Since starting at Kea I have found any issues I encounter in my life less daunting. Now that I break down large projects and end goals into doable steps as a career, doing the same for other aspects of my life comes naturally.
The best thing about my role at Kea is that I get to work with both breadth and depth. I simultaneously get exposure to the whole team and all the different projects we work on, and I get to work very specifically and specially on a few particular topics. This gives me the opportunity to not only build up my expansive knowledge, but also to gain expertise in some areas.
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Drive to ImproveI think it is imperative that you are always self-reflecting and don’t find complacency in a methodology purely because it works. Identifying why something is done in a certain way and challenging it is the only way to betterment. Even if you find that the current way is the best, at least you know.
Day-to-day
Discussions with our team to reflect on what we have done, what we are doing and what we could be to ensure that we are improving our effort to result expenditure, everyone is listened to & that individuals are provided with the opportunities to develop. External meetings to collaborate and reflect upon processes and determine where they could be improved and what we could be doing better. Collating, collaborating upon and examining data collected by the Research Team to identify trends and future-proof our efforts to be ahead of what we logically expect could happen.
When I first joined Kea, I was perhaps not nervous but curious as to how my humanities background would mesh with working in such a financially orientated business. What I have come to realise, and appreciate, is that the research and detail-driven approach I honed studying Classical History has great synergy with the task and minutia-focused elements of my role. It also provides ample opportunity to see how my thought process and rhetoric, informed by my background, works contrapuntally with the many other differentiating backgrounds of my colleagues. Seeing how I and someone else consider and approach a problem is something that I continue to learn from.
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My work is personal.I never want to do something half-heartedly: if I’m talking, I want to be listening; if I’m writing, I want it to be fully considered and if I’m training, I want to be fully supportive. I want to know when I reflect back on anything I’ve worked on that I don’t regret the amount of effort I put into it.
KEA
How has your career developed at Kea?
DT
My Kea career has seen the evolution from executing and solely owning pieces of work to delegating and facilitating others’ projects and tasks. Although it has been difficult in some instances for me to release control of my responsibilities to others, it has also been deeply rewarding. The transition from independence to collaboration, and to still enjoy it and find it immensely satisfying, isn’t something I thought I would encounter. Although there are still some projects which I have sole responsibility for, it is the ones I work on with others that I find myself enjoying the most.
KEA
What does it take to be successful in your role?
DT
Self-discipline, an ability to break end-goals into manageable steps, and holding myself accountable to task and timelines. So much of my role is recontextualising information & projects into a digestible and manageable series of tasks as opposed to the teleological approach we so often envision.
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Success at Kea, for me, means seeing others succeeding;the facilitation of other people’s victories is far more rewarding than my own. Whether you were there for training, advice, or actively had a hand in that particular success, knowing that you enabled someone else is the goal.
Why Kea?
The desire to be part of something growing, adapting and changing, and a desire to be part of that improvement. I realised through my interactions with Kea that it was a company in which I would be able to better myself. To grow alongside the company and be an integral component of its maturity – that was an aspect that massively appealed to me.