Lewis Sunny Lowe

In order to be strategic, you have to know what good looks like. What that means is, you have a plan for what needs to be installed and all the clients you manage, to make them safe and secure. That’s the minimum architecture that they need. If they don’t want to put in that architecture, because of cost, you have two options. 1) give them away to finance the cost. 2) give them a calendar for them to buy the most important things first, and the second thing third things in other quarters that they need. Ultimately, if you’re managing their network, it needs to be to your standards, or on the way to getting there, or you may not be a good fit.

Start with a Gap Assessment. Where are you today, and where do you want to be? That Gap defines what you need to learn and who you need to become. Next, build a plan to accomplish these learnings. Remember, everything you see around you was made by average people. You can accomplish this, just like they did.

I think this whole series of comments is out of order and context. It’s geared toward the technical professional, but doesn’t start with security in mind. The base level of all security is knowing what is on your network. You can do this in a number of ways, with 802.1X or with MAC address lists, but knowing what your security layering is going to be is incredibly important. You are at as much risk from the things that are on your network, as the things that are off your network. Things like video cameras, and other IOT devices can be a real threat to your internal security. So you need to be able to isolate these networks, at least at layer two and likely add layer three to be able to have a good security infrastructure.

ICF coaching is a standardized way of coaching anyone. Work with a coach who understands the skills and has put in the time and effort to build these skills. But also, look for someone with proven chops in what you want to be coached around. The coaches job is to know what questions to ask, to evoke awareness. If they don't know the lay of the land, likely the questions will be much less thoughtful and aware of your situation.

The Top leadership of a company is often the lid on the bottle of more profits or growth, so helping them advance can affect everyone below them. But if they are sufficiently forward thinking and advanced, then coaching staff below them can really help the next level in the company.

Mentoring is a way to transfer awareness and skills. Consulting is a way to teach a series of skills or help a company acquire them. Coaching is a way of helping a person expand their awareness of their situation, and build goals and accountability needed to engage with this new broader world view. Skills are necessary, and it is difficult to coach when the basic skills are not known, but skills are about improving externally. Coaching is about growing internally so you can handle new situations that the skills you have may not yet apply to.