It was perhaps the most important thing that inspiring tech leader and mother-of-three Melanie Silva revealed at the Leadership Matters breakfast — her secret to keeping up.
And … a sturdy pair of sneakers. In her case, an eye-catching pair of CL Paris shoes.
Speaking to a packed room of WA leaders on Wednesday, the Google Australia and New Zealand managing director and vice president wore the clearly colourful and comfortable sneakers on stage — but was otherwise dressed in business attire.
“My sneaker collection is not as big as you’d think,” she told former Sunrise host David Koch during a Q&A. “But I probably buy two or three pairs a year; statement ones.”
She added, jokingly: “I have a two-year-old now and so I have to be able to run faster. It’s minutes from death most times of the day, so I have to be able to bolt quickly.”
Ms Silva said she maintains a healthy work-life balance by setting clear boundaries.
“One of them for me is three o’clock on Fridays,” she said. “I believe I need to pick up my daughter from school. That’s a non-negotiable.
“I leave pretty loudly at five o’clock most days. I’m online at night afterwards but I leave loudly so that I can have that two hours of time with the kids.”
Ms Silva said despite developing rules, it was an imperfect balance.
“Do I make everything? No. Am I perfect? No. I am muddling my way through it like most of the working parents in the room or people who are looking after older parents. It’s a daily juggle,” she said.
Ms Silva also revealed how she broke free from being “a slave to my calendar”.
“Once every six weeks I have a ‘thinking day’ where you cannot find me, you cannot book me in,” she said. “It’s been a game changer from me.”
Ms Silva puts the “thinking day” concept down to a course she attended about “getting into a flow”.
“It’s when you’re at your absolute best,” she said. “At first I thought I don’t have the time to get into flow.
“But at the end of the course I concluded that if you value it, you make time.
“I’ve been doing it for so many years and I feel it in my body when I’m coming up to one.
“I have three topics that I go away to think about and I dedicate an hour and a half to each topic.
“I generally come out with either a scoping document or a mind map.”