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I was talking today with a senior financial type person. We were talking because I thought he might be a fit for one of the roles I am working on.

He sounded pretty astute – like someone who had been around the block a few times.

Here’s what he said:  “You know, Laura, a good company is not good by accident.  There is nothing random about it.  I know good companies. I can smell them.”

Naturally, he is very happy where he is.  He knew exactly what he was looking for when he was evaluating opportunities as they were presented to him.

What about the rest of us?  What about those of us who are not so sure what their dream company looks like or, for that matter, smells like?

• Fast growth or something more stable
• Big or small or in between
• Something familiar or a totally different space
• Local or international
• A place where you are known or a place where no one has ever heard of you

There is no right answer, no magical formula.  The best way to evaluate different options is to weigh what is being offered against what you have now and what you want your future to look like.

Maybe it should smell like a crisp, new shirt or maybe it should smell like a warm, chocolate cookie.  It’s up to you.

This morning I found myself quite overwhelmed by the irony of grooming, especially my hair.  It takes a lot of concentration to remember which bits to shave and which bits to blow dry.

I have to wax my brows. I have to put the light eye shadow on before the dark eye shadow.  I have to put stuff in my hair to make it stay out of my way and then remember not to touch it.

Sheesh!

Of course, the most ironic thing is blow drying my hair when it’s 95 degrees outside. No wonder the climate is falling apart. Honestly, the things we do to look civilized!

And the maintenance part is worse. Once you start dealing with the nasty hairs on your chin, you can never leave them alone again. They are worse than the most noxious weed in my garden or keeping a 10 year old Fiat on the road.

Did I point out that all of this takes time and money to deal with?  Appointments and credit cards – all in the name of looking “put together”.  And, by the way, it should look effortless too.

I feel like I finally have a handle on most of this stuff most of the time. I think the only thing left to master is heels. I think I might need a personal trainer and a serious program for that.

So if you see me tottering around in the next few months, just give me a big thumbs up and tell me I look terrific okay?

An interesting concept came up in our discussions yesterday: productive conflict. It’s the idea of discussing or even arguing a point not so you can win, but so you can make sure that you have a complete understanding of the idea; that way everyone involved in the discussion is on the same page.

There is no mud slinging or sarcasm involved. This is about picking apart the idea, not the proponent of the idea.

For some people, this is a difficult thing to grasp. We are so used to accepting ideas and not rocking the boat.

We are also not generally encouraged to argue with a manager, customer or hiring manager.

I am not suggesting that you get into a fistfight at your next job interview. That’s not what this is about. It’s about discussing and questioning to show that you are engaged and interested.

The objective is to have the person you are talking with say “hmmm… that’s a good point” at least once.

Then you will know that you have added value to the conversation and given the person pause. Hopefully enough pause to have recognized and internalized that value.

So listen actively and with confidence. Take what you hear, flip it on its ear and toss it back without fear.

If you don’t have a smartphone, stop reading this and go read the newspaper instead.

If you do have one, then you have a great job search tool in the palm of your hand.

Here’s why:

• You have access to your personal email all the time.
• You can store your resume on your phone or in dropbox mobile so you can to send it to people while you are on the go.
• You can sign up for email or text alerts so that when stuff you like comes up, you can be notified right away.
• You can get the freshly updated LinkedIn app (very slick).
• Monster also has nice app for iPhones and androids.
• Most job boards have mobile versions of their sites. This makes it easy to scout new opportunities over a sandwich or on the train.
• Once the interviews start happening, you can use an interview prep app to practice the tricky soul searching questions you will undoubtedly be asked.

So what are you waiting for?  Get on it!

Let’s start a movement. Let’s make tomorrow, Friday September 7th, an official LinkedIn recommendation day.

Today, when you are in those mind wandering moments that we all have, think about someone you would refer. 

• Perhaps a former colleague or manager
• Someone who provided great service like a vendor or a realtor
• A fellow volunteer

To make a recommendation, go to your contact list, find the person and click recommend beside their name.  Choose the relationship that you have/had and then go crazy.  Remember that this will be seen by the world.  This is not Facebook.  Drunkface comments are not welcome.   Be clear about how you know the person, what they did and how well they did it.

Think how great it will be when they open their inbox to find an out of the blue recommendation. That will surely make their day. It’s like sending a thank you card without the hassle of the envelope or stamp.

Of course we make recommendations for altruistic reasons but imagine if you are one of the recipients. Remember, it is a bit of a traditional that one recommendation deserves another.

So give it some thought and mark your calendar. Let’s start a wave in the big LinkedIn stadium.

I think we all crave community.  We all want to walk into a room of people and not just be acknowledged but greeted with some genuine warmth.

It’s not like I’m looking for a hug and a French kiss everywhere I go.  A simple smile and some brief eye contact would be okay.

But where does it come from?  Do I have to greet people like that before they will greet me the same way?  Do unto others and all that stuff?

Or do certain environments promote a kind of warm, friendly undertone?  Do we try to pick staff/members /people who also value this feeling of connection?

