Is your work your passion?  If it is, there’s a great chance that you’re excellent at and excited by what you do.  In this case, you probably don’t need to read ‘And what do you do?  - 10 steps to creating a portfolio career’.

Working with your strengths, rather than working to ‘fix’ your weaknesses, has a high yield.  And people like Mike Pegg who runs the Strengths Academy makes a business of helping people do just this – I’ve been fortunate enough to benefit from his teaching myself.

Apparently Bruce Haldane was the first career development specialist to suggest that we learn best from our successes rather than our failures and developed the concept of ‘motivated skills’ – those skills where we have talent and interest.

An important thing about our motivated skills is that many of us aren't terribly aware of them.  Perhaps you’re young and working out what they are, or after years of working in a career chosen when we were in your teens, the ‘ladder’ with it’s dangling prosperity has led you away from them.  In either case, one of the three things I think this book is excellent at is helping you understand those skills.

It’s a completely practical book, quickly mapping the theories it describes through straight forward exercises to your life.

It’s actually about ‘portfolio careers’.  The second thing this book is excellent at, is describing what a portfolio career is or can be.  In summary it’s a career where you may have multiple roles (or jobs) that take advantage of your multiplicity of motivated skills.  For example in my own case I mainly work as a a software product manager, teacher, mentor, landlord, speaker and business owner (and father, husband, …); though there are plenty of more colourful examples described in its chapters and the stories section of the portfoliocareers.net website.

The final area of excellence for this book is helping you decide both whether you would benefit from a portfolio career and if so, how you go about creating a successful one.

I really do recommend it, whether you think a portfolio career might be the right direction for you or not it’s 10 steps offer really practical and interesting insight into yourself and the modern world of work.

-Mark

Title: And What Do You Do?  - 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career
Format: Book, 234 pages
Author: Barrie Hopson and Katie Ledger

The best instruction manual I’ve ever seen came with one of the far too many gifts my daughter received this Christmas, two “Bratz Babyz Twiins” dolls.  Here is it…

But the deep insight in the instructions isn’t the best bit, take a look underneath the picture ‘Please keep this manual.  It contains important information’ (and no, there’s nothing on the back).

Awesome.

Happy new year!

-Mark

The beautiful theory is that the combination of passion, clear goals and vision is everything you need to achieve great things – or at least to achieve the things you want.

Allow me to quote Giles Long – medal winner in 3 consecutive Paralympics and 3 world championships including two world records for swimming:

“The love of swimming alone isn’t enough to get you out bed at 4.30 every morning”

The big picture is vital for direction but day-by-day, let’s face it, we could all do with a little supplementation.

My own simple method goes like this – if I have say five things that need to be done in a`day, two of which I want to do and three of which I don’t.  I’ll work on the three that I don’t and reward myself after they’re completed with the two I do.  Easy. 

But, I have to admit, not always effective – simply because sometimes there are 20 things to do and only one that I want to do.  Humph.

So, what’s the advice from greats such as Giles?

I was fortunate enough to hear Giles speak at a recent Microsoft event.  Giles did me the service of answering a much better question than the one I asked… which led to a description of how to stay motivated.

A fellow swimming athlete had a list of ‘100 reasons to keep swimming’ – which started with “I absolutely love swimming” and got progressively more tenuous down the list.  At around 50 it included “because I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want.”  This reason alone doesn’t cut it – but at 4.30 in the morning as I quoted above, love isn’t enough!

And Giles’ own method?  He loves full-fat coke.  And, unless he completed all nine training sessions in the week, he couldn’t have that precious drink on Sunday evening.

Both of these techniques are really simple… and lets face it, if they’re good enough to create daily motivation for the worlds greatest swimmers, they can probably help the rest of us!

I’m pleased to say that Giles has a book, which naturally is on order…

Title: Changing to Win - An Incredible Story of Courage and a Template for Success
Format: Book, 256 pages
Author: Giles Long

-Mark

Here I am again, sitting in front of big square light giving me a glowing face.  I do this a lot- for work, for buying books from Audible and getting them on my Zune, for managing the finances, for social networking, for … the list goes on.

So, how do I feel about buying a book, where most of the content can be found on the authors blog?    I could be sitting here, with my glowing face, piping the same wisdom into my skull!

