It’s the first Monday of a new month and that means a new Leadership Development Carnival. I got a kick out of Dan McCarthy’s wild March list—March Madness, the ides of March, the March of Dimes, the March equinox, the March on Washington, Fredric March, National Frozen Food Day, National Woman’s History month, and Mardi Gras (more about March tomorrow).

So without more ado, here is your March Reading Madness.

First up is Mary Jo Asmus with a recipe for improving relationships: Conversation, Praise, Pizza, Books, and Chocolate, from Aspire-CS.

Jennifer V. Miller was in a generous mood and gives us 25 More Leadership Development Resources posted at The People Equation. Great stuff!

You may not win an Oscar for that last presentation you gave but, don’t worry, neither did any of this year’s Academy Award winners. Scott Eblin mines the Oscar ceremony for public speaking do’s and don’t's that every leader should keep in mind with Six Leadership Do’s and Don’ts From Oscar Night posted at Next Level Blog.

Here’s a look at why selling out your culture in the name of hiring or keeping a star performer often means turnover—not productivity. Miki Saxon presents Rock Star Regrets posted at MAPping Company Success.

You’ve heard of the “Tiger Mom”? Wally Bock tells us about his “Tiger Teacher“, Mrs. McKinley, at Three Star Leadership. She was really, really tough, but she was really, really good.

Here’s Kevin Eikenberry’s Six Ways to Build on Recent Success, from Leadership Learning. In this post, Kevin encourages leaders to help people move on from success to even greater success.

Becky Robinson gives us Fences, from her blog Weaving Influence, about work/life balance. In order to make a difference in the lives of others, leaders must successfully balance family and work priorities.

Class, pay attention: here’s an important lesson from the Doctor, Bret Simmons: How You Kill Motivation At Work | Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior posted at Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior.

Or, for those of you that have a hard time paying attention in school, maybe you’ll take advice from the bartender: Sharlyn Lauby, next month’s Carnival host, presents HOW TO: Set Relevant Goals — hr bartender posted at HR Bartender.

Art Petty really nails it with this one: 4 Key Skills Leaders Must Develop to Succeed in Today’s Workplace posted at Management Excellence. Well said, Art.

Who knew Rochester, New York, was a such a blogging hot spot? Here’s a couple great posts from two of my old neighbors: Lynn Dessert presents Do we fear transparency or …. ourselves? posted at Elephants at Work, and Steve Boese presents Winning Time posted at Steve Boese’s HR Technology.

In a world where change is constant every company needs an anchor. In this short story, Santa, upon returning from his post holiday vacation, illustrates what should not change and what should. From one of my New England neighbors, Anne Perschel: Santa Inc. Announces Social Media, Branding & Diversity Strategies posted at Germane Insights.

From a couple of our past Carnival hosts:

Jane Perdue presents Tap into Your Creativity; Get Your Leadership BIG On! posted at Get Your Leadership BIG On!; and

Mark Stelzner presents JobAngels: The Journey Continues posted at Inflexion Point.

There’s a difference between caring and care-taking. This post focuses on what it really means to lead from a caring perspective. Don’t worry, it’s not as warm and fuzzy as it sounds. Gwyn Teatro presents The Importance of Being Care-full posted at You’re Not the Boss of Me.

Whether leadership or management all of us have a customer. The bigger point is that whatever field or role you are in… you should always know who your customer is! Benjamin McCall presents Customer Focus – Do you know who your customer is? | ReThinkHR – (ReThink Human Resources) posted at ReThinkHR – (ReThink Human Resources).

During this time of growing labor disputes, both in the private and public sectors, time to rethink the relationship between labor and management. Bill Matthies presents A Never Ending Struggle? posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By.

S. Max Brown offers 5 questions about gender and leadership that spawned much thought and an interesting conversation on his site this month. Mike Henry presents Gender, Leadership, and CSV – Lead Change Group posted at Lead Change Group.

We need to learn subtraction at work: David Zinger presents Employee Engagement: Management Moxie Through Subtraction posted at David Zinger Associates – Employee Engagement.

In this post, Eric Pennington, gives reasons for finding the type of work and life that requires “you” to show-up. Sometimes inspiration comes from surprising situations. Eric Pennington presents What A Florist Taught Me About Life and Work posted at Epic Living – Leadership Development Career Management Training Executive Life Coaching Author.

