title: The Power of High-Status Networks for Career Advancement with Deepti Pahwa
author: Pfeffer on Power
contenttype: podcast
publication: Pfeffer on Power
published: 2024-04-23T17:22:54-04:00
sourceurl: https://chrt.fm/track/B8G187/afp-233242-injected.calisto.simplecastaudio.com/c3f82ef9-3595-4b97-95d0-6345a04de11a/episodes/e2ae2478-28d0-40c8-93f7-15b4c40b6e72/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=c3f82ef9-3595-4b97-95d0-6345a04de11a&awEpisodeId=e2ae2478-28d0-40c8-93f7-15b4c40b6e72&feed=pXyKXLyJ
word_count: 3809
Welcome to the Feffer on Power Podcast. I'm your host, Jeffrey Feffer, a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, an author of 16 books on a range of topics including the topic of my over-subscribed MBA class and this podcast, Power. Every other week I talk to someone about their path to power and provide you with practical guidance about how to accelerate your career. Today's guest is the famous Deepty Power, author of the book, Trailblazer Founders. I met Deepty when I guess she was a student in my lead class but I know her best because she has been an extraordinary executive coach for students in the lead program and for my class building power to lead. Deepty provides advice to venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. She provides executive coaching. She's the founder of several organizations herself and I'm going to begin by asking her to tell you a little about her background but first welcome to the show Deepty and thank you for being on Feffer on Power. Hi Jeff, thank you so much for such a gracious introduction. I'm humbled and honored to be here, someone from whom I learned most of the things that I do today. So thank you for having me and of course to give a brief background to the audience. I have been actually leading multiple impactful projects at the intersection of design leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship for the past 20 years now and in specific much of my work has been committed to making diverse innovators and entrepreneurs succeed globally and I do that in two ways. One, by setting up venture studios, platforms, communities, resources and partner networks in a strategic consulting role for organizations and second, by directly impacting and increasing the influence by way of executive coaching or academic teaching on innovation and entrepreneurship courses. And what I have today is what you can call as a portfolio career where I must have seen with multiple high status organizations either as innovation ecosystem builder or as a mentor or a coach in Switzerland, US and Europe and Switzerland is where I live. I advise various corporate venture studios and government let's start up accelerators and also on the advisory board positions for a few startups. I am a founding partner, president and board member for Lisa, that is Stanford GSB lead incubator and startup accelerator that has been instrumental in creating one of the biggest Stanford global elementary communities with 200 plus entrepreneurship ideas. I recently started a co-veter position as a research affiliate at MIT Media Lab for AI Venture Studio for entrepreneurs and corporate innovation and in addition, I work as an advisor and jury member and super coach for a couple of startup accelerators in Switzerland as well as a global accelerator called Mass Challenge and Elchemist accelerator and of course I work with Jeff with Stanford GSB lead executive program where I'm a coach and facilitator for multiple courses but in particular with Jeff's course building power to lead which is one of the most sought after courses among Stanford students in in-person class as well as online class and in addition I have a couple of other positions which help me reach out to different communities across the world such as being a professor of practice at Business School of LaZanne. I guess speaker at IMD Business School and the past year I worked as a chief innovation officer for a health tech startup and worked actively with MIT Media Lab and most recently I've authored the book called Trailblazer Founders about empowering underrepresented founders and innovators to build their influence. Wow, sometime in the midst of all that I'm sure you must have a little bit of time to sleep. So as I said to you as we were getting ready to record this that of all the people I know you have actually used the material from the lead class effectively to really build and accelerate your career. You are an example of what I would love other people to do. So could you you know I mean you've listed all these fabulous positions what are some of the most important principles from the class that you have put in the practice and how have you put them in the practice. Absolutely and I would start by telling you about my three superpowers that I believe I always had which is courage I've always believed in bold moves and bold asks creativity which is being trained in design of always being and create at being strategic and building maximum impact with limited resources and almost an insane determination in line with my ambition and hunger to succeed. But up until I took your class in 2019 I had a singular focus in building my expertise and networks in the fashion and luxury industry and this course made me realize that I hardly ever had anything new to contribute while opportunities or networks because people I met with had always the same things to offer. I did not have any more