This thought came to me as I was reading
Hugh MacLeod’s "Ignore Everybody -
And 39 Other Keys to Creativity" (and books from Seth Godin and Nicholas Bate for that matter).  Hugh’s route to fame was through his blog gapingvoid.com at which he’s persisted for years – starting sway back in 2001 when he was living in the UK (and when only the cool cats had even heard of such a thing)!  And his ‘cartoons on the back of business cards’.

The book came directly from the blog, in fact it was preceded by an online version called “How to be creative” and today you’ll find the first 12 ‘keys’ as in the book, online.

The thing about the content for me is that it comes from Hugh’s experience… he’s lived the challenges and put his thoughts out there – and the challenges are ones that I can connect with, and Hugh’s responses give me that “oh, someone else feels the same way, and that’s a good point!” feeling.

I loved it.

So, was it worth buying, when most of the wisdom is already online?  Oh yes - for this and all the authors I’ve read who publish their wisdom online.  I’m pleased for the break from the glow and revel in the space to enjoy the words away from the pace of my PC.

Title: Ignore Everybody – And 39 Other Keys to Creativity
Format: Book 158 pages
Author: Hugh MacLeod

-Mark

Today, my son Joel is six months old... just about the same amount of time since I last posted on this blog. Despite the personal importance to me of the words being espoused, sometimes things do take precedence.

In the first few weeks of Joel’s life, I found myself writing the things that I was learning (not the ‘how to change nappies’ stuff, more the ‘what does this situation bring to mind’).  Joel is our second child, so one would imagine there wasn’t too much to learn… what I didn’t realise is that I didn’t learn it first time around, things go so quickly, they’re experienced and gone.  Of the 26 things I wrote down 7 were related to sleep!

1. How much you normally control your emotions
2. Nature has a great way of installing a king of ‘beer goggles’ towards your wrinkly, vernixy residue loaded offspring
3. The logic of humans, is not the same logic we learned in mathematics/computer science
4. Human logic varies enormously, even in the same human
5. Eenore is a great name for a mouse!
6. Size is not a good indication of volume
7. Size is a good indicator of your ability to have people running around after you – and small wins
8. Focus generates a lot of housework
9. You need quiet time to focus on long term goals
10. Living in the ‘important & urgent’ quadrant of the important urgent / non-urgent, unimportant urgent / non-urgent 2x2 matrix is really hard
11. There are more great names for girls than for boys (actually, we learned this before he was born)
12. The response you get when telling others the name of your new child is vital to the balance of your day
13. It’s really important to be unequivocally positive about the gorgeousness and great name of other peoples children – particularly when the children are new and the parents have only had two hours sleep
14. The smaller the person, the higher & faster we jump
15. Size matters & small is King
16. It doesn’t take experience to be loud
17. Lung capacity bears little resemblance to volume
18. We know that change is inevitable & that there is nothing so constant as change – and these small beings only re-enforce these axioms, they are the most effective agents of change
19. Some consider themselves ‘agents of change’ – these small beings don’t bother with the agent, they go direct!

Filtering out the sleep related ones…

1. How important a good nights sleep really is, no really… only apparent after several days
2. What a gift, sleep is
3. At first - How could Maslow miss off ‘sleep’ in the hierarchy of needs?  Then, after checking, I realised that he didn’t, it simply wasn’t important enough for me to remember when I first studied it
4. That falling asleep over your breakfast, isn’t the best start to the day
5. What a beneficial impact really cold fresh air can have on your alertness!
6. The route to a negative response, even with quite ordinary stimulus, is directly proportional to the number of hours you’ve slept
7. Lack of sleep has similar effects to imbibing a large quantity of alcohol, but without any positive social boost

-Mark

“Remember, there is plenty of room at the top – but not enough to sit down”
Zig Ziglar

:-)

-Mark

I can see it now – mathematicians, accountants, engineers and doctors all sitting around at lunch time in their new careers as petrol pump attendants and hamburger flippers while the artists, designers and outrageously dressed run the corporate world.

Well, perhaps that’s not quite what Daniel Pink was getting at with this book.  In fact the first part of the title does say what he’s getting at and the second part, well that’s the section of the title that makes you buy it.

The book itself is also in two parts – the current problematic situation entitled ‘The Conceptual Age’ and the solution called ‘The Six Senses’.

The current problematic situation…

… is down to three things: abundance, Asia & automation.

