Deep dive leadership with the President of Chewy Health

Inside the Episode: Mita Malhotra

I sat down with Mita Malhotra, President of Chewy Health for The Evolved Vets Podcast. We were talking about growth mindsets and leadership, and the discussion lead to the concept of Intellectual loyalty vs intellectual integrity.

Intellectual loyalty is defending your convictions because they're YOURS. Intellectual integrity is being willing to change your mind when better arguments show up.

And I realized: that's the whole game. That's what separates leaders who plateau from leaders who keep evolving.

If you've ever felt stuck between "doing it the way you've always done it" and "trying something that terrifies you or even triggers you".... you need to hear this episode.

What We Talked About

1. The Night Shift Sacrifice

When Mita tried to break into business from engineering, Dell offered her a deal: night shift. Nobody wanted that job. It would be a sacrifice, but Mita took it anyway.

Why? Because she knew: "I'm going to learn business. I'll get in the door and evolve from there."

That one decision ,choosing growth over comfort, launched her entire career.

The lesson: Sometimes the opportunity that looks like the worst deal is actually the exact door you need to walk through. 

2. "Nobody Bats 100"

Mita's worked at Amazon, Dell, and Chewy. And she's very clear: not everything worked.

"We started things which haven't done well," she told me. But you learn from each of these. Yes, it's technically failure BUT "You can learn from the failure and you keep moving on."

In medicine, there's a fear of failure because the thought is that it would prove your incompetence. But Mita's saying: failure is simply the cost of innovation.

If you're not failing sometimes, you're not taking big enough risks.

The question asked: "Do you have the resilience to learn from what happened and keep going?"

3. Women in Leadership

Mita's advice: Speak up!  Because here's what she sees from the leadership side: "Maybe your perspective is actually the right one. Maybe the team needs to hear you. Maybe your way is the better way."

The trap: Staying quiet because you think your idea isn't good enough yet.

The truth: Your perspective IS the one the room needs. 

4. Intellectual Integrity vs. Intellectual Loyalty

Mita explained: Most of us operate from intellectual loyalty, we defend our convictions because they're ours. We built them. We're attached to them.

But real growth comes from intellectual integrity, being willing to change your mind when stronger arguments show up.

"Do I have the mindset of: can I change my mind when different data presents itself?" she asked.

That's it. That's the whole leadership game.

Not: "I'm right and I'll defend this forever."

But: "I'm open to being wrong if it gets us closer to the truth."

The Evolved Vets Podcast