Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others”.

This perfectly encapsulates Muse Diagnostics' Chief Sales Officer, Sirisha Naidu's winning approach to leadership. Sirisha has always been the top performer on her team, but when she was given the responsibility of leading a team, she chose not to compete for awards and instead focused on her primary goal, which is to see her team grow. She knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. The knowledge that she imparts to her team is based on what she has tried, tested, and succeeded at.

Sirisha brings over 20 years of experience in the retail, ecommerce, and SaaS industry, and is skilled at functions such as sales & management of SaaS products, CRM, media advertising, business development, digital marketing, retail analytics, and online advertising. All of her skills have been acquired through the plethora of roles she has played across organizations over the years.

As a woman in sales, Sirisha's first few years were rather challenging as she had to face bias at work. However, propelled by a strong desire to make her mark in the corporate world, Sirisha faced every challenge that came her way and has worked her way up the corporate ladder. She credits her father's strong guidance and her mother's perseverance as the source of immense drive to succeed.

In an interview with the Women Entrepreneur Team, she says, “I can bring out solutions that will help businesses make faster decisions and help their business grow. And that is all that should matter, instead of my gender.” Here are excerpts from the in-depth conversation.

Introduce us to Muse Diagnostics and the various medical products that Muse Diagnostics specializes in. What is the vision for Muse Diagnostic's growth?

Muse Diagnostics is a medical device and healthcare analytics company that creates tools to capture and utilize health data. We are a rapidly growing Bangalore based startup looking to radically improve healthcare at a primary level.

MUSE currently only retails Taal Digital Stethoscope, which is a hardware tool that captures and transmits body sound data to software applications. Currently the device transmits either directly through a wired connection or using other peripheral connectors to the host application. Various versions of the stethoscope are in the pipeline. We mostly cater to telemedicine, remote monitoring and primary healthcare markets. In the near, future we plan to also capture the education market and eventually the B2C consumer space as well.

Our vision is to make healthcare accessible to everybody. MUSE will continue to enable B2B and B2C segments that want to focus on remote healthcare. We believe that with this vision we want to focus on PCR, Genetics and other diagnostic tools. The MUSE team is constantly working to improve internal systems and build a strong IP.

As the Chief Sales Officer at Muse Diagnostics, how do you drive growth within the organization? What is your leadership mantra?

Also, how important is mentoring for growth? Since I've been in sales, I've always been awarded as a top performer. However, once I entered senior roles, I opted not to compete for awards because my primary goal is to see my team grow. It's not just about my own growth; as a leader, it's also about how you grow your team as well. If I've accomplished something, I want my team or my mentees to accomplish as well. Being a leader, I want my team to win awards, rather than me winning an award.

In fact, one of my key personal goals is to mentor 45 successful people. If I have mentored someone, I want them to be in a good position and lead a successful career. I've done it for 18 or 20 people so far, and I still have about 25 to go.

Everything that I've learned has been on the job and not in a classroom or a seminar. When I ask someone to do something, it's a task that I've already tried, tested, and succeeded at. That's the knowledge I pass on to the team instead of standard procedures. When I mentor my staff, I speak from both personal and professional experiences. I'm a transformational leader, which means I help people evolve into independent thinkers with the potential to become entrepreneurs.

“Being a leader, i want my team to win awards, rather than me winning an award”

What are some of the major challenges that you had to face as you made your way up through the corporate ladder? What is your take on gender within organizational roles? People don't allow one to flourish because of one's gender.

Therefore during the first ten years out of my 21 years of professional journey I encountered bias. They believe you are unfit for the position because this role requires you to attend lot of customer meetings which might run late into the night. As a result, many people will refuse to give you crucial assignments. But, over the previous ten years, I have received ample support from mentors, co-workers and family which has helped me evolve. I believe I have become a better, stronger person both personally and professionally. Replenished through this support, I am now ready to face any kind challenges and will make a mark for myself in the corporate world.

What matters at the end of the day is how you portray yourself, what you say, and what you bring on to the table. Because if I can bring out solutions that will help businesses make faster decisions, which will eventually help a business grow, then my gender should not matter. The way you conduct yourself, the confidence with which you speak, the empathy with which you can show up, decides how tall you stand in a room full of male counterparts. This confidence compels people to take you seriously.

Tell us about the most significant professional milestones that you have achieved as a business leader over the years?   

There is no single point that I can pinpoint as a milestone. I enjoy learning new things and am always on the lookout for new ways to improve and grow. But if I had to describe myself, I'd say I'm a `People's Person'. I enjoy meeting new people and putting my communication skills to work in order to develop and maintain good professional relationships.

“I'm a `people's person'. I enjoy meeting new people and putting my communication skills to work in order to develop and maintain good professional relationships”

In particular, it gives me a real sense of pride to be able to repair, improve and maintain relationships between different departments/Customers/Clients through listening, discussion and clear communication.

In your opinion what has been the driving force behind your success in the corporate world?

My parents deserve full credit for my success. My father has always been a great guiding force for me; he keeps me grounded and gives me a reality check. I've been a good leader because I've taken a lot of inputs from him. Despite the fact that I am a woman, he has never set any limitations on me, nor has he ever imposed any terms and conditions; instead, he would just tell me the positives and negatives and leave it up to me to decide. He'd say, “At the end of the day, it's your decision; do it; if you succeed, well and good; if you don't succeed, you learn from it and make sure you don't repeat it.” I shall continue to follow his advice even today.

My mother is a traditional homemaker. She has, however, struggled all of her life. Every time she falls, she gets back up stronger. She tells me “if I can do it, why can't you?”  She has been my greatest source of inspiration and motivation in overcoming the challenges as a woman in this corporate world.

As a successful business leader what advice would you give to women who aspire to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future?

I always advise women to be confident in their abilities. If they believe they are right, they should go for it regardless of what is going on around them. I believe that is one of the keys to success as has been taught to me by my mentors, and it's helped me progress in life tremendously.

Women make excellent sales people and also good entrepreneurs. I strongly believe that women have strong intuition which aids them in making better decisions. The field of sales is not an easy one, because it involves not only the difficulties of the job but also the pressure that comes with it. But, if you forget about what's going on around you and have self-confidence, you'll be successful. Not only in sales, but in any field, woman can succeed.

Sirisha Naidu, Director

Sirisha Naidu has over 20 years of experience in the retail, ecommerce, and SaaS industry, and she is skilled in the sales and management of SaaS products, CRM, media advertising, business development, digital marketing, retail analytics, and online advertising.