In the latest episode of “From a Woman to a Leader,” I had the pleasure of sitting down with Padma Lalwani, a seasoned technology leader whose career journey is nothing short of inspiring. Padma’s experiences growing up in different parts of India, coupled with her adaptable and growth-oriented mindset, have been instrumental to her success in navigating an ever-evolving industry.
Padma’s Diverse Background and Appreciation for Change
Padma grew up as an only child, with her family frequently moving between different states in India due to her father’s work in the central government. This exposure to diverse cultures, languages, and customs from a young age instilled in Padma a deep appreciation for diversity. “If you go to different states, different regions, things are absolutely different,” she explains. “Each state has its own language, its own cuisine, its own culture, a different community.”
While the constant change was challenging at times, Padma reflects that it ultimately “helped shape me as a person” by teaching her to expect and embrace differences. “You don’t expect things to remain the same, where you expect that people will be different, they will act differently, you know, they’ll behave differently.”
Padma’s Non-Linear Career Path
Padma’s adaptability has been a guiding principle throughout her non-linear career journey. Rather than sticking to a rigid path, she has embraced opportunities to work at startups, mid-size companies, and large enterprises across a variety of industries – from tech and banking to government and healthcare.
“I really tried to do quick experiments, try out various kinds of companies,” she says of her early days in the corporate world. This willingness to explore new avenues has allowed Padma to continuously expand her skillset, from hands-on engineering to people leadership and business transformation.
Empowering Teams Through Autonomy and Accountability
One of the key tenets of Padma’s leadership approach is fostering “autonomy and accountability” within her teams. Rather than dictating tasks and timelines from the top down, she empowers her engineers and product managers to determine the “what” and “how” of delivering results.
“I really have the team because they are the ones doing the work,” Padma explains. “They come and say, ‘Hey, this is what we can do and when we can do it. And this is how we are going to do it.'” By giving her teams this ownership, she cultivates a culture of accountability, where people feel invested in the outcomes they’ve committed to.
Padma also makes a point to “champion and challenge” her teams, gently pushing them to work more efficiently and effectively without resorting to heavy-handed mandates. This collaborative approach, grounded in research on intrinsic motivation, has allowed Padma to build highly engaged and empowered engineering organizations.
Embracing Continuous Learning
Throughout her career, Padma has demonstrated a relentless drive to continuously learn and grow, using each new role or company as an opportunity to expand her skillset. Whether it was diving into cloud computing at IBM or leading a data lake project at Capital One, she has consistently sought out experiences that would stretch her abilities and expose her to emerging technologies and methodologies.
“Once you feel that you have stopped learning and growing, it’s probably not a rewarding professional relationship anymore,” Padma reflects. To combat this, she makes a point to surround herself with both internal mentors and external coaches who can provide objective perspectives and help her navigate challenges.
Closing Thoughts
Padma’s career journey is a testament to the power of adaptability, continuous learning, and people-centric leadership. By embracing change, empowering her teams, and always striving to expand her capabilities, she has carved out an impactful path in an industry that is constantly evolving.
As Padma eloquently states, “As long as you’re believing in yourself and empowering yourself and giving yourself the permission that, ‘Hey, I can do more,’ that has always opened a lot of doors for me.” Her insights offer valuable lessons for any aspiring tech leader or individual looking to cultivate more flexibility and growth in their own career.
Listen to the full episode on my Podcast!
About Padma
Vice President of Engineering, Two Chairs
I am a Senior Software Engineering Executive with a record of bringing transformative business impact through successful customer outcomes.
I have led multiple 10-100+ person engineering organizations to build, ship, and monetize SaaS products across startups and enterprises like Emptoris, OpenGov, IBM, and Capital One.
As the company’s technology executive, I am passionate about building two-way clarity between business strategy and engineering execution to achieve directionally aligned results. I focus on organization scaling, technology transformation, and engineering craft maturity to foster an environment of hypergrowth with stability, scale, and speed.
I lead with the Why, enabling my teams to operate autonomously and be accountable for predictable, sustainable, and multiplicative product growth. I believe in an inclusive culture of respect and ownership where individuals can feel psychologically safe and bring their true, authentic selves to work and propel the business forward with thought diversity.
Follow Padma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/padma-lalwani-0721287/
