Top tips for your Interim Career - Mark Lockton

Are you an interim professional looking to not just survive, but thrive? Join us as we sit down with a very experienced interim sharing his journey from PwC partner into Interim, giving advice about building a successful interim career, prioritizing well-being, and embracing the evolving landscape of fractional.  This episode is about the secrets to sustained success!

Mark Lockton is the founder and CEO of a niche technology consultancy company providing real-world advice to large international clients, basing this on his long career of Interim CIO and CTO roles, as well as senior roles in the big 4 consultancy firms.   

• Much of our conversation was about how we develop our careers, our craft, and how we manage ourselves.  Mark emphasized that becoming a successful executive is a learned skill, acquired through experience.  Interim roles offer a unique opportunity to gain experience across a wide variety of companies and industries, building a broad "tool bag" of skills and insights.  And so Mark has honed his craft - we are always learning.
• Mark highlights the demanding nature of interim roles and shares a powerful lesson from a "partner survival course" at PwC: the importance of establishing "non-negotiables" and boundaries. For him, this means working hard through the week but strictly no work on weekends or during holidays.
• Mark foresees a growing reliance on fractional and interim resources, especially for companies that need senior expertise in areas but cannot afford a full-time hire.
• Mark has great insight into both Interims and the Big Four Consultancies, having been a partner with them).   He noted that many Big Four consultants lack as much real-world, client-side experience as Interims who have "been there, done that," offer practical, experience-proven solutions.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The Interim.  Our purpose is to give you food for thought, feed your curiosity, and energise you for professional success.  Go well.