A post on how you can get into the right mindset for success: Adi Gaskell presents Create the Mindset for Business Success! | Chartered Management Institute posted at The Management Blog.

Kevin Eikenberry, co-author of “From Bud to Boss,” makes his second appearance on the Management Tips Podcast Series. With this tip, Kevin focuses on new leaders. He suggests that new managers have five very important conversations as soon as possible. If they do, their jobs will be much more effective and enjoyable. Listen to the podcast to find out more: Nick McCormick presents 5 Must-Have Conversations for New Leaders posted at Joe and Wanda on Management.

Here’s an examination of why companies want to be on the 100 Best Places to Work list: Erik Samdahl presents Why You Want to be on This List posted at Productivity Blog.

An above average post from Anna Farmery: When you just don’t want to be average….. posted at The Engaging Brand.

The always hard working girl Laura Schroeder presents Modern Workforce: Managing Remote Workers posted at Working Girl.

This blog post shares three simple steps to be positively critical: Dominic Rajesh presents Critically yours… posted at Dom’s Blog ….

Observations on leadership from the Egyptian crisis: Robert Tanner presents Egypt – When Trust Fails, Leaders Fail! posted at Management is a Journey Blog.

Linda Fisher Thornton presents The Ethical Leadership Puzzle: A Broader View posted at Leading in Context.

We understand the art of influence. We understand the need to motivate and listen, and develop a working productive relationship with our colleagues. We collaborate with the team and find a way to make progress. Often this activity involves active listening more than active speaking. Elyse Nielsen presents Developing Effective Work Relationships posted at Anticlue. Hmmm, March must be national relationship month. (-:

In businesses every day, managers find ways (often unintentionally) to demotivate their employees. This post shares three common examples of where managers often go wrong:Andy Klein presents Three ways for managers to demotivate employees — guaranteed! posted at Fortune Group Blog.

Mike Cardus gives us some important managerial selection criteria: They Can’t Be Crazy! Plus 4 other necessary qualities of managerial leaders. posted at Team Building & Leadership Blog: Create-Learning.

Being a leader requires a certain level of humility if you even want people to follow you. This post covers how to be more humble: Mike King presents 50 Ways to Be More Humble and to Act Humbly posted at Learn This.

Well, someone always has to go last….. this post discusses key practices for businesses to remain productive during the downturn period: Charlotte Hird presents What if…you strengthened your core business? posted at Business Strategy and Executive Coaching with The What If? Specialist.

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What does the boss really contribute to her organization?

The culture; it’s the boss’ MAP that forms and shapes the culture for her organization.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a mom and pop operation, startup or global giant; whether the company has two, two thousand or twenty thousand employees; whether the boss is called owner, founder, president or CEO.

Cultural ideas can’t percolate up from the ranks without a top boss who enables the bottom-up culture in the first place, as well as providing the fertilizer that allows ideas to bloom.

It’s not enough to announce the cultural attributes in which you believe, such as no politics, and then ignore political actions because you believe that your senior staff are adults and won’t engage in behavior that goes unrewarded.

Even those who manage culture by benign neglect must see to it that there are repercussions for actions that flaunt the corporate culture just as there are for actions that violate legal issues such as harassment.

And all this is just as true for the individual subcultures that establish themselves around every manager in the company all the way down through team leader.

Creating and caring for the culture should be written into every manager’s job description at every level.

If that seems a bit extreme, keep in mind that study after study has proven that culture affects productivity, engagement, innovation and retention.

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Mark Stelzner at Inflexion Point looks at the January Leadership Carnival through the lens of Valentine’s Day and the non-romantic relationship of worker and boss.

Who (And What) To Choose?

We’ve all found ourselves in a questionable relationship and wondered if it was worth staying together. At a pre-Valentine’s crossroads, our wise and helpful friends would recommend sitting down with a blank sheet of paper and itemizing what redeeming qualities may exist. Let’s see what these leadership list makers conjured up:

• Molly Cunningham suggests 5 Ways for Leaders to Improve Productivity.
• Oliver Wang of BSchool.com offers 15 Inspiring Biographies for Aspiring Leaders.
• Kelly Davis shares 21 Excellent YouTube Videos to Learn About Organizational Development.
• MacKenna Stevens of Masters in Social Work catalogs his list of the Top 97 Unemployment and Joblessness Blogs.
• Natalie James of Dr. HR, PhD itemizes the Top 50 Up and Coming HR Blogs.
• Trainer, coach and consultant Mike Rogers provides 8 Important Tips to Help You Waste Time in Meetings.
• Bernice Frankel shares 21 Surprising Facts About Leadership Research.
• QAspire’s Tanmay Vora helps those Creating a Learning Organization: 10 Actions for a Leader.

