Interview with Mike Hogan

Well I retired as a school principle at a big and busy school 4 years ago but leading into that retirement I started to do a few other things like getting involved with assisting School Principles who are struggling, or younger principles. So I became quite interested in mentoring and coaching. In the few years before I retired I started a masters degree in mentoring of young professionals and I also became fully qualified as an executive coach. When I actually left my job as a school principal a lot of people approached me to do team building in their schools or businesses and by word of mouth it’s just developed and now I’ve got a reasonably busy and successful executive coaching and mentoring practice.

I never contemplated becoming a professional golfer because my friends are very much aware of my ability or lack of it, in that area. But I certainly enjoy golf. But I made sure I wasn’t going from one busy and full time job to another one. I saw this as an opportunity to ease into doing something I really enjoy which pays fairly well. One of the things I do is spend a lot of time at is trying to get people in their last 5 to 10 years of work to get a good work-life balance, so I’m very careful to do the same. I enjoy spending time with my grand children, my wife and I do a lot of travelling and I can actually do the sort of work I do while travelling, I recently spent some time away playing golf with a group of friends and at the time I was away I was actually talking to some of my clients on the internet or the telephone. It wasn’t difficult to combine the two.

I don’t know, I really don’t, I’m starting to be more selective. I’m starting to do the things I really enjoy doing which is mainly one to one coaching of reasonably successful people, who want to get better. I’m also doing what we call middle management team building and I’m enjoying doing that very much. If that dries up, I might try doing something else but I really don’t know. I’m not out there chasing the work as my superannuation is enough for me to live life reasonably comfortable, but of course the extra money is good .Most importantly I need to be mentally stimulated and I’m enjoying helping other people and I’m meeting lots of interesting people while doing it.

Yes, a lot of people move into things like Rotary, church and golf clubs and take on executive positions on committees and things like that. I’ve done all that. Being a school principal in a country town, there was an expectation to be involved and I enjoyed doing it. So I don’t see myself going onto any committees or anything like that. A lot of people do and that’s good. I’ll still stay in Rotary and maintain my wide circle of friends and do a bit for the community, but I don’t intend to become president of Rotary. I intend to do a bit of baby sitting, keep this business going, do some travelling and continue playing golf.