Attempting to discover why folks have the attitudes they do about work is beyond this bloggers understanding, but, I have made a few observations which prompt me to  encourage would be employers to get a glimpse of a potential employees attitude about work, before the hire.

As an example, this last week I observed  the attitudes of two young men, roughly the same age, mid-twenties, similar ethnic, family and educational background, and both with a name that begin with the letter “A”, so I’ll refer to them as Adam and Arthur.

Adam is an assistant harbor master in Portland, Oregon. In case you are unfamiliar with Portland, let me tell you that the weather this time of year is lousy; windy, cold, rainy, sometimes snowy.  In the midst of it, we find Adam, always working outside on some project that needs attending too and always cordial.  This time of year his work includes a daily ritual of cleaning the docks because the local Canadian geese and duck population use such docks as their sleeping porch and their own version of a public restroom; messy to say the least.  Adam’s comment regarding this less than attractive job duty (with a smile on his face) “hey it’s not the best part of the job, but I have a job”!    I’ve never noticed Adam at a loss for something to do, he is proactive and self-motivated.

Contrast this with the attitude of Arthur, also a Portlander.  A data entry specialist able to work from his own home office, work a set 40 hours per week, but work those 40 hours at whatever time during the week he chooses.    Arthur expresses annoyance at having to attend a monthly online staff meeting at a pre-set time each month, is “bored” with his work and wants the  employer to elevate the job description to include more responsibility (even though he has not yet mastered the fundamentals of the current position).  Proactivity doesn’t seem to be wired into his temperament; someone needs to spoon feed each next step.  He has verbally expressed disbelief that  others his age would even consider working more than 40 hours  a week………..

Oh, if an employer could wave a magic wand and pre-determine a potential employees attitude!  Of course that’s not an option but, there are things would be employers can do.  Why not profile a potential employee’s communication and personality temperament prior to hire? During the interview process, role-play a few scenarios to see how a potential employee would handle certain situations that may occur at your place of business.  Get your potential employees talking about themselves in the context of what goals they have for this year or the next; if they struggle with that question, it may cause you to question their approach to life and work in general. You might ask them to share a story with you about someone they admire, and why - this type of dialog can be very telling. Finally; provide them the opportunity to execute on a portion of the work that they would do if they were employed by your company - see how well they execute!

Will any of this provide empirical proof that you are about to make a great hire?  No, but, it can give you a bit more breadth of knowledge in regards to a potential employees overall attitude about life and work.

Passwords protect access to a myriad of  personal accounts, banking information, files, credit cards, the ATM,  your cell phone; yet the frustration of tracking separate passwords proves exhausting and time consuming. I freely admit my propensity towards defaulting to the same password for every account and access I need, and, yes historically created  something I knew well like the year of my birth and my initials, or, my grandfather’s name followed by the year I graduated from high school.  If you find yourself defaulting to the take the same approach; please don't.

1. Create strong passwords.

2.  Consider using a password manager. There are a wide variety of online password manager applications which allow you to view your passwords from anywhere you have access to the Internet  Online password managers allow you to have a multitude of passwords, protected in an encrypted environment accessible by a “master password.” Here are a few to applications to check out: :

3. Investigate a flash drive solution, i.e., an encrypted application on a flash drive.  Keep in mind, the flash drive must be carried with you :

Look for additional information regarding password creation  by searching “what makes a strong password” in your favorite search engine, or the following links may prove helpful as well:

Cloud Beauty

As technology advances  and as the  demand for collaborative, internet based platforms continues to increase, opportunities to explore the option of cloud computing follow suit.   This blog post is a quick look at a few advantages to using the cloud.  Next month we will take a peek at ways to evaluate if a cloud computing integration is right for you.

In brief, advantages include accessibility to your information and knowledge which essentially becomes "on demand".    All you need is an internet connection.  This facilitates connectivity on the road or after hours 24/7, globally.

Cost: Servers (as well as software) will always require maintenance, add-on's and upgrades. With the cloud, hardware costs are reduced as a large majority of the infrastructure is created and maintained by a third party provider.  Organizations can then  position IT staff to focus on developing other business forward projects.

Improved decision making and business execution as individuals, teams and companies are better able to  access real-time information.

