I'm not big on multitasking. In fact, I'm dead set against it. Multitasking wastes time. It makes people create defects. But what happens when your manager asks you to multitask? What do you say?

You say No. But you don't just say, "No, you stupid idiot." Even I know that's the wrong way to say No. Instead, consider these alternatives:

1. "When do you need this?" The first question you should ask is the When question. Maybe your boss is asking you for something for later. Maybe not. But it's worthwhile to ask.
   
2. "What should I stop doing?" Maybe your boss doesn't realize everything you're doing. Explain what you are doing and ask what you can stop.
   
3. "Here's when I can start this work." Explain your plan for what you are doing, when you think you'll finish, and when you can start the new work. See what your boss thinks.
4. You might ask, "What is the strategic reason behind this work?" Ask this question nicely.
5. You also might ask, "Which one of these projects moves the organization ahead fastest or first?" The answer might surprise you--or your boss.
   

Maybe when you start that conversation, your boss can't believe that you are pushing back, or what you say or what you ask. Your boss might not remember everything you're doing. I had a manager like that. So I drew him a picture of everything I was doing for the next few weeks. I had the weeks across the top, and a list of projects down the side, and showed him how I was going to allocate the time. And, I had a big black line partway down the page, labelled "Unstaffed work."

"Johanna, you can't have 'unstaffed work', you're only one person."

"Yes, I can. I'm only one person. If I can't do it, no one can."

Now, you are not me. You might not want to have the conversation the way I do. In fact, you might want to be much less in-your-face than I am. That's perfectly fine. But you have to say no to multitasking. You have to manage your own personal project portfolio.

No matter what you do, start the conversation. Because multitasking is the illusion of progress, not real progress. And, if you have tried to have this conversation and are having trouble, join me in Peer Project Portfolio Coaching.

These days, especially for technology professionals, maintaining an online presence is crucial. But one of the biggest challenges facing anyone trying to bolster their presence online is choosing an appropriate service. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all very well, but Facebook is mostly used for personal information, while LinkedIn is a professional site, but doesn't give you much latitude when creating a personal feel to your online profile. Twitter is even less conducive when it comes to personalised style - especially given that most people will be reading your Tweets in a dedicated reader rather than going to the Twitter site anyway.

Image via Wikipedia

Where do you work? I've been a freelance writer since 1994, and I have almost always worked from home. It offers its benefits - the coffee is free, there's a well-stocked fridge, and there is always an office cat or dog available to lower your blood pressure. You get to arrive at work whenever you please, and you get to work in your jim-jams, all day, should you wish. 

But there are downsides, too. Isolation. A lack of people to bounce ideas around with. A distinct dearth of office camaradarie. Let's face it: for a freelance worker, working at home can be dull, and lonely. And that temptation to work in your pyjamas all day can be a curse in disguise.

Coffee shops and libraries are alternatives, but they're largely transient. You may get to enjoy the ambient background buzz, but you are unlikely to really connect with someone who has the same mindset as you. What's the answer? 

Co-working spaces aren't a new thing, but they create new possibilities. Known in the past as as 'telecottages', they have been gaining traction. For a freelance worker, or for someone starting out building their own small company, a co-working space can be a godsend.

Co-working spaces are best when they play host to a co-working community. The community is really the meat in the sandwich. Without a community, a co-working space is little more than a collection of desks and a whiteboard. But bringing a collection of like-minded people together can produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

What does a co-working community look like? It shares an element of commonality. It may simply be that all of the members work in the same field. Maybe a cadre of coders can come together to lend each other support and advice, for example. Or the sense of community could be little more than an ideology, such as subscribing to the notion of quality in work. For some, simply sharing a fabulous working space can be enough.  

There are various approaches to co-working. Some of them emphasise the community, and the space is secondary. One example is Jelly, an occasional get-together where people in an area arrange to work together in a temporary space, such as a coffee shop or a person's home. For writers in particular, National Novel Writing Month hosts a series of 'write-ins' where people gather together to work on their novels. These are valuable initiatives. Working together encourages and inspires people.

I like the idea of co-working communities because they help you to manifest your own ideas. As a freelance writer I have had lots of business ideas over the years, but I have never got any of them off the ground, because I didn't have a community of people around me that could help me to make it happen. It is very difficult for one person to make a large project work without the help, support, and skills of others. 

Other co-working initiatives focus on the space and the community together, as a single entity. I recently set up The Office, a co-working space and community based in Vancouver, it brings together a selection of people with different skills. I have graphic designers, coders, copywriters and videographers. There's an ounce or two of social media in our skill set, and one or two startups too. I created a set of principles for The Office, that everyone is asked to abide by when they come to work in the space. The principles are pretty basic. Integrity, honesty and transparency figure highly, as do the willingness to commit to something larger than yourself, and be fulfilled in your work.

The idea behind The Office is to make individuals more powerful when they come into the space. We host speaking events and workshops on a regular basis, and also encourage people to share what they're working on via 'show and tells' with a networked projector.

The ultimate goal behind this not-for-profit co-working space is to create a fund using any surplus revenue. Rather than the founders taking a profit, we pump the money back into the fund. Any member with a socially progressive business idea that needs help to get started can apply for funding, and can also use the skills of the community to make their businesses happen.

The Office is based in Vancouver, and most of our readers are in the UK. Otherwise, I'd invite you to stop in for coffee. But for freelancers in our fair city, it is turning into a sanctuary for people to come and work at, and feel at home.

What's your ideal working environment?

How can you make money developing IOS games? An informal survey conducted by one developer suggests 'be in the top 10%' 

Owen Goss, an independent video games developer based in Guelph Canada, surveyed 252 developers who created games for Apple's mobile operating system, to find out how much they earned. The survey took place online over seven days. It turned up some interesting results, one of which was that the Pareto principle seems to apply to IOS app revenues; a small number of developers earn a large part of the cash.

One of the great things about being an app developer for Apple's mobile operating system is that the App Store can be used to market your app for you. Millions of App Store users can see it. However, that is also part of the problem: there are many apps to choose from, and it is easy to get lost in the crowd.

On average, games developers make about $165,000 from a title, but here is where statistics can be misleading. That is the mean average. The median splits the developers in half. 50% of developers have made less than $3000 lifetime revenue from the App Store.

The revenue curve is exponential, because the few developers who are most successful make most of the money. Those in the 75th percentile have made roughly $30,000 lifetime revenue from the App Store. The bottom 25% of developers have made less than $200. Those lucky 4% of respondents who are most successful made over $1 million.

Getting into that successful 10% at the top of the pile isn't rocket science, but it isn't easy either. There are some pointers.

Polish your app

the best IOS apps look good. They are shiny, just like the phones they run on. Games are properly play tested, and gameplay is well thought out, so that there is a solid progression throughout the game.

Do your own marketing

Doing your own marketing is also important. Simply relying on being featured in the App Store isn't a realistic business model. Good marketing includes understanding social media and soliciting user feedback.

Don't race to the bottom

There are thousands of apps for the IOS platform, many of them doing almost exactly the same thing. Your app will succeed on its quality. Don't be tempted to rush it out. Concentrate instead on making it better than the others available.

Look for new opportunities

New social media networks and other developments such as Apple's iCloud promise to disrupt games development. These opportunities along with in-app purchases, can be used to maximise your revenue.

Be original

It's hard to find originality in the oversaturated app landscape, but not impossible. Spend more time in conceptualisation, and ensure that your idea stands out from the crowd.

With Apple's iPhone 5 rumoured to be launching next week, this will be a big quarter for games developers. Will you be ready to capitalise on the ongoing success of the platform?

How much value is locked up in our social data? The information that we enter into our social networks already has explicit value. LinkedIn can tell a recruiter who you work for, and what you do there, along with what skills you have. But what implicit information is embedded in that network, which it isn't obviously communicating?

Tacit information in social network sites may include how often you post, who else you know on that network, and perhaps most importantly, what kind of person you are. A resume says one thing, but the way that you interact online says far more - and recruiters may soon be able to mine and quantify this information.

Sentiment mining is a good example. Companies such as Attensity and Lexalytics already produce systems that analyse text to produce structured data. They use these techniques to help customers with tasks such as customer relationship management, advertising optimisation, and social media monitoring. But when it comes to social media mining, these techniques are still relatively rudimentary. Searching Twitter streams for "British Airways" and "sucks", or "terrible" to see which customers are irritated so that you can reach out to them is a basic operation.

But your language says far more about you than whether you've had a bad experience on British Airways. In their book, Tribal Leadership, Dave Logan and John King identify five stages of maturity in leadership. As individuals become more mature and better able to lead, their maturity is evident in the language that they use. The language that you use at stage one is markedly different than the language you use stage five. It's more negative, self-centred, and generally victim-like. At stage five, you are using language that is more positive, and community-focused. You revel in other people's success, and identify goals that are bigger than yourself.

Heidegger once said that language is the house of being. Your language defines how you are in the world. So the way that you conduct yourself on social media sites is about more than simply avoiding unprofessional behaviour. Not posting drunken pictures of yourself on work-related social media sites is basic common sense. The smart candidate, however, will use such sites to show how mature and helpful you can be. What kinds of things are you saying on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and how are you bringing people together and helping others? How often do you post intelligent answers on Quora and Stack Overflow?

Right now, recruiters may scan such sites manually to see what kind of leadership potential you have. In the future, natural entity recognition algorithms might score you based on parameters such as these. In an algorithmic world, such things become increasingly likely. Are you ready?

The Internet and IT at large are perhaps the most significant resources changing our personal and work lives right now. Entire new jobs, for example focused around the use of social media are being created and entirely new working practices being developed for mobile users accessing data from an increasingly wide range of funky new devices. Fundamentally, technology and effectively using data is critical to the growth of UK PLC across both public and private sector. The government clearly supports this position too, as demonstrated by their additional investment of £650M in cyber security in the "age of austerity". Our ability to protect data in our businesses is directly linked to confidence, which in turn is a key driving factor of growth from the small business to the national scale. Over the coming years, security is a critical field in enabling us all to seize the opportunities new technology and working practices may offer. That and of course trying to avoid the "Sony" moment - breaching data to significant loss of reputation and market cap.

The security field is at an interesting point of change. Enhanced threat, technology change and regulation are all driving a significant evolution of the profession. SophosLabs now sees over 150k new samples of malware every day - the majority of which are designed to provide back door access to your computer, steal your data and money. Cyber criminals are now working on organised criminal gangs selling each other products, services and even technical support to simplify high tech, fast evolving cyber attacks. Cyber criminals are building their talent pool and are developing an illicit economy. As any economist will tell you, this results in innovation, research and development. Technically skilled security professionals will be required to combat their innovations. The array of new devices like iPads, Android phones and iPhones also represent a challenge as more expertise is required to manage and protect the diverse technologies used in the business - it is no longer just about Microsoft! Regulations and compliance are also fundamentally challenging businesses, moving the traditional technical IT security role to interface with the business. The CISO today is often more a business leader, than a security practitioner. Security leaders need business, cultural influencing and even senior management skills and are embedding themselves within different functions in the business. The stereotype of the security geek trapped in the dark depths of IT is fading. Over the coming years, more regulation and the changing shape of business will produce a wider range of security roles.

Yet, even right now many are struggling to identify and hire the right talent in to security positions. In many cases conventional hiring strategies are not producing the right results. There has been over a 50% reduction in the number of students studying IT, yet according to numerous surveys there is a huge projection of growth of jobs (across numerous categories of roles) and an existing deficit that needs to be addressed. Initiatives like the UK Cyber Security Challenge are working to plug this gap and represent a new strategy to identifying and nurturing talent.

Without a doubt, cyber security has never been at such a high point of awareness or critical importance to growth. Cyber criminals are developing more malicious code, infecting more web pages and having greater impact on us all in our personal and work lives. Skills in this area are bound to be in demand and valuable, spanning many different types of role in every industry. Keep an eye on the development of this problem domain and explore some of the less conventional talent channels such as Cyber Security Challenge UK . Help us recruit the right talent to fight back at cyber criminals.

Free helpful resources:

• Sophos Threat Report (simple, accessible description of the security industry and present threat trends)
• Sophos Threatausarus (simple A-Z overview of security threats so you can speak the language)
• NakedSecurity blog (follow the latest security incidents and challenges)

I'm at a conference this week with my husband, where I am "just" the spouse. That means I get to go to sessions and attempt to keep my mouth shut. Hah! Lots of luck with that! On the other hand, I also get to learn about what this group thinks is important to sustain itself.

"Mentoring" is a big deal at this conference. What they call mentoring, I would call coaching. Coaching is a big deal in our community, too. I've written about this before, in How 2 Buddy. Arlo Belshee has a great experience report from an early Agile conference, Promiscuous Pairing and Beginner's Mind. Yes, it looks like the paper is about pairing, but it's also about coaching, where each person coaches the other.

What makes a great coaching program? Well, both people, the coach and the coachee have to get something out of it. Here are my steps for creating a coaching program.

1. Make sure you have enough coaches for the people who want coaching. Insufficient coaches means you spread people too thin, which does not work, or you leave people without a coach, which is disappointing. Better to leave people without, than to spread coaches too thin. I've seen a number of organizations attempt to move to agile who don't have enough coaches. The people and teams struggle to implement what they were taught. They do not understand what to do. That's insufficient coaching.
   
2. Set expectations about what a coach does. A coach is not a teacher, although if a coach so chooses, a coach can teach a coachee.
   
3. Coaches help to isolate the problem. Often, when people describe the problem, the problem they see is not the real problem, but a result of the real problem.
4. Coaches help the coachee evaluate potential options and the results of those potential options. A coach offers options with support. Sometimes those options come directly from the coachee. Sometimes those options come from the coach because the coachee cannot think of any options without help.
5. Coaches help the coachee generate action items and SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, timebound) goals.
   
6. Coaching is a time-bound experience. When I coach my clients, I limit our time for a specific kind of coaching. After that coaching is over, it's okay to change the relationship to a new coaching relationship about some new issue.
   
7. Coaches encourage. They do not evaluate anyone's efforts.
   
8. Coaches provide feedback. They may help a coachee by catching that person doing something right. Or, by catching them before they go too far down the wrong path. Maybe they experiment together.
   

There are a number of coaching tools that a coach can use for feedback. The key is that the coach use them.

I often find that when I coach teams I also need to coach the individuals on the team.

Coaching does not have to be an external activity; it can be internal. And, a coach is a full-time job. You cannot coach in you free time.

So, think about the coaching you need at work. And think about the people who can provide it. Decide if you can staff coaching internally at a sufficient level. If you can, wonderful. And if not, know that now. Do not shortchange such a critical function. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0545817/ "You're a tiger! Grrrr!"

That was my favourite line from Dearth of a Salesman, a programme in Steve Coogan's Coogan's Run comedy series. He played IT salesman Gareth Cheeseman, a greasy, awkward little bag of anxieties, attending a sales conference and trying to further his tin-pushing career. It was a stereotypical portrayal of IT salespeople, of course. In reality, they're a knowledgeable bunch, with good interpersonal skills, well-versed in the art of understanding what customers need. But the biggest challenge facing IT salespeople today - and the industry trend that would leave a real-life, witless Gareth Cheeseman behind - is that customer needs are changing, dramatically.

Managed services is the cause of it all. With everything being offered as a service, the patterns of IT usage are changing. In Cheeseman's time (Coogan made the programme in 1995), IT salespeople sold hardware, and the software to run on that hardware. But as managed services take off, commentators believe that hardware sales to conventional customers will decline, even as it is bought in increasing quantities by third party service provides. Instead, IT departments will eventually buy managed services that they resell to their internal customers. 

There will be iterative steps along this road, of course. Private clouds will create a class of managed services designed to run inside organizations, still administered by IT departments, using their own hardware. But a trusted cadre of sysadmins and business analysts are telling me that this will effectively be replaced by public clouds over time as IT departments simply turn more of their equipment off altogether. 

What happens to the IT salesperson in this scenario? 

Firstly, they will be selling to different people. Expect them to deal more directly with line of business managers in customer organisations, who have wrested budget away from IT to make their own purchases. 

Secondly, commissions will change, because instead of selling servers and software licenses that require significant up-front capital investment, salespeople will be hawking contracts in which customer subscribe to online services for set periods of time. Customers will often pay for these services in smaller, more regular amounts, chalking them up as operational expenditure, which means that compensation packages for salespeople may change. 

Perhaps over time, though, the biggest challenge facing IT salespeople is that they may not be needed at all. Don't get me wrong - there will still be some tigers out there, roaming around, clinching large, intricate corporate contracts. But if line of business managers end up buying a lot of their functionality online by simply  purchasing a number of seats for an online service from a web site, that leaves the sales force out of a job - or at least selling to a far smaller number of specialist data centre operators. Are you exploring your options?