So Many Questions.

So you’ve decided to press forward and pursue your leadership development sweetheart with complete abandon. Yet still, there are so many questions left unanswered. Here are some shower-worthy items to ponder as you prepare for your big business date:

• Working Girl’s Laura Schroeder wonders, Why Would ANYone Work for House?
• Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership asks, How Do I Praise Thee?
• Mary Jo Asmus of Aspire-CS wants to know, What Assumptions Are You Making?
• Adi Gaskell of Chartered Management Institute ponders, Is Business Planning A Waste of Time?
• Women of HR’s Lisa Rosendahl asks, What Kind of Role Model Are You?
• Lynn Dessert of Elephants at Work wonders, Can You Measure The Payback or ROI In Coaching?
• Tanveer Naseer wonders, Are You Leading From Inside a Fishbowl?

Polite Dinner Conversation

You want to make a good impression and seem like a decent conversationalist. Attentive, but not too needy or self-involved. Here’s are some items sure to allow you a measure of whimsy while maintaining the panache and flair of a modern leadership guru:

• Jane Perdue of Get Your Leadership BIG On shares Leadership and the Power of Storytelling.
• Sylvia Lafair opines on Business Leadership Strategies: Teaching Multi-culturalism.
• Dean L. Forbes of Powerful Principles of Personal Growth reminds us of The Whole Person Concept.
• Management is a Journey’s Robert Tanner helps us Create the Guiding Coalition.
• Stephen Warrilow suggests Facilitative Leadership as The Key To Dealing With Resistance to Change.
• Next Level Blog’s Scott Eblin shares some new math with Sorry, You’ve Used Up All of Your Meeting Budget.
• What Do You Want From Them’s Anna Smith demonstrates The Rise of Female Leadership.
• All About Living With Life author Charles Chua C K offers his thoughts on Effective Ways to Lead.
• Positive Organizational Behavior’s Bret L. Simmons shares his thoughts, With Honor.
• Great Leadership’s Dan McCarthy teaches you How to Pass the Leadership Baton.

It’s Not You, It’s Me

Of course, even the seemingly best planned leadership romance can end in an ill-conceived malay replete with hurt feelings and charged emotions. So if a bended knee to pick up a dropped napkin doesn’t turn into the organizational proposal you were hoping for, excuse yourself from the table and grab your cell. Aren’t you fortunate to have friends like these to talk you through it?

• Leadership and Learning’s Kevin Eikenberry asks for Five Minutes – A Key to Successful Time Management.
• Judith Lindenberger of The Lindenberger Group suggests we Take Charge of Conflict.
• Miki Saxon of MAPping Company Success questions whether you Manage Like Microsoft.
• Art Petty of Management Excellence offers How to Handle a Feedback Attack from Your Boss.
• Libery Buzz SC’s Vidal tackles Aggression: Life Lessons Learned from Girls Basketball.
• What Is Personal Growth’s Sean Burrows takes the edge off with How to Stay Calm and Relaxed When Feeling Angry.
• The Fortune Group’s Andy Klein feels that Effective Leadership is Founded on Accepting Personal Accountability.
• Janna Rust of Purposeful Leadership helps you Survive the Role Transition: Be Strategic.
• Ajax Social Media’s Jason Seiden reminds us of Why You Should Hire Moms.
• Lead Change Group’s Heather Coleman-Voss gives the wink and nod with Just Trust Me.

Check Please!

