs, but it's it's worth it. as a leader your actions set the tone for your entire team demonstrating the values and work ethic you expect from your team members in is gonna inspire them to follow the suit as well. So and it is that that comes out of the authentic leadership. You are, gonna build trust and respect which is really essential for a high performing team.
• 22:00
  Divya Vellanki: so so that that that would be my golden takeaway is just lead by example.
• 22:06
  Melinda Lee: I totally agree. I totally cause they're watching, and our energies is actually contagious, like. So what? And our energy, our behaviors, our words are contagious.
• 22:17
  Melinda Lee: and they're following you and us. And so, yeah, lead by example.
• 22:22
  Divya Vellanki: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:23
  Melinda Lee: Best. That's the best way, and it's actually easier for us. It makes it easier for us to
• 22:27
  Melinda Lee: to, because we can't really affect at the end of the day as much as we talk to people tell people what to do. They're gonna it's up to them. And so they're watching. And it's better when they can change and decide for themselves by watching.
• 22:40
  Melinda Lee: So I'm I'm I'm certain that your tool team is powerful and effective, and
• 22:45
  Melinda Lee: I'm so glad that you're on the forefront of helping to improve our healthcare and the way we look at our health through these innovative research and solutions. And so thank you so much for joining.
• 22:58
  Divya Vellanki: Thank you so much, Melinda.
• 23:00
  Melinda Lee: Because.
• 23:00
  Divya Vellanki: It was really nice reminiscing about everything that has happened. it. I kept having that smile on my face. So thank you.
• 23:09
  Melinda Lee: No, no, I'm inspired, and I trust that people that are still starting off in their journey feel inspired.
• 23:17
  Melinda Lee: and take the courageous step like Divia did. Keep on pushing. Keep on moving forward, trusting yourself.
• 23:23
  Melinda Lee: and stretch yourself. Go toward where it's uncomfortable, and you'll see just the power that you have to do it. So thank you so much, divia, and thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Audience, for joining today. Hope you enjoyed this episode, and until next time I'm your sister, and flow. May prosperity flow to you, and through you always take care.