It does not seem to be just environmental.  I can go to a spa where I pay lots of money to be feel good and taken care of.  A spa should be warm in a comfy temperate way and the people there should make me feel like they really care about my well being.  The last time I was in a spa that was definitely not the case.   It was more like I was intruding on their breaks.

On the other hand, there is the train. When I am on the way into the city in the morning, there is “Customer Service Ambassador” in the accessibility car which is five cars back from the engine.  I never see the person but they make periodic announcements during out 25 minute journey.  On Friday morning, they always say “this train is now out of service. Please be sure to wake your neighbour.”  I love that.  Each time I hear it, I look around and other people are nodding and smiling.  A commuter train in the morning is definitely not known for its warm and friendly atmosphere yet here is an example of warm connections.

So, I don’t know where it comes from.  For now, I’ll keep doing my best to put my best smiling eyes forward and hope that it comes back.

Guess what?  Summer is almost over.  Soon it will be Labour Day and then life will return to its regular rapid fire pace.  You know: when you realize you are already behind and its only 9:15 in the morning.

So rather than waiting until midnight on Labour Day Monday to list your September career resolutions, start now.

Find the last known version of your resume.  Maybe it is on a memory stick or on your home computer.  When you find it, put it somewhere that you can access anywhere.  You can put it in the documents section of Gmail or Hotmail if you use either of those mail programs.

You can also use a very cool thing called Dropbox.  It gives you a virtual vault to store files or pictures and it is free.  You can access your stuff by going to dropbox.com or you can download a little app to any PC that you use and Dropbox becomes one of the options listed in your “save as” list where you save files.

The point is to have your resume easily accessible.  This will allow you to keep reviewing it and adding things to it.

This also eliminates the situation where a recruiter calls you about an opportunity and the conversation ends with you declining to pursue it because your resume is not up to date and you don’t have time to find it, let alone update it.

Once that is no longer an obstacle, you can actually take a few moments over the next week or two to tweak it so that it represents who you are today.

So, put aside the romance novels and the Julia Child reruns and get to it.

I am sure I am not alone when I say that I have been nearly consumed by the Olympics. Not only have I been dominating the TV at home but my colleague has a live feed on his desktop that has helped to feed my habit as well (which might explain why my post is late this week).

I am in total admiration of the athletes who have had a singular focus for the years leading up to this point. I feel like my fingers are in so many different pies that that kind of focus is just unimaginable.

But my admiration for all things Olympic has been tarnished by the uniforms of the female athletes. Why exactly do beach volleyball players, hurdlers and sprinters need to wear bikinis?

I am not a scientist but I don’t think it serves to improve their aerodynamics. Possibly seeing rock hard abs is intimidating to their opponents?

I am in awe of the US beach volleyball team made up of two middle aged mothers who won gold not once, but three times. Three!  Who is going to explain to their children why they are practically naked on the front page of newspapers in North America this morning?

Are men going to pare down their uniforms for the games in Rio?  Perhaps they can take a page from history and just wear a loin cloth. That might restore the balance a little bit.

What are you wearing to work today?

I have been reading a lot lately about the gamification of work. While I support making anything having to do with making work interesting and engaging, I am not in favor of people treating their careers like a game.

I can hear it now.  “Go ahead and try to fire me. I have infinite life and infinite money.”

Or how about this:  If I don’t like your proposal, I’ll get a few birds and a slingshot and show you how much I want to destroy it. (I’ve been practicing this one……)

Although, there are good parts of gaming too. Gamers have been using VOIP and chat technology way longer than us corporate wonks. This has created a generation of multi-taskers who can talk, make decisions and choose complex button combinations at the same time.

Also, gamers are always trying to get to the next level. That’s good in the workplace isn’t it?

And gamers have been collaborating since long before it became fashionable. I remember my son playing on the same team as his cousin and a guy from camp who both lived far away at the time. No silos there. True, they were trying to kill bad guys with automatic weapons but they were doing it together, as a team.

Perhaps it’s time for Electronic Arts or Ubisoft to start management consulting practices.  Maybe they could help organizations sort out which parts of gamification make sense for their work groups.

Until then….keep playing Angry Birds.  You never know when you might have blast apart someone’s proposal.

My son has his first job this summer. He is a dishwasher at a sleep away camp. It is a tough job and it came with a tough boss.

For the first couple of weeks, he was lonely and tired and frankly, ready to quit.

I am happy (and relieved) to report that he is, in his own words, going to stick it out.

Here is what he has figured out so far:

• Having a cute teller deposit your first pay cheque is cool
• Being able to buy stuff that your parents won’t is nice
• Dishes don’t get homesick or wet the bed
• You can use your non-working time to do stuff with your friends.
• A tough boss is only tough when you are at work. It is possible to have fun in the other parts of your life.
• A good night’s sleep always makes you feel better.

That’s quite a bit to learn at 17. Many of these things did not gel for me until I was in my thirties and forties so kudos to him for getting through it.

I don’t know whether this experience will give him a leg up on having a successful career but I am pretty sure he will never be a dishwasher again.