Abundance: in the western world we are short of very few things.  In fact for the most part we have an opulent abundance of ‘things’ whether it’s cars, computer mice, orange juice or toilet brushes – the range and choice of options is often staggering.  There is no doubt that we can do mass production.

And in a world of abundance, where you can get a thousand different chairs that all function perfectly well holding you off the floor, a great way to compete, is through design.  Imagine a designer toilet brush!  Oh yes, absolutely – why else would you pay £22 for a 10 pence cents of plastic?

Asia: in countries like India and China, there are millions of people with access to education and skills that match that of the west.  If you pair that with a lower cost of living you can see why outsourcing and off shoring to Asia is a growing trend.  If the skills exist and they are cheaper to obtain, then why not?  OK, I’ve simplified it somewhat but that’s the essence of the Asia part of the argument.

Automation: finally, computers are not sitting on their Loral's, or their chips.  They just keep getting faster and software gets more sophisticated – if your job could be done by a computer, watch out… you may have noticed that they’re happy to work 24 hours a day for very little pay… your job could be automated.

Daniel’s summary about whether your role is safe is in the form of three questions:

1. Can someone overseas do it more cheaply?
2. Can a computer do it faster?
3. Are you offering something that satisfies the non-material desires of an abundant age?

Before tackling the solution consider this.

We’ve come from the the industrial age of factories and efficiency where the individuals were characterised by their physical strength & personal fortitude into the knowledge worker age.  Where we have achieved our current state through our proficiency in L-directed thinking – that is left brain directed thinking.  And now, we’re entering the conceptual age where the individual starts are creators and empathizers with a mastery of R-directed (right brain) thinking able recognise patterns and  create meaning for our fellow humans.

So, what are the aptitudes of this conceptual age?

The Solution…

… is down to six high concept (rather than low level detail), high touch (close to human) senses, where we all need proficiency:

1. Design – not just function
2. Story – not just logical argument
3. Symphony – not just focus.  The ability to see the bigger picture and put disparate things together to form new solutions and products.
4. Empathy – not just logic
5. Play – not just seriousness
6. Meaning – not just material accumulation

Each of these areas has it’s own chapter which includes a handy and extensive ‘how do I improve my ability’ section.  For example, for symphony one of Daniel’s suggestions is to learn to draw - and he recommends a book and course by Betty Edwards called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” (I’ve already ordered my copy).  And under meaning one of the suggestions is to read Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” (which is an absolute must-read; I delayed reading it for a few years thinking it would be too morbid – the context is Frankl’s experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp – I wish I hadn’t delayed).

On one or two occasions I thought that Daniel had included too many examples (if I’d been reading the book, rather than listening to the audio I would probably have skipped a few pages) – but even if you don’t read all of the detail in every section, I have no hesitation in highly recommending it – particularly, if like me, you’ve trained yourself well in l-directed thinking!

Format: Book 248 pages, Audio 6hrs 15mins and DVD 55 mins
Author: Daniel H. Pink

Enjoy!
-Mark

OK, that's a better headline.  One that at least hints at the significance of my interview with Steve.  I've no idea what I was thinking with 'Steve Clayton and online success'.

Actually, I do know.  I was kind-of excited to be publishing the interview.

I could have used:

• Start a tribe the Clayton way...
• Leading blogger spills the beans
• Become a great blogger and lead a tribe
• 2 blogs a day and you'll be away

Almost anything would have been better.  I'll try not to commit headline annihilation again :-)

-Mark

Steve works at Microsoft.  A company where a lot of people blog.  If you want to find out what’s happening there, a great way is to find bloggers from the team that’s working on the product or area of interest… that’s even true if you work there, like I do, too.

Not all blogs are equal.  Some are read by many thousands of people.  A few are used as regular sources of the latest information.  A few stand-out.  And one in particular was voted Computer Weekly’s ‘The best of the best’ of UK company blogs.  It’s Steve Clayton’s Geek in Disguise.

Steve started blogging in 2005 and having reviewed the number of posts, starting May 2006 he’s written an average of 76 pieces every month (or 2.5 per-day, 7 days a week)!

So, how does he do it, why does he do it and just why is he in disguise?  I thought I’d ask, and this is what I found out…

What made you start blogging?