influence in any other people with the same background. So what I was looking for was actually a way to build a unique positioning for myself where I could use my expertise and resources in a way to create a wide space for me in the field that I was operating in. So your class inspired me in three new ways which is first of all understanding and leveraging the power of structured holes in networks and this is something I've used to the maximum as you can see by way of connecting with various organizations that have very similar resources that are complementary between technologists entrepreneurs, sea speed leaders, academia across geography and functions. I have started taking more central roles in these networks by cross connecting the needs and pain points to these resources and bridging the gaps. That was my first takeaway and I've been using it very very exesibly. The second one is building resources out of nothing which is creating podcasts, a way for creating events where people could participate in mentorship opportunities for leaders to cross intersect with various academia level positions or for entrepreneurs to gain influence from as well as being intentional about short term and long term objectives which is to say I have mentioned this multiple times to you that I take my own power project every six to eight months for the smaller objectives because that helps to put me again on track to building the new resources, the set of resources that I'm after and what I'm going to create and kind of build sort of a community of course around that purpose that I'm after. And all this together has actually helped me in enhanced reputation, diverse opportunities, personal growth, increased visibility, a broader perspective, information advantage that a lot of people do not have, information and influence over information flow, resource sharing, social capital accumulation, expanded network, all the things that you teach in your class and I can't just name enough of the things that have got from your class actually. So thank you for that. By the way, I should tell people because they can't see you, the deep tea is coming to us from Switzerland but you were born in India, is that correct? Absolutely yes. And you I assume did not necessarily come from a particularly wealthy background your parents are not billionaires, is that correct? Absolutely not. My father is actually coming from a very middle class background having worked in a bank. And I think he had a job which took him to various places within India which made me more courageous and bored in terms of starting my life again multiple times. And I think that has had a huge impact on me and eventually from India I moved to Germany and then from Germany to Switzerland. And now also working a lot with the US. So every time I'm able to build a set of new resources and connections wherever I go. And I think my background has made me eligible to kind of build that. And the point of asking that question is to illustrate to our listeners that you are self-made, that this was not something handed to you. You didn't have an enormously privileged background. You obviously got a very good education and you're extraordinarily smart and articulate. But your success has been created by one person, Deep Deep Power, not by anybody else. So I want people to understand that if you created resources and created forums and created a network and put yourself in the center of that network and created relationships, it is in fact something that they can do also. Absolutely and I think I cannot underestimate the power of sponsorship and mentorship along the way. Something I invested in in the past as well, but not as much on the lecture course. And I still remember as part of your course there was one of the assignments where we were supposed to get to meet 10 people in your network who could have an influence over your career trajectory. And I call that story famously known as crashing the World Economic Forum. I live in Switzerland and World Economic Forum and that was what was happening just around the corner two hours by train ride. And I decided to go there to find and meet certain people who could have influence on the changing and transforming a career to more innovation and technology led a career. And there I met actually three people who I stayed in touch with and have given me a lot of food for thought as to how to build these resources and how to actually get out there and work with others and build relationships to be able to get what you want in life. And as there's another book by you, Jeff that you have co-authored that talks about people are the name of the game. And I think that's exactly what I've learned in the past three four years. Fantastic. And I love the bold move of going to the World Economic Forum. All right, I want to change the direction of our conversation a slight bit and have you do something that will be very easy for you to do, which is talk about your book, Trailblazer Founders. What are two or three main lessons that you learned as you studied these entrepreneurs from very diverse backgrounds? What are some of the lessons that you want to convey as you wrote the book? Of course, Jeff. And I also want to give you a little bit of background. So in the multiple positions that I just mentioned, I've been fortunate to work with hundreds of entrepreneurs and our leaders in a global setting. And I have been in all of the brilliance of their ideas