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Intro

I’ve mentioned this in the previous article → I didn’t enjoy programming in high school and actually, I was quite bad at it, because it wasn’t my interest at the time.

But once I started learning JavaScript a couple of years later and building things with a visual outcome on the screen → I got hooked and was learning whole days and nights!

You can learn and become better at anything with enough focus and grit. No matter how good or bad you may think you are in that particular thing right now.

Especially, communication is something that I see a lot of engineers struggling with and it’s just going to be more and more important skill as time goes on.

Pramoda Vyasarao, our guest author for today’s article, is a great example of that. He went from a shy engineer struggling to speak up in meetings to a Director at Oracle and a skilled communicator.

And today, he is sharing his full story with us!

Introducing Pramoda Vyasarao

Pramoda Vyasarao is a leadership and communication coach with over 20 years of experience in the tech industry. In his career, he grew from an engineer all the way to Director at Oracle and later also worked at Meta as a Head of Data Engineering.

Pramoda is teaching a popular course on Maven called Communication Engineering, where he helps everyone to improve their communication and leadership skills.

Check out the course, the cohort starts on September 6.

1. Struggling to Be Heard

I joined Oracle India in Bengaluru as a software engineer in October 2002. I loved coding and landed my dream job at a campus recruitment drive after obtaining a master's degree in computer science.

English was my third language. At home, we spoke Kannada, and I began learning Hindi at age 9. I didn’t know how to write the English alphabet until I was 11.

This hindered my speaking ability, a common challenge for many whose first language isn't English. In my case, it was worse. It rattled my confidence.

Non-technical colleagues often didn’t understand my explanations, which was sometimes frustrating. I had many great ideas, but I couldn't express them on conference calls (no video conferencing tools were available yet in 2002!).

I was like a fly on the wall, listening quietly in meetings, barely noticed, and slipping out when it ended.

I was good at writing, but impromptu discussions and sharing ideas in a conversation were the missing links. I would freeze in front of any audience.

I felt a knot in my tongue, a lump in my throat, and my voice trembled in such situations. I started reading self-help books on communication and public speaking, but nothing changed.

We build muscles by lifting weights, not watching them. I was just watching. For things to change, I had to act. I desperately wanted to change, but I didn’t know where to start.

The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.
— Dr. Nathaniel Branden

Try this:

• Reflect on this question: “What’s my weakest link in leadership?”

• Write your answers. If you get multiple answers, find the most important one to change

• The longer you wait, the stronger fear grows. Start now.

2. A Door Opens to Transformation

One of my colleagues recommended that I attend a Toastmasters club meeting. Toastmasters is a non-profit public speaking organization. Oracle’s club meetings were held every Thursday.

I went for a session out of curiosity, and it was a transformative experience. I loved three things about the 90-minute meeting that day.

1. A word-of-the-day with conversational examples, along with synonyms and antonyms.

2. A grammarian who would correct people’s mistakes without mentioning names or looking at them.

3. A section for impromptu speaking is called Table Topics. This allowed people to speak on a topic for 1 to 2 minutes.

Most of all, it was refreshing to see so many other engineers, managers, and PMs in that meeting who were on a quest for self-improvement and wanted to become better communicators and leaders.

It was a place where mistakes were not just tolerated, but celebrated and learned from. It’s rare to see grown-up people learning by making mistakes.

I signed up as a club member that same day!

It was a wonderful place for learning and networking, and I built strong connections with engineering managers and staff engineers who later became my speech mentors.

Imagine a 15-year tenured manager mentoring a new grad engineer at no cost. It was a real privilege!

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
— Margaret Mead

Try this:

• Explore the Toastmasters International website.

• Find a club; some conduct online meetings.

• You are welcome to attend club meetings as a guest.

3. Earning My Voice, One Speech at a Time

Between 2003 and 2007, I attended weekly Toastmasters meetings. During these four years, I leveled up in four phases. I took one step at a time on this four-rung ladder.

It was like a four-year degree in communication and leadership → a degree in Communication Engineering.

• Level 1: I volunteered to speak on table topics for 1 to 2 minutes to face the audience and talk.

• Level 2: I took meeting roles that needed a bit of prep work and helped run club meetings.

• Level 3: After 90 days, I mustered the courage to deliver a 6-minute speech. The goal of this speech was to introduce myself to the club members. I continued to give one speech every month.

• Level 4: After two years of repeating the above three, I had delivered 10 speeches. Then, I proceeded to the advanced tracks, including storytelling, sales, professional speaking, and humorous speaking.

