“Let’s have them celebrate with samosas and chai!”
That was the initial enthusiastic suggestion for a Diwali party scene chapter opening in our upcoming book, Bytes and Breaths: The VitaSphere Quest.
Picture this: Zara’s startup team gathering at her home, the warmth of traditional festivities filling the chapter opening.
“But would samosas and chai really fit our characters’ personas?”
That question stopped us in our tracks. Here we were, writing about empathetic leadership, yet we hadn’t fully stepped into the shoes of our biotech entrepreneur protagonist and her team. The demographic we’d crafted, their lifestyle, their social context - all pointed to a different kind of celebration.
This became one of our valuable writing lessons: empathy isn’t just about understanding your team or customers, it’s about truly inhabiting different perspectives. Even in fiction, even in a single scene, authentic leadership means seeing through others’ eyes—not just projecting our own experiences.
The revision process taught us that opening our minds to different viewpoints isn’t just good leadership practice, it’s essential storytelling. Sometimes the most profound insights come from challenging each other’s assumptions.
Wonder how Zara’s team actually ended up celebrating? The answer might surprise you in our upcoming leadership parable.