Now calmly return to the table and flag down the waiter – it’s time to wrap up this romantic rodeo. And don’t let your leadership date get all pushy or touchy. No amount of office flowers or sugary treats can replace the respect you’ll have from walking away. There are plenty of other leaders in the “C” and you’re a strong swimmer. Just remember…

• Chris Edmonds of Driving Results Through Culture calculates The HUGE Toll of Workplace Bullying.
• Create Learning’s Michael Cardus recalls that Before the Promotion He Was Nice and Had Potential.
• The Human Race Horses’ Mike VanDervort suggests that Resistance Is Futile – You Will Be Assimilated.
• Michelle Cramer of LinkToPro teaches an important skill in Learning How to Say “No”.
• Linda Fisher Thornton of Leading In Context connects Leadership And… Ethical Thinking.
• ReThink HR’s Benjamin McCall sees A Bad Opportunity For Someone Else, A Better Opportunity For You.
• John Gibbons of i4cp wonders if you’re Playing Not To Lose.
• Cultivating Creativity’s Bob Lieberman suggests Letting Go Of The Task.

Live to Love Again

Return home, pour a glass of wine, kick up your feet and breathe. You’re going to be just fine and it’s time to go back to basics and begin to look toward the future. You’re good enough, you’re strong enough and doggone it people like you!

• The People Equation’s Jennifer V. Miller suggests Making the Most of Leadership Assessments.
• Wilson Insight’s Amy Wilson offers Simple, Practical Advice on Motivating Staff.
• Kevin W. Grossman of Marcom HRsay offers Baby Zen and the Importance of Mindful Presence in the Workplace.
• Epic Living’s Eric Pennington provides The Path To An Epic Life.
• The LeaderLab’s David Burkus shares Happiness and Hierarchies.
• Alice Snell of Taleo Research offers In Succession.
• Be Good Ventures’ Nick McCormick suggests you Go Out and Co-Create!

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There is a wonderful post by Kent Lineback at HBR called The Leadership Learning Moment That Wasn’t. In it he tells of blowing a great opportunity because he couldn’t get the other executives in the company to buy into his vision.

“What do you think is going on? I made an important point and everybody yawned and moved on.”
“It was an important point,” he [the consultant] said, “but you didn’t build any bridges.”

Lineback goes on to say that he thought long and hard about the consultant’s words and realized he was right.

“I didn’t build bridges. I didn’t reach out and connect with others on their terms. I talked at them. I had a solution, a beautiful vision. I knew the answer, and I spent my time telling everyone what it was and what the company had to do.

But that didn’t change anything.

I knew he was right. I knew I should do what he said. But I couldn’t debase my perfect vision by turning it into a free-for-all idea jam. Better to stay pure and fall on my sword, a martyr.”

That is one of the great problems of leadership visions, they are the property of one person; one person who will do almost anything to sell the vision—anything except share and modify it.

Leadership visions happen at all levels of a company from the CEO down to the newest supervisor.

It’s a side effect of drinking the leadership Kool-Aid, so you might want to think twice before indulging your thirst.

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Every conversation about leadership talks about ‘influence’ and how to increase yours.

In a post at Forbes, Howard Scharlatt defines influence this way,

Influence is, simply put, the power and ability to personally affect others’ actions, decisions, opinions or thinking. At one level, it is about compliance, about getting someone to go along with what you want them to do.

He goes on to describe three kinds of influencing tactics: logical, emotional and cooperative, or influencing with head, heart and hands and talks about ‘personal influence’ and its importance in persuading people when authority is lacking.

A couple of years ago I wrote The Power of Words and said, “Personally, other than socially acceptable definitions, I don’t see a lot of difference between influence and manipulation,” and I still don’t.

I realize most people consider manipulation negative and influence positive, but they are just words.

I often hear that leaders are good people, while manipulators are bad people. But as I pointed out in another post,

• leaders are not by definition “good;”
• they aren’t always positive role models; and
• one person’s “good” leader is another person’s demon.

Everyone believes that they use their influence in a positive way, but when you persuade people to do whatever who are you to say that the outcome is positive for them?

Influence, persuasion, manipulation; call it what you will, just remember that it is power and be cautious when you wield it.

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A new year mean a new month and a new Leadership Development Carnival, hosted this month by Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership fame. In it you’ll find some old friends along with some new faces. Enjoy!

To start off, are you looking for something that will stretch you as a leader in 2011? Scott Eblin has been finding some Leadership Lessons in Yoga. Don’t roll those eyes…. Scott knows what he’s talking about, and has a knack for finding leadership lessons in the world around us. See for yourself, with Leadership Lessons from Yoga posted at Next Level Blog. Join Scott for a free teleseminar on Charting Your Course for 2011 with a Life GPS®.  It’s on Jan. 13.  Register here.

