Take 5 with Pioneera is a series of micro interviews with key business leaders on wellness, leadership, productivity and workplace culture.
This week we’re taking 5 with our very own, Troy Kelly.
Troy is the CTO of Pioneera, creators of Indie, a digital tool that helps businesses reduce workplace stress to boost wellness, productivity and employee engagement. Troy has spent the last ten years working with amazing startups around the world; is a co-founder of Aperim, a digital consultancy based in Sydney, Australia; and has produced a number of internationally-touring live theatre productions.
Welcome, Troy!
1. What does your workday routine look like?
My workday normally starts by getting my inbox back to zero (or as close to it as possible) removing all the non-essential messages so I know if there are any fires to put out that need urgent attention.
Then I will spend a bit of time going over the previous days progress and commits from our designers and developers ready for our daily standup.
If there's nothing urgent coming from the standup - I will spend a little time looking at a few trusted news sources, and seeing if there is any relevant research in our space to read.
In the chunk of time before and after lunch I will tackle whatever the most pressing issues are, working with our team, chasing vendors, researching solutions to problems.
As the day draws to a close I will spend a bit of time with email again getting it back to zero, making sure that I have responded to everything I can - and scheduled time the following day for things that need it.
Finally, I will check exception logs from the day in case there are any issues going into the night - and that will round out the day.
2. How do you stay focused and maintain a positive mindset when things get crazy busy?
I've had a strange career path to get where I am - and I learned most of my tools for handling "crazy" from my time in the theatre.
There's no good that comes from burning energy worrying about things you can't possibly effect - so I try and, as quickly as possible, rank all the things that need urgent attention and pick them off one at a time.
If I can - I will start with a couple of small, but urgent tasks that can get me in the right mind space and roll into tackling the bigger challenges.
3. What are your three must-haves for a healthy work-life integration? And why?
A great team, a great family, and puppies.
A great team will give you access to work-life balance. Family will understand that the pendulum can swing both ways. And puppies don't care if you are busy, or bored - they always bring the love.
4. What’s your top tip for creating a thriving workplace culture?
Look for ways that you can use the power of your role, regardless of where you sit in an organisation, to clear the path for others’ success.
5. How do you bounce back when things don’t go as planned?
It really depends on what is impacting the outcome. If things are not going to plan because of external influence - then just stepping back and working to understand what is causing the issue is normally all it can take.
If I'm the reason things aren't going to plan, then talking to somebody I trust is normally my go-to. I'm lucky that professionally and personally I'm surrounded by people who listen and then ask me the right questions to help me get back on track.
If nothing else works - watching an episode of Star Trek Voyager will normally do it. How amazing is Janeway? Talk about bouncing back when things don't go to plan!
This conversation was brought to you by Pioneera.
Understand and measure team stress in real-time - with Indie by Pioneera.