that they come up with and that have the capacity to make an impact in the world through products and services that they envision. And yet, I'm dismayed by their self-limiting actions and beliefs in taking those ideas forward. And their inability to effectively communicate their story and their brand and get support from potential investors, stakeholders and communities that they're building these solutions for. So in writing this book, this was majorly inspired by the experience of working as a coach in your class, building power to lead at Stanford, where I met with so many corporate executives, who often transform their career trajectory in just eight weeks of using these principles. But not so many entrepreneurs around the world had access to or even aware of these tools. So I thought these were the exact same tools that entrepreneurs and innovators need to convert their ideas, not just to build businesses, but to convert them into a movement to get them adopted. But no one actually talks about them. And there is a whole coaching industry out there of products, services, frameworks that prepare startup founders with so-called business model innovations, product market fit, failure mindset, culture training for teams. But no one ever teaches them the importance of leadership skills, building networks, thought leadership, investing in communities, showing up with confidence and conviction to convey their ideas. And to me, it's more like telling a friend how to play a chess on your behalf. You know, I mean, you can make as many plans and business models as you want, but unfortunately strategies and frameworks do not come in handy on a battlefield. And it's a very different set of skills that you need to succeed as an entrepreneur. And in doing the research that I did in writing this book, I found that venture capitalists, investors and board members and dozens of them that I interviewed do not actually bet on the horse, that is your idea, but they actually bet on the jockey, that is the founder itself. And so it made a lot of sense to talk about these ideas where most of times it is the conviction with which you envision your idea and talk about that idea, the network that you form of people who are capable of investing in your ideas, as well as building thought leadership for what you want to impact on, not really the product itself, but where is it that you want to create an impact, building that pot leadership for brands and for founders extremely important. But very few founders actually pay attention to these three principles. Yeah, that's a fabulous answer, because what you are of course are emphasizing in that answer is that, you know, and if you see there's a lot of the Silicon Valley, people are obsessed with the product, with its technical specifications, with its characteristics, with maybe even its product market fit, but they are completely unobsessed and don't pay sufficient attention to how they come across as they found the leader. And you are completely right. I love your analogy. They don't bet on the horse they bet on the jockey. I think that is absolutely true that they are sizing up, you know, because companies are going to have setbacks, issues are going to happen. There are going to be all kinds of things to overcome. And so therefore, as people place their bets, make their investments in these startups, they want to bet on someone who has not only the resilience and the personal qualities required to be successful, but also understands the game, understands how to build networks, understands how to build a brand, understands how to create a system or an ecosystem of support for that individual, so that the company can survive the inevitable challenges that it will face. So I think your emphasis is extraordinarily well placed. At the same time, what I want to add here is, well, you know, when these startup founders, they start their companies, they are mostly two or three people, then they grow to teams of 10, and that's about it. They don't envision anything beyond that, but eventually, if they want to create their companies into billion dollar companies, it's not the product that matters at the end of the day. It's how you manage your board, how you manage your investors, how do you manage to keep your position as a CEO, as a founder, or if you want to give it in the hands of somebody else, then how do you actually enable that, how do you inspire your teams, how do people associate with you as the founder of something big that you've created and not just a product that you kind of rolled out in the market. So yeah, to your point, all of these things are so much more important, and many ways go back to one of the class assignments that actually you give to people around, you know, showing up with confidence during the testimony, example, that we often talk about in the class. I agree with that. I think that is extraordinarily important and insightful, and you can see how you have used those principles yourself, because you, in fact, have built a business yourself. I mean, you are, of course, your business, you don't have like a billion employees or anything, but you've used what you write about in building your own career. Is that a fair statement? Absolutely, absolutely. And I think, again, when I said was people are the name of the game, and your thought leadership goes way beyond what you have to offer at a given point in time, and I think you need to continuously start