Remember Tom Hanks declaring “There’s no crying in baseball”? When is it proper for leaders to show emotion? William Powell of The Leadership Advisor explores various opinions and prejudices on that very subject. Mike Henry Sr. contributes There’s No Crying in Leadership posted at Lead Change Group Blog.

Jennifer Miller offers us her most popular post of the year, and asks if people really care about leadership development, or if they just can’t resist a free offer. For me, the answer is both. (-:

Check out her list of 25 free leadership development resources, at Do People Care About Leadership Development? posted at The People Equation.

Here’s something for all managers to think about….. what’s the best way to “help” your employees? Mary Jo Asmus says it’s not by solving their problems for them. She explains why, in Help Them to Think posted at Mary Jo Asmus.

Business leaders and management writers bemoan the lack of execution but there’s no problem getting executives to conduct planning sessions and planning reviews. It’s not really hard to understand why that is. Wally Bock provides an answer to the question with Why People would Rather Plan Than Execute, at  Three Star Leadership.

Lynn Dessert offers more tips on getting things done with how to Establish accountability in your personal plan posted at Elephants at Work.

Here are some great questions for all leaders to ponder…..

From Bret Simmons: Are We Engaged Yet? posted at Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior.

Linda Fisher Thornton gets us thinking about ethics with Ethical Thinking: 5 Questions to Ponder for the New Year posted at Leading in Context LLC.

Benjamin McCall asks Silver Bullet? Who should you look to for Answers? posted at ReThinkHR – (ReThink Human Resources).

Kathy C asks What is Succession Planning? posted at The Thriving Small Business.

Nissim Ziv asks Why do you want to be a Leader? posted at Job Interview & Career Guide.

These bloggers offer answers to some of the most important leadership challenges we all face:

Thinking about becoming a more influential leader in 2011? I sure am. Steve Roessler gives us five ways to bump up your game with Five Ways to Boost Your Influence posted at All Things Workplace.

Not many think of learning to cope as a critical leadership competency. Miki Saxon tells us why it should be in Leadership’s Future: Coping posted at MAPping Company Success.

Michael Lee Stallard writes about the importance of Overcoming Leadership Myopia posted at Michael Lee Stallard.

Giving and getting recognition is the theme of these next three posts.

Tim Porthouse gives us 4 powerful ways to say “Thank You” at work: 4 Thank Yous On Steroids | Zealeap posted at Zealeap.

In this ten-minute “Management Tips Podcast” Chester Elton, co-author of The Orange Revolution, explains why recognition is “The Great Communicator” and how we can get better at delivering it. Nick McCormick presents Recognition: The Great Communicator posted at Joe and Wanda on Management.

Can’t take a complement? Art Petty tells us  How to Appropriately Respond to Positive Praise posted at Management Excellence. Hey Art, you’re one of my favorite leadership bloggers and an all around great person and friend. Can’t wait to read your new Leadership Caffeine book! Gee, maybe I learned something.

More great leadership advice:

David Burkus presents another Bret Simmons piece The Importance Of Working With People You Like from his LeaderLab. Yes, I sometimes allow two posts from the same blogger if it’s on a different blog. And besides, it’s from Bret Simmons, nuff said.

The award for the longest blog title goes to Michael Cardus for Reverse Peter Principle: within a hierarchy tasks tend to be delegated until they have descended to the employees level of incompetence posted at Create-Learning Team Building & Leadership Blog. Whew!

For some tips on getting creative, take a look at Bob Lieberman’s Framing Leadership Challenges posted at Cultivating Creativity – Leadership Development for the Creative Economy and Mike King’s 7 Quick Ways to Boost Your Creativity posted at Learn This.

Putting a team together sure can be puzzling. Tanveer Naseer asks Are You Fitting Employee Personality Into Your Leadership Puzzle? posted at TanveerNaseer.com, and Gregory Farley tells us how to create a real team, vs. a group on individuals, with The puzzle pieces posted at Voices of Leadership.

And this one from Kevin Eikenberry, Leadership is about Engagement, from Leadership & Learning.

Here are some posts that explore the more personal and spiritual side of leadership. Go on, take a few moments to dig deep…..

Susan Finerty writes about The beauty of iteration posted at Leadership Mutt (I love the blog name!).