Disaster preparedness and succession planning, whether a power outage, a catastrophic loss (fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane), organizational job shifts or the retirement of an administrative assistant.  With redundant, accessible well managed information systems everyone -  from individuals to enterprise wide users can be  up and running following a significant business interruption.  The on boarding of new staff to new positions flows smoothly and the knowledge created by a staff member who leaves the business enterprise is not needlessly neglected/ lost on a personally accessed PC.  

Finally, security, yes you read that correctly, security.  For the most part, SaaS options offer the highest levels of internet security available today with providers investing vast dollar and manpower resources toward that assurance. These measures are far more sophisticated than a majority of staff and subject matter experts can provide in-house.

The Lean Start-Up

As a proponent and consultant in Lean Office methodology, I (as you can imagine) thrill when a book effectively captures the essence of Lean and the power of its implementation.

The Lean Startup authored by Eric Ries does just that.

Now before you disengage, keep an open mind about the definition of "start-up".

This as a good read for most every business professional.  The principles and approach will benefit those we commonly refer to as the entrepreneur as well as what Mr. Ries defines as the  " intrapreneur".  If that term is unfamiliar,  think of it as the folks who  operate inside an established organization; those who are innovating, creating a new product, service or solution on behalf of their respective teams, organizations or companies.

Mr. Ries defines a start-up as " an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty"  Whoa; is that applicable for business large and small, new and old in today's economic landscape?  Absolutely.

The thrust of the book is the power and process of using continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. In that the author outlines a way to test, adapt and adjust the vision for a new product, service or value. He speaks candidly and clearly of lessons learned by personal experience with 3 start-ups and provides tools and approaches that are fresh and on-point.

Why We Sabotage Success

"The skills it takes to establish success cannot sustain it"; a direct quote from the book The Enemies of Excellence by Greg Salciccioli.  This observation caught my eye as I had not thought of it from that perspective before.

When we set out to accomplish something in life, we adopt or acquire a certain skill set to attain it and (as Greg Salciccioli observed) a separate skill set to maintain it. A common example; certain choices and skill sets allow one to lose weight, additional choices and skill sets allow one to maintain a healthy weight.

In the often frenetic, fast paced, ever changing landscape of life in the 21st century, it's not an easy task to balance life, health, family, finances and work.  Additionally, for whatever reason, success at work seems to have a stronger magnetic pull on our lives than other areas.  

Most of us are aware of the fact that a truly rewarding life mandates a skill set to find better life balance; a state (which in all transparency) I do not yet find myself.  In that journey and based on the insight garnered in this book, it may very well be I have not understood the importance developing two skills sets, initially one for attainment and then an additional skill set to maintain the balance I have managed to implement.

Great food for thought and an equally great road map towards that end can be found in The Enemies of Excellence.

What does 95 choices of potato chips have to do with task management?

As a child, choices available to me in regards to potato chips were pretty darn simple; regular, BBQ and "Ruffles".  Today, I'm faced with more than 95 options. Other food choices include in excess of 100  varieties of crackers, 285 varieties of cookies, and 223 juices (if you count the teas and vitamin water), not to mention, at the time of this blog post, it's August; 61 varieties of suntan oil/sun block vie for my dollar.

It's interesting  that all of these options have actually limited my ability to make quick choices, and I expend greater effort making what I perceive as the "right choice".  I'm guessing most of you can relate.

Extrapolate this same phenomenon over our individual obligations, email, phone calls, voice mail, blog posts, tweets, projects, tasks and to do's. Do you ever struggle with how to choose, how to prioritize, what methodology or technology to use?  Ever worry you will "drop the ball"? Task management can still be crazy after all these years.

I am in the midst of a re-read of one of the better business books I've read in the past five  years, Work The System, by Sam Carpenter. Being an advocate of Lean Office and lean thinking, I admire how Sam, in a very simple, straightforward manner laid out a step by step approach to creating systems in your business or personal life that offset the mindset which bogs us down in a myriad of choices.

If you're looking for a fresh approach to task and priority management, it's well worth the read, as is The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less, by Barry Schwartz.  Lastly, if you're interested in a short (free) task management assessment,  click through to this link.