working on it, talk about it, you know, take stage during events. I push myself also to go out and give, for example, I've given TED talks, a world economic forum, panel talks, I write blogs, I take part in podcasts such as this one, where there is an opportunity to talk about what exactly it is that you have to bring on the table. And at the same time, there's another thing that we usually use in marketing, which we call as the push and pull strategy, a push strategy when you have an idea, and you were trying to push it to 10 other people, those are the people you know who may have interest in your, in your ideas. But the pull strategies when you're building a brand and you're visible, then people who may be interested in that idea, but they're not currently aware of that, you know, expertise that you have are the ones who are going to come to you. And that's how you actually enable people across the world to understand what exactly that you have to offer and bring it out there in the world in a much easier and effective way. And there's a third aspect of your work that I want us to spend just a couple of minutes talking about because my sense is that in fact, you are also very concerned about having economic opportunity and entrepreneurship opportunity for people who don't always do it or get it. So I would say, you know, women underrepresented minorities, people of color, call it what you will, but the world of the Silicon Valley is not necessarily a diverse world. The world of entrepreneurship is not necessarily a diverse world. Talk a little bit about your work around providing opportunity and entrepreneurial ideas to people who otherwise maybe not have them or think of themselves as being part of the system. As you rightly point out, the world is not a fair place and definitely there are a lot of biases in place and a lot of the times, certain communities and certain sections of the society do not get to access a lot of the resources that we're talking about. And I have been one such person myself coming from India, living in Switzerland, you know, which is in Europe being an Asian woman. And I have to say that a lot of the times we talk about how we can provide for fair systems from the institutional perspective, what we can do as institutions to increase that diversity. But my take is that, okay, all that needs to be done and there's a responsible thing to do. But until that happens, what we as individuals can do to take part in the systems and that is only possible by way of taking our own power, building our own influence, not getting sidestep by someone who believes that you're not worth it. You know, by kind of overcoming your own imposter syndrome, I'm not saying everybody has that, but a lot of us do have that. So there's a way that we can all kind of stand up to that. And I can go back to the first three principles that I personally use that I believe are my superpowers, but I also believe are superpowers for any given person. It is courage, you know, it's like tick-bolt actions and make-bolt asks because what is the worst that would happen? You would hear a no, that's about it, right? So just tick the plunge. The second thing is build networks and support networks around you who are invested in your success and there are lots of people at least in today's world who are invested in a success, go out there and find them. And at the same time have that insane kind of determination to what you're after because it is the impact that you wish to create. It's not about who is topping you, just be like water, like if you see a river, it finds its way, right? So everybody is able to kind of find that way if you just have the determination towards the impact that you wish to create. Well, that's a fabulous answer. Your answer reminds me of the fact that the word empower has power embedded within it. And that I think really is perfectly illustrated by your own story and by the consulting that you do. So I want to thank you for coming on the show today. This has been the Fefferon Power Podcast where every other week we talk to an accomplished individual about their path to power and the practical lessons for you. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on any of your favorite sources and by my most recent book on power seven rules of power connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter and Jeffrey Fefferon.com. Fefferon Power is a production of Stanford and University FM. And today we have had the privilege of talking to Deepdeep Power who is an executive coach entrepreneur and advisor to organizations and author of the book Trailblazer Founders. Thank you Deepdeep for being on the show. Thank you so much, Chef, for having me and much of my work has been inspired by you and the book seven rules of power. So I encourage everybody to go and buy that book. And I do want to leave everyone with one statement which is be your own CEO, Chief Evangelist Officer. No one else is going to do that for you. Thank you. This has been the Fefferon Power Podcast where every other week we talk to an accomplished individual about their path to power and the practical lessons for you. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe to the podcast on any of your favorite sources and buy my most recent book on power seven rules of power. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter and Jeffreyfefferon.com. Fefferon Power is a production of Stanford University and University FM.