By 2007, I had delivered over 40 speeches in various settings, including clubs and contests. I had also become more effective at leading meetings, sharing ideas, summarizing key points, and providing constructive feedback to others.

I assisted other Oracle business units in Bengaluru in establishing their own Toastmasters clubs, serving as a club mentor and advisor to them.

The results were evident. I became a great collaborator and was promoted twice during that time. I was visible at work, articulate in meetings, and content with my life.

I was one of those very few articulate engineers. Software engineering, systems thinking, communication, and leadership form a rare combination of career capital. My managers were thrilled at my growth.

These skills helped me move beyond coding and explore roles like product manager and enterprise data architect. Later, I began leading a small engineering team.

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.
— Bill Gates

Try this:

• Reflect on this question: “What do I want to excel at?”

• Are these skills rare and valuable?

• Can you write a multi-year plan for this skill development?

4. From Growth to Guiding Others

Mentorship is a natural outgrowth of personal development. Several engineers, PMs, and managers sought my speech content and delivery advice, so I compiled a few common topics and questions as I mentored club members.

To scale my impact, I created an hour-long course to address skills like finding topics, writing speeches, rehearsal, and strategies for managing anxiety. I was a player-coach.

I knew fear deeply, I’d faced more than most, so I knew how bad it was for them to speak in front of an audience. I had walked in their shoes and felt their pain for a long time.

I had six courses with professional slides to teach. I later added time management, active listening, giving feedback, and impromptu speaking to this course collection.

With support from my manager and VP, I proposed to the HR lead in India that I facilitate internal courses on communication and leadership. I also shared that I planned to take on paid teaching and coaching assignments outside Oracle.

I highlighted five key points in my proposal:

1. I would only teach external courses on weekends.

2. I attached all my course materials to show what I planned to teach.

3. I clearly explained there was no conflict of interest, as I wasn’t teaching anything related to technology.

4. I included my certificates and awards from Toastmasters International as references.

5. I added feedback from managers at other organizations who attended my trainings conducted through Toastmasters.

I’m deeply grateful to my manager, Bence Gazdag, and his manager, Sue Locke, for their unwavering support.

It took a couple of months to get approval because this kind of request was new → no engineering manager had done it before.

I wasn’t looking to earn much through external assignments; I simply wanted fair compensation for my efforts and full approval from my employer. Leading with integrity was my goal.

With this approval, I took a few consulting assignments on group workshops during non-working hours.

Then, in 2009, I had my first paid speaking gig! A member of the Toastmasters community, who was a training consultant, had seen me speak at a contest and asked about my interest in part-time facilitation on weekends.

I was thrilled to earn money from speaking. It felt surreal to hold that first check for a four-hour seminar. It was a transformative journey → from a shy engineer to a skilled facilitator, from a fly on the wall to a voice on the stage.

At Oracle, I continued to teach one or two courses every month. Most people came through word of mouth and referrals from managers, and all my workshops were pro bono. More than 300 people attended my in-person courses.

I documented feedback and success stories from participants and their managers. Several people left glowing reviews on LinkedIn.

In 2011, I was promoted to Director and managed an organization of 70 people, including software engineers, data analysts, business systems analysts, and data specialists.

Try this:

• Explore ways to mentor or support others within your organization.

• Lean on your strengths and teach the skills you’ve already mastered.

• Conduct small experiments. Start with lunch and learn sessions.

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself... and having transformed, the hero returns to share the wisdom, becoming a guide for others.
— Dr. Joseph Campbell

5. Coaching Leaders, Empowering Teams

I realized I needed to level up as a leader as my scope increased. During this time, I worked with some executive coaches in India and read Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

I applied everything from that book to improve as a leader, and my annual anonymous 360-degree surveys provided me with numerous signals to change and grow.

Marshall’s book provided a framework for a guaranteed and measurable way for leadership development. As a software engineer and a systems thinker, I love the feedback loop in his proven framework.

I saw an opportunity to help other leaders at Oracle. Our organization had approximately 350 people in Bengaluru, including several managers.

Managers lacked a structured framework for growth and leadership development. They attended group leadership training, but the change was not sticky since there was no follow-up after these workshops. I

searched for ways to fill this gap with a cost-effective solution and a proven model to make sticky changes in leadership behaviors.

I found a certification program created by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Stakeholder Centered Coaching.

I made a case to my management to sponsor my coach certification, which would follow an in-person workshop with Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. In my proposal, I showed the organization's investment and benefits.

It was a 50X profit for the organization.

Other directors and my peers supported my case and wanted me to coach their managers to become leaders. I highlighted the following topics in the proposal.