4 things I think

1. Frustrated journalist – I always wanted to be a journalist and now a finally have an outlet :-)
2. Extend reach – when I was in our partner organisation, we have 7 people trying to reach 35k. This seemed the best way
3. Change perceptions – I get frustrated at the misperceptions around Microsoft and foolishly thought I could change some via my blog
4. Personal bookshelf – my blog is my outboard brain

What did you do that took you from zero to the best of the best awards?

Persistence, patience and sticking with my theme – which is not really to have a theme. For a while I thought I ought to remove some of the off the wall, random stuff I put on my blog but the feedback I got was that’s what people like – the mix of topics and the quirkiness. I also got lucky with making some great connections to people like Hugh MacLeod, David Brain, Scoble and others who bring credibility and traffic to your blog. I also made my blog part of my brand – it went on my business card, in every presentation I gave and became what i talked about a lot.

In May 2006 you seemed to change strategy – from an average of 12 posts per month to an average of 76 posts per month (with 120 in January 2007).  That’s 2.5 posts a day.  What made you change strategy?

I think it was probably around May 2006 that I read Naked Conversations and realised #3 up there – what i really wanted to do with my blog was change perceptions. Scoble proved it could be done and I wanted some of that action. I decided my blog would be my vehicle to share my passion for Microsoft. Things really took off with the Blue Monster in October 2006.

How much time do you spend writing each day/week?

That’s probably the question i get asked most about my blog and the answer is a really don’t know...sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. It depends on the topic, the amount of research for each post and whether I have time in between my day job. I spend more time reading blogs (and twitter) than writing them. Which may be equally worrying :-)

What is your process/approach to writing?

I create lots of drafts. If I see things on a blog that I want to write about, I hit the “blog this button” in Internet Explorer which you get when you install Windows Live Writer. That created me a draft post with a link to the original story I want to reference. Often I just save that off and will come back to it a few hours or even days later if the topic isn’t time sensitive. That means i often have a good backlog of stories I can post when news is lean or I don’t really have anything I want to write about. I take quite a bit of pride in writing a post as I always want to ensure I link correctly, that I have an eye catching image and if I can dream one up a catchy title. I think graphics are really important on a blog as many people read blogs in a feed reader so you only really have the title and image to catch their eye with in a sea of news. I also make a real point of referencing where I found the story if I’m referring to someone else as link love is part of what makes the blogosphere and the web go around. A real bug bear of mine is people who don’t reference others...it’s lazy and discourteous. I was caught out once doing this and will never do it again.

Do you consciously seek out areas of interest for your blog?

Not really...I just go with the flow of stuff I find, both online and in life. If it’s interesting to me I post about it. It may be of interest to others (I hope) but often it just gets it out of my brain and somewhere I can easily find later. I do have some consistent themes of course around Microsoft, technology, cloud computing, design, great quotes, clever adverts and so on. That keeps me busy enough.

What is the next big thing in social networking online?

Twitter. It’s already here and though I originally said it was nonsense I now genuinely think it’s going to be huge. Today’s use is just the tip of the iceberg as in a world where we value speed and trust our friends more often than any company, website or organisation, Twitter has it nailed.

[Mark: you’ll find Steve on Twitter at @stevecla]

What are your top 3 tips for bloggers?  (you’ve written ‘I write my own blog’ which includes your top 10, what are the top 3)

Ahhh, top 10 are above. Choose 3 you like  :-)....one additional tip. If you can, use Windows Live Writer. It’s a beautiful, elegant blog editor that makes writing blogs a pleasure. Definitely one of the best pieces of software Microsoft has written for a long time.

[Mark: yep, that’s what I’m using right now…]

How did you come up with the name :-)?

A friend coined it a few years back. I was telling her I was a bit of a geek but tried not to show it too much and she said “ahh, you’re a Geek in Digsuise”. I needed a name at the time and it was a good one I thought.

Thanks Steve!

-Mark

“It’s not about service - it’s about the experience”
Nicholas Bate

This quote is from Nicholas’ book ‘Instant MBA: Think, Perform and Earn Like a Top Business School Graduate’ which I’m about a 3rd the way through.  Nicholas is a master of distilling the essence of an idea down to something you can use, usually quickly.  At first pass when I read this I thought it was an obvious point, but I don’t think it is – customer service is just one element of the experience.

Nicholas has a series of related blog posts on the differentiators for the new world of work that’s worth a read.

-Mark