Mark McClure Today
Mid-Career Coaching and Personal Renewal For Technology Professionals
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Free Shipping - Crazy Christmas IT Career Coaching Special Starts Today
Here’s a Christmas Career Coaching Special for IT Professionals - but you must act quickly… … because there are just 12 slots and the offer finishes midnight 30 Nov. Take action today and inside Santa’s stocking you’ll soon find these coaching goodies delivered to your digital in-box and (within a few weeks) to your doorstep: 1 CD copy [...] |
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“I Was No Longer The Choreographer Of My Life”
Over the years I recall getting some emails from HR which told the sad news of an employee’s unfortunate early demise. For a moment I would stop what I was doing, say a silent prayer for the deceased’s family and friends and (if I’m honest), also for my own good fortune in still being of sound [...] |
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How To Get 1 Of 10 Gift Copies Of The IT Career Engineers Special Video Report
Over at Simon Stapleton’s blog he’s chasing a $1000 donation target for his cancer research appeal…. just $474.50 to reach that milestone. If you’re one of the first 10 people to respond here’s how you can help out and also get a gift copy of my IT Career Engineer Special Video Report on CD - [...] |
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What Might You Learn From A Corporate Cynic?
Hey, don’t shoot the messenger, will ya! I recently spent several hours reading every single blog post of one, Jerome Alexander - the self-titled corporate cynic. How exactly I found his blog I can’t now remember, but the urge to explore was stimulated by a comment written by Simon Stapleton on my “How List Writing Can Make [...] |
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Update On The October Happiness List Exercise
I wrote before about “How List Writing Can Make You Happier” and today’s post is an update on that exercise for October. I realize this is a subjective experience but then again, when the subject’s “me”, I’m all eyes and ears Some people keep diaries and journals. Others create photo albums and make heartfelt [...] |
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So You Want To Be An IT Leader?
If you’re an experienced IT ‘Subject-Matter-Expert’ now interested in adding a management/leadership role to your professional skillset, CIO Simon Stapleton has written a useful 24 page e-book on “The Essence Of IT Leadership Vol 1“. I downloaded and read it in about 30 minutes and here are some comments on what I’ve learned, written from a [...] |
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Will Your Technical Excellence Lead To The Career Recognition You Want?
Bit of a leading question in today’s post title, eh?! But before we go there let me remind you of this post all about Joe Manzini, the fictitious plumber. Technically excellent but puzzled that his “plumbing proficiency” marketing message was falling on (mostly) deaf customer ears, he got a “lucky” break one evening by fixing a little [...] |
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A Tech Career Marketing Lesson From Joe The (Fictitious) Plumber
Some years ago my parents finally gave up trying to understand my rather techie explanations of what I did for a living as a “computer guy in a bank” - it was a challenge to uncouple their belief that I was apparently as much responsible for the ebb and flow of stocks as those harassed [...] |
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Friday Kin - 2008-10-24
Number 3 in the “Friday Kin” series of blog posts which have caught my attention out there in the world wide glitter GOLD: Do It Tomorrow (Chapter One): This is chapter one from UK-based author and time management coach, Mark Foster’s book, “Do It Tomorrow“. I’ve read Mark’s first book “Get Everything Done and Still [...] |
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Supporting CIO Simon ‘Indie’ Stapleton’s October Cancer Fundraising Drive
While my blog devotes a fair amount of time to creating self-initiated and desired changes in life and career, you’ve probably experienced that sometimes stuff just happens. UK-based Simon Stapleton knows all about planned and unplanned changes - he’s a successful IT Manager and a cancer survivor. I’ve spent some time on his blog because I feel [...] |
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Are Time Management Weeds Overrunning Your Career Path? (GroundLog Day)
One of the limiting aspects to my time management strategy has been a tendency to “over plan” goals and their related tasks - what I’d probably call an over indulgence in “self micro-management”, now that the jargon-creating neurons have lit up By that I mean I’m one of those people who love planning around [...] |
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(Career) Management Tips And The 1-3-6 Exercise
I recently discovered the “management wisdom” work of Nick McCormick and am looking forward to reading his book, “Lead Well and Prosper”. In the meantime I checked out Nick’s interesting 6 minute management tips podcast with Dan Coughlin, intriguingly titled “The 1-3-6-Exercise“. And although the focus of Nick’s site is on management, after listening I was struck [...] |
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I Forbid You To Read This Post
But you’re reading it anyway, aren’t you?! Now what if word came down on high from layer 8 land (”the senior management”) that you were to stop reading this post immediately and get on with your allocated work. Ah Ha! Now there’s a risk - reward decision to make and most likely your choice will depend [...] |
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True Happiness And Peace of Mind
As I chalk up 48 not out on ye olde terra firma today, my mind flickers through a panorama of images, emotions, people and places from this particular earth experience. One of these timeless scenes has my mother saying “Seems just like yesterday” as we sit on the back door step drinking tea and eating digestive [...] |
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The Leadership Development Carnival by Dan McCarthy
There are some great posts in Dan McCarthy’s Leadership Development Carnival this month - and I’m grateful to be included as one of the newcomers. My favourite from those I read is by Michael Moore (no, not the Hollywood director) and features leadership lessons to be learned from one of the roles played by the [...] |
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How List Writing Can Make You Happier
List writing sometimes gets a bad press - perhaps because of the ‘endless hassle’ that To-Do lists create in some people’s minds. But it doesn’t have to be that way and in fact I use lists as a very powerful process of reinforcing behaviours and feelings that ordinarily would escape my attention - or be soon [...] |
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The Best Business Book I Have Ever Read
For nearly 2 years (while I was in CCIE “do or die” study mode) all I ever seemed to read were Cisco Press books. And even now my forearm muscle memory cannot forget carrying those 500(!) page books on 2 hour round trip commutes in crowded Tokyo trains, with one hand on the hanging strap [...] |
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My Performance Coaching Champion
In the previous post I recommended Sir John Whitmore’s book, Coaching For Performance, to any true student of performance improvement. It’s a fabulous, easy-to-read book and I often refer to it for coaching inspiration. Not least because the author acknowledges the contributions of his friend and colleague, David Hemery, the 1968 Olympic 400m Hurdles Champion. David Hemery [...] |
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Adding Performance Coaching Skills To Your Technical Expertise
Today’s post’s addressed to anyone who’s firmly in the ‘tech’ or ‘geek’ career camp and wants to add some useful and transferable ’soft’ skills to their repertoire. For starters, here are two benefits that can come from applying a coaching mindset to your work: 1- Coaching skills will help you enjoy your tech job even more than [...] |
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Friday Kin 2008-09-19
Here’s the second in an occasional series of “Friday Gold” wisdom nuggets mined from the web. Enjoy! Gold: The Art of Manliness This post appealed to my sense of fair play and to the power of inspired team work. Check out Denzel Washington’s words to his football charges on the fields of Gettysburg. (Way back in teen years I [...] |