1. Why do managers need coaching? How does it help? What is the number of managers who need it in the organization?

2. Survey results from Dr. Marshall Goldsmith to show the efficacy of this leadership framework across several countries and industries.

3. The cost of executive coaching for an individual (provided by external coaches).

4. Anecdotal evidence of a lack of leadership skills and impact summaries by my peers and other leaders.

5. A clear plan to measure leadership growth before and after the coaching engagement via formal, anonymous 360 surveys.

The proposal was approved because it was a wonderful intersection of my personal goal and the organization’s growth.

Here is the picture from the certification program (Dr. Marshall Goldsmith on left):

I earned my leadership coaching certification through Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s program.

After the certification, I supported several managers on their 12 to 18-month leadership journey through 360-degree feedback, feedforward, and monthly coaching sessions.

Inspired by Marshall’s books Mojo and Triggers, I created group programs for teams to function better and show up as leaders.

One of my programs, Team Building Without Time Wasting, became a big hit among Oracle teams. The program was a six-month commitment for teams, requiring a two-hour session every month.

Teams built trust, safety, and empathy through these monthly group coaching sessions. They achieved more when they understood the true meaning of TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More.

By 2015, I had eight years of experience in teaching courses, coaching, and structured leadership development. All this happened while I excelled at my role at Oracle, got promoted several times, and helped teams produce results and enjoy their work.

Three things helped me balance work responsibilities and dedicate time to teaching and coaching. I made deliberate and strategic choices.

1. I developed a strong bench of frontline leaders who were great at execution.

2. I aligned with my manager on my focus areas and expectations. It helped me strike a balance between achieving results and being a force multiplier.

3. I developed rituals and habits for managing my energy throughout the day. Energy management (not time management) is the secret to productivity. I’m grateful to the coaches who helped me develop these habits. If you’re interested in this topic, read The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

Try this:

• Find an executive coach for your growth

• Gather anonymous 360-degree feedback for your leadership growth

• Develop a 12-month leadership program for new behaviors and perception change

To help others develop, start with yourself. If you want them to change, lead by example.
— Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

6. Crossing Borders, Expanding Impact

The impact, credibility, and visibility I gained paved the way for my move to the United States. In October 2015, I took a new role at Oracle America.

Before moving, I trained two other managers who wanted to continue running some of my group workshops. I did a Train-the-trainer workshop and shared all my materials with them to carry the baton forward.

I also learned a new skill, training trainers. The Toastmasters club I helped bootstrap in 2007, Orators, remains active and continues to shape leaders across various functions.

After moving to the US, I continued to offer one-on-one coaching in communication and leadership to tech professionals, but I stopped teaching group courses.

To continue improving as a speaker, I joined a Toastmasters club in Belmont, California, and was an active club member until 2021.

After 19 years, I left Oracle America in 2021 and joined Meta as a Data Engineering leader. During my tenure, I conducted a few workshops for senior engineers and engineering managers at Meta in 2022.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
— Seneca.

Try this:

• If you’re looking for more challenges in your job, find a new role in the same organization

• Explore roles in a different country or an adjacent function

• For example, if you’re an engineer, consider applying for a rotational PM role to experience product management firsthand. It’ll be a rich experience

7. Trusting the Journey, Connecting the Dots

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
— Steve Jobs

I was impacted by a massive layoff at Meta in January 2023. I was at a crossroads: another tech job or start my own coaching company. I thought, “Why don’t I take a two-year break and become a full-time leadership coach and facilitator?” I took the break. I wanted to experiment.

I call this 2+ year journey an MBA in Solopreneurship.

In February 2023, I registered an LLC in California, Changesmith Coaching.

My previous coaching success gave me the courage to make this decision. I had built a second career with credible results and practical experience.

I now write a newsletter it’s called Beyond Your Limits, last year, I published a book called Beyond Your Limits. I also teach self-paced and live cohort courses and do 1:1 coaching.

Here is the visual overview of everything I do:

I hope this article inspires you to pursue your second career while thriving in your first.

Start small, keep experimenting, adjust your approach, and most importantly, enjoy the journey!

Try this:

• If you’re going through a tough time in your job or are impacted by a layoff, something better might be waiting for you.

• Entertain the possibility of this happening in your life.

• One day, you might look back and connect the dots backwards.

Last words

Thanks to Pramoda for sharing his story with us! It’s inspiring to see how a person can completely turn their life around with enough energy and focus.

Even if you may believe that you are really bad at something, with enough grit, you can become great at it. And Pramoda is a great example of that.

Make sure to check him out on LinkedIn and also check out his book Beyond Your Limits.

If you’re looking to grow in your career, this book would be a great read for you!

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