Mark Craemer, Principal
Mark Craemer brings clients more than 30 years of experience managing projects and groups in small businesses, corporations, and non-profit organizations. His expertise includes:
- workplace communication
- organization development
- change management
- leadership coaching
He is the author of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace, a useful guide for developing emotional intelligence with actionable advice and exercises to help you make empathetic decisions, manage stress, resolve conflict, and maintain productive working relationships. Mark also published a book of literary short fiction titled I Remember Clifford and Other Stories. Both books are available at Amazon and wherever you buy books.
Mark Craemer works with high tech, biotech, healthcare, retail, management consulting, education, government and non-profit sectors.
This includes helping to optimize workgroups and teams; coaching C-suite executives, directors and senior managers (including those seeking to make the transition from management into leadership); and helping to develop and rollout successful change initiatives throughout the organization.
Before becoming a consultant, Mark was instrumental in launching and promoting software products and services at several Seattle-area software and internet companies, including Aldus Corporation, Concur Technologies and Click2Learn. He holds a master’s degree in applied behavioral science from the Leadership Institute of Seattle, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oregon. Mark also has certifications in the Hogan Assessment and Learning in Action’s emotional intelligence assessment tool.
Mark has been an active volunteer in many non-profit organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Goodwill Literacy, Powerful Schools, Social Venture Partners, Washington Courage & Renewal, The Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer, and PTSA president at his children’s elementary school.
Testimonials
“Mark’s dedication, professionalism, knowledge, and encouragement were a constant source of positive reinforcement which always managed to keep us focused on the objective. His logical approach to Information Technology Services challenges and his friendly, professional coaching enabled us to establish a solid foundation of incremental successes on which to build. Mark’s methods were effective and served as the motivating force for our department. I highly recommend Mark for coaching and leadership training to Information Technology departments. Mark is definitely very knowledgeable in this ever changing field.”
– Behzad Shirinzadeh, Network/Systems and Telecommunications Manager, King County Library System
“Mark spent time with our staff, helping us better understand our individual and collective strengths and weaknesses. We also translated that into a very productive exercise to better clarify roles and responsibilities for our whole team. He was great to work with.”
– Paul Shoemaker, Executive Director, Social Venture Partners
“Best investment I ever made! Last year I hired Mark as a leadership coach and he helped me navigate a number of challenges in my career. He has a keen grasp of the relational issues unique to the workplace. I highly recommend Mark for leadership coaching.”
– M J Eich, Sales Executive, Netline Corporation
“Mark helped our organization gain a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses in order to bring about a major change initiative. Mark is a quick study and especially adept at leading change, individual coaching and staying focused when things get messy. I highly recommend Mark for leading change initiatives.”
– Gena Palm, Executive Director, Seattle Children’s Home
“Mark’s guidance as an executive coach was invaluable. The consulting sessions with Mark were focused and goal-oriented, but also allowed time for me to share my personal leadership challenges. Mark is extremely trustworthy and provided critical feedback when appropriate. He brought a wealth of knowledge and resources to our individual sessions – personal connections/introductions with other leaders in the community who faced similar challenges, literature, and recommendations for professional growth courses. I hold Mark in the highest regard and encourage others to work with him. I cannot thank him enough for his support and guidance.”
– Michael Stewart, Executive Director, Boyer Children’s Clinic
“Mark has provided terrific assistance helping me grow my team and my management skills. He’s a quick study, and was able to grasp all of the various moving elements of our work (nonprofit, technology, websites and databases in particular) and help me plan to grow my team and meet our targets.”
– Patrick Shaw, Manager Web and Database Services, NPower Seattle
“Mark did an outstanding job coaching me through the development of my team management and leadership abilities. In addition to his gravitas and great facility as a coach, he deeply understands the dynamics faced by managers in the tech sector. From day one of our coaching engagement, two things really stood out about Mark – one, his grounded, no-nonsense approach to discussing issues, and two, his remarkable ability to quickly assimilate information and identify important relationships. Bottom line, Mark is a trusted advisor who I would call on again, whether to sanity check an important judgement call, or to offer perspective on a complete leadership challenge”
– Adam Grupp, Group Manager, Microsoft Corporation
“Mark is easy to talk with on employee issues and helps you sort out the trivial from the critical and the fixable from the “stop beating your head against the wall.” He has a calm style, as well as concrete and helpful suggestions for the next steps that need to be taken. I really appreciate the work he has done with our organization.”
– Caroline Davis, Executive Director, Family Law CASA of King County
“As an IT professional I have been focused on successfully solving technical issues and building upon each of those experiences to take on larger challenges. However, nothing had prepared me for solving my own individual challenges that could allow me to be seen as an all-around leader that others could follow. Enter Mark Craemer. For the past 6 months, Mark has taken a 360 degree approach and challenged me to see not just my strengths but my growth areas as well. He works with you to produce a plan to not just address those growth areas, but more importantly measure their transition into strengths. Thank you Mark!”