IT Professionals...

To reach your potential you must work on yourself harder than your technical skills.

You have to build your soft skills.

Over the next 30 days, I'll be writing a daily atomic essay on improving your soft skills.

Follow along and level up.

/Thread 💻👇
Day 1 - Soft Skills for IT Professionals

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Day 2 - What Are Soft Skills and Why Should I Care About Them?

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Day 3 - Soft Skills...or Power Skills?

Soft skills are anything but "soft." They are powerful and impactful.

So let's call them by a more appropriate name:

Power Skills.

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Day 4 – How Much Time Should I Invest in Soft Skills vs. Hard Skills?

Look at your skills like an investment portfolio.

You want to diversify your portfolio with a blend of soft skills and hard skills.

Which should you be investing in more?

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Day 5 - The IT Leadership Blueprint

A blueprint for how to implement the Power Skills that will help you reach your full potential in your IT career.

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Day 6 - Leadership for IT Professionals

Whether you are in a formal management position or not, you can choose to be a leader.

You will be rewarded in your IT career to the level that you accept and demonstrate leadership capabilities.

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Day 7 - IT Leadership Blueprint - The Foundation

Every good structure needs a solid foundation. The same goes with your career.

These are the skills that will help you build a solid foundation to a successful career in IT.

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Day 8 - Technical Skills for IT Professionals

Having a strong set of technical skills is table stakes for any IT Professional.

When we sign up for a career, we sign up for life-long technical learning.

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Day 9 - The Importance of Physical Exercise for IT Professionals

-A healthier body leads to a healthier brain.
-A healthier brain is a better thinking brain.
-As an IT Professional you need a better thinking brain.

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Day 10 - Time Management for IT Professionals

The IT Professional who manages their time well focuses on the most important things. Therefore, they will get the most opportunity.

How can IT Professionals get better at Time Management?

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Day 11-Writing Skills for IT Professionals

Poor writing skills will limit your potential.

Effective writing skills will increase your opportunities.

As IT Professionals, it is critical for us to be effective writers.

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Day 12-Speaking Skills for IT Professionals

Poor speaking skills will limit your potential.

Effective speaking skills will get you noticed and set you apart.

As IT Professionals, it is critical for us to be effective speakers.

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Day 13-The Power of Positive Attitude for IT Professionals

Your attitude is your choice. Choose a positive one.

Nothing will derail your career more than a negative attitude.

Nothing makes your career more rewarding than a positive attitude.

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14-The Importance of Being a Team Player for IT Professionals

Think of your job like a sports team. Sometimes you will be the star. Sometimes you will play a supporting role. Sometimes you will cheer from the bench.

Play all those roles well.

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Day 15 - IT Leadership Blueprint - The Frame

You have learned how to lay the foundation of your leadership structure.

Now it's time to build The Frame. The next set of Power Skills help your leadership structure to take shape.

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Day 16 - Business Acumen for IT Professionals

The interested are invested in.

Understand business, understand your industry, and understand the company you work for.

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Day 17 - The Importance of Networking for IT Professionals

The Quality of your Network = The Quality of your Career.

It is critical to make the effort to meet people and build your network.

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Day 18-The Importance of Flexibility for IT Professionals

The worst thing an IT Professional can do is to get stuck in their ways.

Be open to new ideas, technologies, thoughts, and solutions.

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Day 19 - The Importance of Dependability for IT Professionals

Those who can be counted on to deliver will be given opportunities to deliver.

Be one of those people and watch opportunity magically appear.

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Day 20 - Emotional Intelligence for IT Professionals

The farther you go in your IT career, the more important your “people skills” become.

Emotional Intelligence will help you become a better "people person."

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Day 21 - The Importance of Creativity for IT Professionals

Being creative will help you produce better work and solve problems where others are hitting a wall.

It will also give you a more satisfying IT career. Image
Day 22 - IT Leadership Blueprint - The Fixtures

You now have a solid foundation and frame, let's turn our focus to adding The Fixtures.

This set of Power Skills take the leadership structure you are building and turn it from functional to beautiful.

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Day 23 - The Importance of a Growth Mindset for IT Professionals

Don't think in terms of limitations, think in terms of potential.

With a Growth Mindset, you can reach your full potential in your IT career.

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Day 24 - The Stoic IT Professional

IT is stressful. You have to be strong to be an effective IT Professional.

Practicing Stoicism is an excellent way to help you meet the stresses of a career in IT.

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Day 25 - The Importance of Servant Leadership for IT Professionals

Helping others is far more rewarding than focusing on yourself.

Develop a mindset of Servant Leadership and your IT career will become a rewarding mission.