Becky Robinson (in her new blog) gives us A Bright Thread of Grace posted at Becky Robinson Weaving Influence.

Erin Pavlina presents Cultivating Command and Leadership posted at Erin Pavlina – Spiritual Wisdom for Conscious People.

Anne Perschel gets at the heart of leadership with Touching The Heart of Coaching posted at Germane Insights.

Glen Madden presents New leaders legacy list posted at MissionLogs.

We can’t have a New Year’s Carnival without “best of” lists and New Year’s predictions:

Sharlyn Lauby serves up A Bartender’s Predictions for 2011 posted at HR Bartender.

Alice Snell gives us an encore with Taleo’s Top Ten for 2011 posted at Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions.

More HR predictions from Bruce Lewin, with Reviewing Predictions for HR posted at Four Groups’ Blog.

Erik Samdahl weighs in with The Top 10 Talent Trends of 2010 posted at Productivity Blog.

Mark Stelzner, next month’s Carnival host, not only gives us his HR predictions for 2011, he grades his list for 2010, with 2011: The Year of Reactionary HR posted at Inflexion Point.

We’ll wrap it up with a New Year’s Wish from Bill Matthies posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By.

Image credit: Great Leadership

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Another Leadership Development Carnival means another opportunity to improve your skills—53 opportunities to be exact. Well-earned thanks go to Jane Perdue at Get Your Leadership BIG On! for hosting this month’s Leadership Development Carnival with so much flair.

Gifts for Helping Others Grow

The always informative Trish McFarlane presents some great insights for handling long tenured employees 5 Strategies To Coach Employees Who Have Become Institutionalized posted at HR Ringleader.

Laura Schroeder gives us the scoop on why using straight talk with employees is the right way to go in Managers: Time to Talk Turkey at Working Girl.

Kevin Eikenberry redirects our thought processes and challenges our assumptions in How to Get Lazy People to Work at Leadership and Learning with Kevin Eikenberry.

Paul Slater gifts us with insights for fostering and developing the next generation of leaders in What Young Leaders Need posted at Mushcado.

The erudite Anne Perschel serves up the importance of employee fingerprints in transformation in A Word or Two About Change at Germane Insights.

Andrew Rondeau passes along valuable information for handling disagreements in Conflict Resolution In The Workplace posted at Great Management.

Wally Bock gives us a year-round gift in Bosses: Give Frequent and Usable Feedback from Three Star Leadership.

Celebrating Connections and Giving

Anna Farmery makes a complete and compelling case for the power of connecting in 10 Business Connections You MUST make found at The Engaging Brand.

Tanveer Naseer persuasively builds the foundation as to why fostering a sense of collective purpose is important in Encouraging Your Employees to Reach for the Moon at TanveerNaseer.com.

Eric Pennington asks us to examine our aspirations and motivations in Aspiring To What’s Not Really There at Epic Living.

Using her profuse talents, Mary Jo Asmus provokes us to think about breathing into ourselves in How to Inspire Others found at Aspire Collaborative Solutions.

It’s always the season for giving, and Janet Helm encourages us to generously do so in The Giving Project – That Extra Twinkle at Lead by Giving

Some Holiday Twinkle and Cheer

The always instructive and helpful Jennifer V. Miller humorously challenges The Urban Legend of Command and Control Management found at The People Equation.

Wayne Turmel gives us a tongue-in-cheek view of innovation in Fire: an idea that will never catch on at Management Issues.

Dave Moran shares a mischievous view on 10 Ways to Kill Employee Engagement posted at Software Results.

Presents for Becoming a Better Leader

Jason Seiden dares us to have the guts and patience to go for excellence in The Race to Mediocrity at Next Generation Talent Development.

John Spence shares some awesomely simple yet profound insights regarding What Does “Talent” Look For in a Leader? at Achieving Business Excellence.

From Afghanistan, Tom Magness makes the time to offer insights for honing our decision-making skills in Deciding to Decide at Leader Business.

Jim Taggart asks us to reflect our level of knowledge in Do You Know the Difference Between Corporate Culture and Climate? at ChangingWinds.

Thoughtful leader that he is, Mike Henry Sr. shares a thought-provoking post by Erin Schreyer on Change is Good! How’s Your Leadership in the Midst of It? from the Lead Change Group Blog.

The inspirational Art Petty serves up Leadership Caffeine: How to Grow Your Leadership Credibility in 15 Easy Lessons at Management Excellence.

