Episode 12: Bringing Your Voice to Meetings with Poornima Venkatakrishnan

Learning to speak up in meetings has been a journey for me, and it is one that is still ongoing. Early in my career, across multiple roles, companies, and managers, I got the same feedback - speak up more, trust yourself, come out of the shadows. But eventually, it wasn’t this feedback that gave me the courage to do so. It was the realization that by not speaking up in meetings, I was not doing my job. As a product manager, my role is to advocate for my customers. And by choosing to keep quite when I had something to say, I was not being effective in my role. So I overcame my hesitation by being well prepared for these meetings. As I have progressed in my career, the stakes have gotten higher but my calendar has gotten busier. Preparing for every meeting is not something I can afford anymore. I have to trust myself that if I have a point of view, I will find a way to communicate it. Sometimes it takes multiple attempts, but eventually I get there. Even today, in high stake conversations, when I find my courage running low, I try to focus on what my customers or my team will lose if I do not even try to advocate for what I think is the right thing to do.

I really connected with Poornima’s struggle with self doubt and fear as she was preparing for a pivotal meeting. Not only has Poornima found her voice in meetings, today she helps others who are struggling to do so.

Poornima Venkatakrishnan is an Engineering Leader at PayPal. With 16+ years of experience, she has delivered multiple Mobile and Web products, as well as built engineering teams ground up. Poornima’s leadership mantra is, understand the "why" before jumping to solutioning and always put people first - this includes customers and engineers on her teams. This has helped her build teams with the right balance of skills and mindset to deliver delightful customer experiences.

You can connect with Poornima on LinkedIn. Also checkout her blog on Medium where she shares her insights about leading with creativity.

If you have any comments about the episode or would like to share your own story, please share below. I would love to hear from you!