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Day 26 - Mindfulness for IT Professionals

The ability to stay calm, present, and focused is critical for IT Professionals.

Mindfulness Meditation is the best way to improve those qualities.

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Day 27 - The Importance of Discipline for IT Professionals

The weak stop when they don't "feel" like it.

The strong keep going.

Discipline is "the straw that stirs the drink" and helps you accomplish great things in your career.

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Day 28 - The Importance of Mentorship for IT Professionals

Don't go it alone in your IT career.

A good mentor can help you accelerate your career growth.

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Day 29 - The Importance of Leverage for IT Professionals

The IT Leadership Blueprint is all about gaining Leverage.

Leverage allows you to have more influence, make more money, and choose the job you want instead of settling.

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Day 30 - How to Implement the IT Leadership Blueprint

Over the last 30 days, I have Tweeted about the IT Leadership Blueprint.

A set of Power Skills that will help you level up in your IT career.

If you need any help implementing them, drop me a DM.

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More from @mcgillmd921

4 Oct 20
Read the excellent Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson @EricJorgenson.

This booked is packed with @naval wisdom and insight.

Read it on Kindle.

"Yellow" highlights are the good stuff. "Red" highlights are the great stuff.

Here are my Red highlights.

/Thread 👇👇👇 Image
"Figure out what you’re good at ,and start helping other people with it. Give it away. Pay it forward." - @naval

Love the spirit of generosity in this statement.
"Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re just a monkey with a plan." - @naval

Naval does not pull punches and always puts things into perspective.
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21 Sep 20
The Art of Negotiating — For IT Professionals

We are all negotiators.

All day, every day, we are in the midst of negotiations — whether we know it or not.

As IT Professionals, we are no different.

Some tips on improving your negotiating skills.

/Thread 👇👇👇
In IT, we have our own unique set of negotiation partners: vendors, co-workers, employees, and employers.

With so much time spent in negotiation, it is well worth our time to learn the principles behind negotiation, and how to become better negotiators.

Here are a few tips.
Separate People from the Problem

At the beginning of each negotiation, remind yourself that these are real people you are negotiating with.

They are not much different from you. They deserve your respect and empathy, the same as you deserve theirs.
Read 9 tweets
17 Sep 20
A great life is nothing more than a collection of great days.

Want a great life?

Make each day great.

How can you make each day great?

Treat it like a mini-life.

How?

/Thread 👇👇👇 Image
Treat each "phase" of your day as a "phase" of your life.

From waking in the morning, to going to sleep at night, our days have fairly consistent phases that are comparable to phases of life.

Make each of these phases special, and you have created a great "mini-life."
Waking = Birth

You are born again!

You have a fresh start.

Start this mini-life with gratitude.

-The moment you wake, immediately smile.
-Summon feelings of gratitude for this new mini-life. Image
Read 8 tweets
11 Sep 20
Listened to the @SamanthaRyNZ Save Planet, Get Rich podcast with Naval Ravikant @naval.

Naval was on fire. It took me two hours to get through an hour long podcast. I had to keep pausing to take notes.

Here are my main take-aways from this excellent podcast episode.

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"If it is not making you happier, or healthier, or calmer, or having better relationships, or wealthier, then what good is it? It's useless. You can safely discard it." @naval

Great perspective on what to pay attention to and what to safely ignore.
"It is very easy for self-improvement to degenerate into self-conflict, and self-conflict to self-misery." @naval

It is great to improve and develop yourself. Just make sure you are coming from a place of self love and respect.
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8 Sep 20
My favorite Marcus Aurelius passage contains three Core Principles of #Stoicism

-Objectivity
-Unselfishness
-Acceptance

A few brief thoughts and Tweets I have sent on each of these Principles.

/Thread 👇👇👇 Image
Objectivity

Don't be lead around by your emotions.

Look at life objectively and choose the best response.

Our ability to choose lies in the space between stimulus and response.

Create that space.

Unselfishness

Do a kind deed, that only benefits another, without any thought of yourself.

Don't be too wrapped up in yourself and your problems.

Take a look around you.

Who needs help?

Go help them.

Read 4 tweets
4 Sep 20
Derek Sivers @sivers Mix Tape

A collection of my favorite Derek Sivers "hits" from interviews, podcasts, and books.

Everything in quotes is one of Derek's "hits."

Everything else is my "filler."

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"Ideas are useless unless they are executed."

Anybody can sit and think up ideas. But it takes someone special to execute and turn them into something that can be shared with the world.

sive.rs/multiply
"When someone’s doing something for love, being generous instead of stingy, trusting instead of fearful, it triggers this law: We want to give to those who give." @sivers

The best way to get what you want is to give.
Read 11 tweets

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