“Kindness comes before skills,” Deepti Velury from Tag

Meet Deepti Velury, the Chief Operating Officer at Tag. She exemplifies the idea of embracing your differences and learning something new. Despite the fact that there weren't many young Indian women in consulting, Deepti saw this as an opportunity and dove in. Now, she is leading the way, speaking on panels and podcasts about her experiences and serving as a role model for other women like her who hope to develop and succeed in their careers. 

She joined us in our podcast booth at Advertising Week New York for a Pass the Mic interview. Take a listen and learn from Deepti’s incredible wisdom and advice.

Be humble and kind.

“Don't take yourself seriously. You're very replaceable; even as a mom, as a wife, as a person at work. You are just a dot on the planet. So, be humble; be kind. Kindness is a much more difficult skill than talent. Always choose teammates around you who are kind and good human beings because skill can be taught. Kindness can't. Because kindness is really who you are from within and who you are from within comes with a ton of experiences. So for me, kindness comes before skills. Always be around such team members. They'll always bring you up.” – Deepti Velury

Higher inclusively.

“Because you can work from anywhere in the world today, thanks to, again, the last three years of how our world has changed, my vision on my journey will be to be as inclusive. Bring talent in Tag or wherever I work, bring talent for bringing out their strengths and capabilities. Not from where they come from, but more for who they are and what capabilities they bring in. Including kindness being my top skill that we look for at Tag.” – Deepti Velury

Give everybody a chance.

“Women, I mean, most anyway, we are better than who we think we are. First, please acknowledge, it's even a note from myself. Second, by putting down other women, you don't grow. I don't like that attitude. We do need to be self-assured that women are not putting down other women. We need to bring that community out. And the third is, always remember that everybody could have had a bad day. So they come from their experience of their day, their life, their upbringing. Therefore, give everybody a chance.” – Deepti Velury

Ask for positive and negative feedback.

“Feedback is very tough. Giving and taking feedback, I think, is a tough part of the journey. I constantly ask for feedback and the one thing I would say is, ask for positive and negative feedback. I think women want to focus on what more should I do better? What didn't I do well? Can you just focus on that? I don't think that is a very good way. I'm learning this myself because when my boss is giving me feedback, I always tell him, yeah, yeah, yeah but I want to know what I need to do better. I think it's so important to acknowledge the good bits of your journey, then only you will be able to take the not so good bits of the journey and then work through it.” – Deepti Velury

Celebrate your success.

“Yesterday, I won The Future is Female in the top ten. It was amazing. Thank you. However, I woke up this morning to a ton of, you know, work stress. I have to do this, this, and this and this. And then my eight year old called me, and she said, ‘Are you really proud? Are we going to really celebrate this weekend?’ And then I thought about it. See, you influence others more than you know. Therefore, it's important to celebrate your success because people around you then will also learn to actually take some positivity from you. Therefore, it is very, very critical to celebrate your success, and it can come with anything. – Deepti Velury

We’re celebrating Deepti’s powerful addition to Pass the Mic. Keep the self-improvement party going and check out some more motivational content from inspiring female leaders.