Celebrating Polarities

Susan Finerty challenges our thinking in When the Golden Rule Isn’t So Golden at Leadership Mutt.

Interested in infusing an entrepreneurial spirit into your work place? Erik Samdahl offers practical insights in Fostering Intrapreneurship: Think Like a VC, Act Like an Entrepreneur at Productivity Blog.

Beth Follini applauds embracing leadership paradoxes in Why is it important to work with polarity? at Musings from a practical mystic.

Lisa Rosendahl courageously provokes our thinking on how to overcome prejudice and bias by valuing diversity of thought in Exposing Ignorance at Women of HR.

Making Merry and Pushing Comfort Zones

The ever-insightful Dan McCarthy offers a great road map for HR relevancy in A Four Stage Leadership Development Model found at Great Leadership.

Rich Maltzman rightfully points out that Sometimes, the obvious is not so obvious posted at Earth PM.

At LeaderLab, David Burkus explores why Are leaders born or made? is asking the wrong question.

Tim Porthouse prompts us to reflect on what kind of boss we are in A Tale of Two Bosses at Zealeap – Leadership 3.0.

Once again, Steve Roesler pushes our comfort zone by illustrating how to be more specific about communicating and defining change in I’ll Change: Tell Me Exactly What You Want at All Things Workplace.

Jim Taggart shares his intriguing thoughts on how leaders must respect geographic, cultural and market uniqueness in Disrupting General Electric: Changing its Mindset Through Reverse Innovation at ChangingWinds.

Michael Cardus thoughtfully yet forcefully suggests we focus on outcomes rather than nomenclature in 10 Managerial Leadership Practices at Create-Learning Team Building & Leadership Blog.

Under the Learning Tree

Wishing more 21^st century organizations were learning ones? Gwyn Teatro beautifully re-introduces us to the five timeless principles of Peter Senge in Leaders and the Learning Organization posted at You’re Not the Boss of Me.

Bret L. Simmons educates us regarding definitions and practices for Authentic Leadership at Bret L. Simmons.

Adi Gaskell shares interesting “who knew” research about The smell of fear and its impact on risk taking posted at The Management Blog.

Sean McGinnis presents a thoughtful case for Knowing “Why” Makes You Better found at 312 Digital.

William Matthies reminds us of the importance of the willingness to Be Convinced . . . And Prepared To Change Your Mind posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By.

Nissim Ziv drops a gift for supervisors down the chimney: What Makes a Good Supervisor? 10 Qualities of a Good Supervisor at Job Interview Guide.

Janna Rust reminds us to be mindful of our Emotions and Productivity, a post found at Purposeful Leadership.

Joyfully Becoming Better

The amazing one and only Sharlyn Lauby gifts us with Being Strategic and Creating Strategy Aren’t the Same Thing found at HR Bartender.

Steve Tringham shares insights for handling Problems and Confrontation at Peopleware.

In his inaugural Idea Lab post, the ever-inventive Mark Stelzner presents The HR Idea Lab: Analyze the Analysts at Inflexion Advisors.

Amy Wilson serves up a simple truth in They’ll Be Back posted at Talented Apps.

Complete with a delightful cartoon, Benjamin McCall encourages us to step up and When all else fails, make a decision found at ReThinkHR.

Holiday Potpourri

Randall Davidson provides us with resources in The Top 101 Productivity Blogs of 2010 at Transcription Blog.

David Zinger offers a short haiku on leadership in Workaiku: Iceberg posted at Employee Engagement Zingers.

Miki Saxon encourages us to prepare for 2011 success by planning right now in The Start of Planning Season at MAPping Company Success.

Orson Bean offers a multitude of resources for managing knowledge and content in Top 50 Knowledge Management Blogs at Biz-gasm.

Erin Pavlina tells a heart-warming story about how you can Believe It and Achieve It posted at Erin Pavlina.

Shankar Anand offers thoughts about managing and creating Brand You at Shankaranand’s Blog.

Nick McCormick takes a different sharing tack and offers up a podcast on how to Identify Your Islands of Profit found at Joe and Wanda – on Management.

Using trains as an interesting metaphor, Andy Klein prompts us to ponder Does your business run like a conventional train or the Shinkansen? at Fortune Group Blog.

