Deepali Vyas Is Redefining How Leaders Get Hired

Vyas is career strategist, executive search for ZRG (global head of data, AI) and known as “the elite recruiter” with 2M+ following.

1. You have a book coming out with Harper Collins. For someone who doesn't live in the world of executive performance, how do you describe what it's about?

It's really about cracking the code on what separates people who are good at their jobs from people who are magnetic in their careers. But honestly? It's bigger than that. There is a game being played inside every organization, and most people are playing it without ever having been shown the rules. This book is the rulebook. It's packed with practical, tactical moves you can implement immediately: how to increase your visibility, how to own the narrative around your work, how to stop waiting to be discovered and start driving your career the way a CEO runs a company. Because that's what the most successful people do — they treat their career like a business they're running. The signals that separate them from everyone else are different than most people think, and they are absolutely learnable.

2. What made now the right moment to write it?

The workplace has changed more in the last five years than it did in the previous twenty-five.

AI is changing how work gets done. Hybrid work has changed visibility. Promotions are flatter. Organizations are leaner. The old advice of "keep your head down, work hard, and you'll get noticed" is simply no longer true. I've spent 25 years in executive search, reviewed more than 1.5 million résumés, and interviewed tens of thousands of leaders. What I've watched over and over again is that the people who rise the fastest are not always the smartest or the hardest working. They're the ones who understand how influence, perception, positioning, and opportunity actually work. Too many talented people think they're losing in a meritocracy when, in reality, nobody ever taught them the rules of the game. They're not being held back by a lack of capability. They're being held back by a lack of information.

I wrote this book to make those rules visible and, more importantly, to teach people how to play the game ethically, strategically, and with intention.

3. You're leading a workshop on executive presence at Google this July. What's the one thing most people get wrong about executive presence?

I think the biggest misconception about executive presence is that it's about charisma. Charisma absolutely matters. People are naturally drawn to energy, conviction, and authenticity. And I actually believe everyone has their own version of charisma—they just have to tap into it instead of trying to imitate someone else's style. But charisma alone isn't executive presence.

Executive presence is about articulating your ideas clearly and showing people, transparently, how you think. It's about creating confidence through clarity.

One of the biggest tricks I've learned over 25 years in executive search is simple:

• Speak in outcomes, not activities.

• Don't bury the lead.

• Speak like a consultant: lead with the answer, then support it with the facts.

The most impressive executives I've worked with don't make people work to understand them. Executive presence is succinct. It's clarity of thought, communicated with precision, backed by judgment and authenticity. That's what earns trust.

4. You're also keynoting on AI productivity at McKesson. Are you optimistic or worried about where AI is taking the workplace?

Deeply optimistic, with eyes open. AI isn't replacing great performers. It's exposing the difference between people who create value and people who create activity.

For years, some people could hide behind busy calendars, long meetings, and polished presentations. AI is stripping away a lot of that camouflage. It's democratizing capability, but not judgment. Everyone will have access to the tools. Not everyone will know what to ask, what to build, or what decisions to make. The people who combine judgment, curiosity, and agency with AI will create exponentially more value than they could before. For people who are genuinely excellent and intentional about their trajectory, this is the most exciting moment in careers in decades.

5. What does a high performer look like right now, in 2026, that might surprise people?

The executives who stand out in 2026 share two traits: curiosity and agency. They ask exceptional questions, and then they don't wait around for someone else to answer them. They go find the answer, build the prototype, call the customer, pull the data, test the hypothesis, and come back with a recommendation. I can teach someone a new technology. I can't teach them to care enough to take ownership. Agency is becoming one of the rarest and most valuable executive signals in the market.

6. You clearly operate at a very high level. What does your own morning look like?

Honestly? My mornings are less about productivity and more about protecting my attention. I guard the first hour fiercely (and with a good cup of coffee). No email. No meetings. No reacting to someone else's agenda. That time is for thinking, writing, and deciding what actually matters. I want to start the day creating, not consuming.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned is that the quality of your work is often determined by the quality of your thinking. If you give away your attention first thing in the morning, you're letting everyone else set your priorities. I try to run my career the way a CEO runs a business. Intentionally. Deliberately. And with a clear understanding that my attention is one of my most valuable assets.

7. What's the best career advice you've ever received?

Someone very early on told me: don't optimize for the title, optimize for the room. Get in rooms that scare you a little. That's how you increase your visibility, build your reputation, and position yourself for opportunities that others don't even know exist. The title will follow.

8. Connecticut — do you have a connection here, and what do you love about it?

Connecticut has a real soft spot in my heart because it was where I received my very first job offer after moving to New York. I had my sights set on Wall Street, but my firm initially placed me in the Connecticut office before transferring me into Manhattan. Looking back, I'm grateful for it because so much of my early recruiting career was built there. Many of my first clients were Connecticut-based hedge funds and smaller technology companies, and some of my biggest and longest-standing clients are still based there today. I continue to spend a significant part of my professional life in Connecticut. Over the years, my connection to the state has only grown. I love Greenwich Avenue, the restaurants, the sense of community, and the incredible quality of life. We have close friends there, and it's become a place I genuinely enjoy spending time.

What I appreciate most, though, is the people. There's a seriousness about their work, but also a seriousness about their life outside of work. They build exceptional careers without making work their entire identity. That's a rare combination, and one I admire deeply.

9. What do you want readers, especially women building careers right now, to take away from your book?

That there is a game being played, and you are allowed to play it on your own terms.

Ambition and authenticity are not in conflict. You do not have to become someone else to be successful. In fact, the most effective leaders I've worked with are often the ones who have the greatest clarity about who they are and what they stand for. I want readers to be intentional about their careers instead of passive participants in them. To own their narrative, increase their visibility, advocate for themselves, and make deliberate choices instead of waiting to be discovered. No one will ever care more about your career than you do. The moment you stop hoping someone else will recognize your potential and start communicating your value with confidence and precision, everything changes.

10. Last question: what's on your nightstand right now?

My own manuscript — marked up in red. And something completely unrelated to work, because that's the only way I survive a book deadline -- Zarna Garg's This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir