I have *non-Christmas* music playing on my iPod in the background, all my favorite coffee/tea items readily available, and a really awesome view. I like this work environment; I get more done and it makes me happy. My commute is only 30 seconds – just walk downstairs – and I don’t have to deal with pouring rain and late buses. In fact, I have no bus, coffee or lunch costs. (Admittedly, I wouldn’t have lunch costs if I were organized enough to pack my lunch when I go into the office.)

Certainly, there’s value in going to the office and working face-to-face with people. It’s good for the frame of mind to be around others. Collaboration via whiteboard, group work sessions and brainstorming is more effective in person. I learn a lot about the business and the various initiatives we’re working on through informal coffee cup conversations. And I *like* my colleagues, they’re good to hang out with!

Still, I’m very grateful for the flexibility to work from home when I choose, when I don’t have scheduled face-to-face meetings. It was a necessary perk when I lived in Poulsbo, and it’s still very welcome now.

In this recession economy, of course, I’m very thankful to have a job at all. Many of my industry peers and members of my social circle lost their jobs two years ago, and spent months and even years finding something new. I am grateful for the financial and emotional security of a longtime job with a stable employer, and for work that’s challenging and interesting every single day.

I’ve been with GCI* for nearly 14 years, in four different departments and positions. When I moved south from Anchorage to Seattle, I had the privilege of being able to keep my job and continue working for them out of the Seattle office. The company pays fairly, has excellent benefits, and is a leader in flexible schedules, telecommuting, and virtual employees/projects. Most importantly, though, I work with an immensely talented, productive and congenial group of people that I’m proud to call friends as well as colleagues.

And my job? Currently I’m working as a business analyst – the person who turns business requirements into technical specifications, and then tests the solution to ensure it works as designed and required. I like that, with project work, every project is a new adventure, a new opportunity to learn and a new team. I like that I get to learn and stretch daily, be creative and analytical, and see tangible results with my customers at the end of the day. And, I like working in technology, in IT – I actually enjoy big, difficult, highly technical enterprise wide projects that take months and years, projects that would have been the stuff of science fiction decades ago.

Yes, admittedly, there is a downside. The hours and travel are insane and the deadline stress is sometimes intense. Still, it’s the cost of working in the IT business at my level and the advantages far outweigh the challenges.

To whoever/whatever universe or deity arranges such things – thank you.

_____________

*I very rarely mention my employer’s name in print on the web, but in this case, giving thanks, I think it’s appropriate and acceptable.

What is brilliance, truly? How do we measure and define it? It has often been identified by achievement in science, math, medicine, academia, literature.

Intelligence alone is an insufficient criteria. Brilliance is not a function of high test scores, talent or capability alone. Brilliance requires application. It requires hard work, perseverance, sweat equity, passionate devotion to a purpose.

On the subject of intelligence, however, the IQ metric has often been criticized as a culturally biased, one-dimensional measure of intellectual capacity. Harvard developmental psychology professor Dr. Howard Gardner argues that intelligence does not sufficiently encompass the wide variety of abilities humans display, and proposes an alternate theory of multiple intelligences.

The eight, multiple areas of intelligence Gardner suggests include:

Linguistic
People with high verbal-linguistic intelligence are gifted with words and languages. They are typically good at reading, writing, telling stories and memorizing words and definitions.

Logical-mathematical
This area has to do with logic, abstractions, reasoning, and numbers. People with this talent demonstrate reasoning capabilities, abstract patterns of recognition, scientific thinking and investigation, and the ability to perform complex calculations. This area correlates strongly with traditional concepts of “intelligence” or IQ.

Visual-Spatial
Those gifted with visual-spatial intelligence have a strong ability to visualize, conceptualize and translate ideas into design. This type of intelligence tends to lend itself to art, design and architecture.

Kinesthetic
Bodily-kinesthetic talents include control of bodily movement, capacity to handle objects skillfully, timing and the ability to train responses so they become like reflexes. Those talented in this area tend to perform well in acting/performing, building, athletics, dance, law enforcement, the military, even surgery.

Musical
Musical ability includes high sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones, music and may even include perfect pitch. The musically gifted are able to sing, play musical instruments, and compose music.

Interpersonal
People who have a high interpersonal intelligence tend to be gregarious extroverts, sensitive to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations, and work well in a group setting.

Intrapersonal
People with intrapersonal intelligence tend to be introverts and are skillful at deciphering their own feelings and motivations, strengths/ weaknesses, reactions/ emotions.

Naturalistic
Those with this skill are gifted with nature, nurturing and relating information to one’s natural surroundings.

I’d have to agree with this multidimensional picture of human capability. It shows respect for humans as many-faceted beings, with the ability to be brilliant, to be geniuses, in many different areas. The visionary artist, the star athlete, the consummate salesperson and the legendary philosopher are all brilliant in their own area.

Still, I submit that brilliance requires a combination of giftedness and devotion. The superstars in each area, the Nobel prize winners, Olympic athletes, National Museum artists, all wholeheartedly spend a lifetime pursuing their chosen profession.

I can say, without arrogance, that I have been blessed in the genetic lottery to be above average in a couple of the above areas. (linguistic and visual/spatial) Except where my profession is concerned, I am by nature a dilettante, so I have never devoted the time or energy to see what I am capable of.

Maybe I need to change that. Thanks, friend.

The question is, professionally and personally, how do we as geeky women have to dress to fit in? And, as a follow-on, do we have to follow some unwritten dress code? The string of articles I’m referencing suggest that women might need to dress in a deliberately unfeminine and minimally businesslike manner to gain acceptance as a geek in the workplace.

I self-identify as a woman and a geek, and as so many other things as well. I’m creative, a bit of a nonconformist, a SF/fantasy fan, a traveler and an active person. My IT workplace has no dress code, other than business casual – very casual – and we spiff it up when we’re facing customers.

I have never found that I have to dress down, dress androgynously, for acceptance. I do think that an extreme pre-occupation with shoes, clothes and makeup would be counterproductive. Some worry about dressing like a manager vs. dressing like a hands on technical or knowledge worker – I’m not certain whether that can be a good thing or a bad thing. Still, I can wear feminine styles, colors, prints, skirts and heels as long as I’m able to do my job effectively.

Dressing in flattering clothing is especially important to me because I’m a larger woman. I’m, err, Amazonian. Statuesque. I’ll never be small, although I can and do strive for healthy and fit. Presenting myself to the world with good grooming and in carefully chosen, attractive, appropriate attire is part of maintaining my self-esteem, of accepting myself and caring for myself on a daily basis.

I did make a conscious decision many years ago to dress in a more feminine style in the workplace. It’s who I am. While I enjoy the camaraderie of my male professional friends very much, I do not want to dress like nor be one of the guys. There’s a difference and it’s a very entertaining part of life.

This is not to be confused with excessively provocative or sexual attire in the workplace. One of my friends mentioned this a couple of months ago in a comment thread, and honestly, it had never occurred to me. I dress for my own pleasure and comfort, not to attract or repel others’ attention. Still, very low-cut, tight or sheer clothing is out of line and tremendously distracting in any professional setting, geeky or not. It’s quite possible to dress like a woman without dressing like a whore.

What about you – do you dress down to be accepted as a geek? Do you feel that there is a dress code for management “suits” and another for geeks? Or do you do your own thing, comfortable in your presentation, and the heck with what anyone thinks?

And men, weigh in here too. Do you notice what women wear as it pertains to professional credibility? Would you listen to a woman in a pink fuzzy sweater as readily as one wearing a black shirt with a flash drive on a lanyard?

First, I’m starting swimming with the brand new Poulsbo masters’ swim team. For those of you who don’t know, masters’ swimming is adult competitive swimming. It supports multiple goals – regular swim meets, broken up by age groups; triathlons; and longer open water events. The latter is my gig.

While I’ve been swimming with many of these folks on an unstructured basis throughout the last year, this will be the first time I’ve actually done a formal workout with them under the guidance of a coach. I’m quite nervous about the whole thing, although tomorrow’s workout will be more evaluation and less exhaustion.

Second, I start a new job tomorrow. I’ve been a project manager in IT for nearly five years. We’re spinning off a subsidiary company as an external service provider, and I’m taking a role with the new subsidiary as a senior business analyst. It’s a little different than what I’ve been doing to date. While there’s about a 50% overlap, it’s more technical and detail oriented. I’m nervous about that change, too.

Maybe I could throw in a first date and first day at school tomorrow as well, just to make matters entertaining all around.

This is going to be a little difficult to write, as it’s a standing rule of mine not to write negatively or in inappropriate detail about my workplace or colleagues. Still, I’ll make a stab at it on general principles.

Am I affected by workplace politics? You bet. When I took my most recent IT project management position four years ago, I thought it was going to be managing straightforward implementation of bigger and sexier projects. Instead, it seemed to shift my job away from the nitty-gritty of project management and toward a very political, impact-and-influence oriented role – perhaps 75% of my time is spent on the latter.

When do I encounter politics? When do I not?!?!

• At project initiation, I work with multiple departments, reconcile wishes against strategic goals and favored vendors to scope a solution and develop a business case with a meaningful return on investment.

• During project planning & detailed requirements gathering, I fight for the resources necessary to accomplish my project and resolve requirements conflicts.
• During implementation, I work constantly behind the scenes to continue to have my resources’ full attention, and push the vendor as hard as possible to focus on our build and issues.
• Testing requires that I track down yet another set of resources to test, as well as push hard on vendors to resolve issues.
• Deployment requires getting the customer’s approval to go live, managing various change management processes, as well as high visibility internal and external communication.

I try and follow some simple, sensible rules for communication – these apply to basic human relations, not just my field of project management:

• Communicate frequently, often, and to the right people. Nobody likes surprises.
• Learn preferred channels of communication for different team members and customers and use them for best problem-solving.
• If you have a problem, go directly to the source of the problem.
• If you need to escalate, involve both the source of the problem and his/her manager in the discussions so there is no he said/she said conflicting stories.
• Practice Covey’s fifth habit – seek first to understand, then to be understood.
• Deliver praise and positive feedback in public; criticism in private. Always.
• Follow the golden rule: treat others as you would like to be treated.

It’s important to me, as project manager, to understand my role. Primarily, my focus is typically supportive/facilitative management; I’m there to handle all the logistics and issues so that the technical team can focus on the project. At times, I do need to shift into a more assertive taskmistress role and require extraordinary focus from my team, and I need to understand when to do this and how to most effectively make it happen. Still, at the end of the day, when the project is successful, it’s my team that has done the work, every line of code, piece of hardware and late night cutover; I’m the most dispensable person there, and I make sure the team knows their efforts are appreciated.

One final note on politics, management and communication: there is a continuum of behavior that ranges from total, obsequious yes-person to completely obstructionist obstacle. I am not a yes-person. My personal sense of integrity requires me to be honest, realistic and forthcoming, while still trying to remain positive and constructive. One of the best pieces of career advice I ever received , from PM consultant Neil Whitten, is to do your job as if you don’t care if you get fired. Do the right thing, work hard, satisfy your own work ethic and be a champion for your project and your people.

So how can we improve them? Besides the sensible things, like maintaining a consistent sleep pattern and cleaning up the desk Friday afternoons.

This morning I indulged in leftover dark chocolate pudding – for breakfast – along with my coffee. What other things could help make Mondays better?

• As above, dessert for breakfast!
• Schedule lunch with a friend.
• New shoes!
• Ditch the depressing news on the way to work; listen to NPR, comedy or an audiobook.
• Or, the Tania^TM method – resign.

I’m sure the rest of you have ideas, serious or tongue-in-cheek, please share!

In desperately sad news, remniscent of the original Black Monday of 1929, a once-eager Microsoft employee has plunged to his death in Bellevue; his death was ruled a suicide.

A new Microsoft Corp. employee, whose lifelong goal had been to work at the company, died after falling from the 28th floor of the Lincoln Square office complex in Bellevue, where the company’s sales force leases space.

A Bellevue Police Department spokesman, said the man landed on the roof near the complex’s movie theater Sunday night.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a suicide.

My heart goes out to the victim’s family, friends and colleagues.

Our workforce, our economy, our country desperately needs hope. Even the most miraculous leader could not fix this disastrous mess quickly; we all need to hang on through the rocky times that will most certainly lie ahead.

I have faith; together, with hard work and persistence, we will turn it around.

Still, sleep won’t come easily tonight.

1. Go to the theater and see some good shows. It doesn’t have to be a Vegas-only experience!
   FAIL. Although Cats, Rent, Fiddler on the Roof and Wicked are all coming to Seattle next year, so I have lots of opportunity coming up.
    

2. Get a pedicure once a month even in winter – and splurge on the extended foot massage.
   FAIL.
    

3. Listen to new music every month.
   I did this, actually, with the help of iTunes and exposure to new stuff via Wii Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
    

4. Spend less time at work and more time with friends and family.
   Epic FAIL. Sigh. A couple of colleagues and I are supporting each other on this in 2009.
    

5. Do something creative every week just for the joy of it, e.g. make jewelry, write, paint, garden, do a home project, or a web project.
   FAIL. But I did complete NaNoWriMo again.
    

6. Take more naps.
   FAIL. I hardly took any naps last year, although I’ve done a bit more in the last month.

One out of six is 16%, not exactly stellar performance. Apparently even non-resolutions are not for me.

Happy New Year!