Editor’s Note:
Our newly-formed Terakeet Product team is stacked with some of the best and brightest. We’re so lucky to have them on the Tera-team and continue to learn from them every day. We caught up with Ron Cierniakoski (Operations Manager) to learn more about his must-have workflow tools, and what question he’d ask Bill Gates given the chance!
Q1: What is your role and how long have you worked at Terakeet?
My current role at Terakeet is Product Management, and I have been here for almost 7 years now.
Q2: What advice would you give someone who is new to Syracuse or to Terakeet?
Don’t discount the art scene. There is a ton of stuff to do regarding the arts, especially for a smaller city. Things from Ballet, Theatre, Standup, Burlesque, Music, the list goes on. You just need to know where to look or find people that do. Luckily for me, my wife is involved in a ballet company here so she is entrenched in the art community and knows about many of the things going on.
Q3: List a quote that has helped you get through a tough time.
“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” — Steve Martin
I find this quote to be inspirational because it illustrates how I want to move through my career. Sometimes you can get caught up in all of the wrong things that are happening around you. Which can lead to you being defensive or unwilling to hear other perspectives. I try to learn from any moment where I missed the mark so the next time I’m in the situation I can come back and be better.
Q4: How do you unwind after a case of the Mondays?
Meditation or Yoga. I think that meditation has helped me significantly improve my reactions to stressful situations. Things like handling a debate or a discussion with someone that has a different opinion can naturally lead to a feeling of anxiety and stress. Meditation has taught me how to breathe through any gut reaction I have from those interactions. I’m not perfect yet, but I know I am more aware of when these feelings are beginning to surface and I’m building up the ability to slow down my thoughts and clearly and calmly engage in the discussions.
There are lots of free apps out there to help get you started, but I wouldn’t discount YouTube as a source, it’s where I got my start.
Q5: If you could invite any famous businessperson or workplace guru to dinner, who would it be and why?
I’d love to talk to Bill Gates, I’m fascinated by the process people go through when creating products that have never been built before. How did the idea get generated, what helped generate the idea, and how did they transition that idea through execution.
Q6: If you could only use 5 workplace tools or platforms, what would they be and why?
- Excel or GSheets: Powerful tool for organizing, manipulating, and presenting any kind of data into something that you can make decisions with.
- Whiteboard: Many people are more visual in their communication styles and so being able to write down or draw out your perspective goes a long way towards getting people to fully understand the point you are trying to make.
- Sticky notes: Some people pick on me about this. But I’ve experienced the power of facilitating a meeting and having people write their ideas down and physically moving around the room when attempting to map out an idea. I think it helps to disconnect the idea from them and it’s now this idea on a card. So we can externalize the conversation and freely move it around as necessary.
- Google Search Console: I personally love this tool. It could be leveraged to help track keyword movements, it can tell you what keywords are driving traffic to your site, and even the pages that they are driving traffic to. It definitely has limitations, but there is still a lot of value in there.
- Google Analytics: Powerful and versatile tool to track traffic coming from all channels on the web. GA and tools like it are a must-have to measure the impact your marketing channels have on your traffic.
Q7: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received from a coworker?
I’ll never forget this advice I got from a mentor I worked with at another company. “The main difference between a leader and a worker is the ability to make decisions”. This whole conversation really changed my perspective of what being a leader is and I carried it to the work that I perform at Terakeet. He dispelled the myth that leaders should know more than the people they lead. In reality, good leaders harness the strengths of their people and drive action from them.
People that don’t tend to be leaders focus on collecting the information and knowing as much as they can about their job, but they shy away from creating a plan to execute from that information.
This is a continuation of our “Workplace Wisdom” series. Read the previous posts here:
Workplace Wisdom: Melissa Stefanec
Workplace Wisdom: Bridget Doherty