Lynn Dessert presents tips and insights for overcoming fear so we can be more effective at Managing Social Media in Organizations posted at Elephants at Work.

Flickr image credit: Great Leadership

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This is a Friday story if I ever heard one; Friday because it will take you until Monday to quit laughing.

People often call me, my number is prominently displayed in the right-hand column, I’m usually available and I really enjoy listening to the stories and answering questions.

The manager who called today had the most bizarre tale I’ve heard since the one about parents intervening at work.

“Craig” is a regular reader and he said that he thought I would find the stated objective in a resume he received amusing.

The job objective stated that the candidate was seeking “a leadership position in which to use his recent Masters in Leadership that would afford the opportunities required to rise in the organization to more senior leadership positions.”

I didn’t find that amusing, I found it hilarious.

I asked Craig what other background the candidate had and he said a total of seven years of work, four years with a credit card company, two of them as a team leader, three years in a bank, starting as a management trainee and a BA in business.

This wasn’t a naïve kid; this was someone in his thirties who had spent time in the real world.

I Googled “masters in leadership” and got 140,000 hits, some were major universities, but many seemed to be online or in the “for profit” category.

I grant that I am pretty cynical regarding the whole idea of individual leadership, believing instead that companies are better served by developing a culture of leadership that permeates all parts and draws a variety of people into leadership roles based on timing and context.

I know that leadership is big business, but hearing stories like this I have to wonder exactly what is being sold to those who believe they can get an edge through an advanced leadership degree.

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Today is Leadership Development Carnival day and that is a great selection from 40 excellent bloggers on the subject of leadership in all its many guises.

Dan McCarthy is hosting this month and he wasn’t happy with my submission, although he included it with a “cleaned up” title. You guessed it; I submitted Leadership or Leadershit and Dan felt it didn’t really belong in “a family blog.” He included it anyway, with the assurance to his readers that “it’s clean.”

That’s OK, I coined the term and still believe that it perfectly sums up what happens when “I” becomes the most important thought in a leader’s mind.

Enjoy the Carnival, it’s a good one.

We’ll lead off with our next month’s Carnival host Jane Perdue, with The both/and dance of leadership posted at Get Your Leadership BIG On!

Last month’s Carnival host, Mary Jo Asmus always is worth reading. Here’s Who Can Help? posted at Mary Jo Asmus.

Wally Bock sure has been hot lately. Here’s his take on “bad attitudes”, with  The Attitude Trap posted at Three Star Leadership Blog, saying, “Addressing a bad attitude directly is a trap for you if you’re a boss. It will get you argument, denial, and withdrawal, but little or no change. Instead, ask yourself a simple question and then take action.”

Alice Snell follows up with More Human Than Capital posted at Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions.

Mark Stelzner commits to giving all his best stuff away! Follow the series at The HR Idea Lab posted at Inflexion Point.

I’ve been reading a lot of Tanveer Naseer lately, and just added his blog to my blogroll. Here’s Social Media and the True Meaning of Leadership | TanveerNaseer.com posted at TanveerNaseer.com.

The always reliable Art Petty gives us a dose of caffeine to start the day with Leadership Caffeine: Learning to Ask for Help posted at Management Excellence

Eric Pennington explains “why you must move forward, even if uncertainty surrounds and confounds you.”
Moving Forward In An Uncertain World posted at Epic Living – Leadership Development Career Management Training Executive Life Coaching Author.

Erik Samdahl presents Emotional Dimwits Need Not Apply posted at Productivity Blog

nissim ziv presents What are the Qualities of a Good Leader? posted at Job Interview Guide, saying, “This article will not address the issue whether or not leaders are born to lead, but rather focuses on classifying some qualities imperative to good/positive leader.”

Rob Tucker presents How to encourage others to take ownership posted at Reading About Leading, saying, “A detailed discussion of the ways in which you can help your team to take ownership.”

Gwyn Teatro presents Leadership and All That Jazz posted at You’re Not the Boss of Me, saying, “This is a look at jazz as a metaphor for good leadership, often calling for improvisation and often messy but always grounded by its core melody.”

The never boring, always provocative Bret L. Simmons gives us Power: The Heart Of Leadership | Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior posted at Bret L. Simmons.

Anne Perschel and Marion Chapsal team up to give us When Truth Speaks to Power?and Power Listens posted at Germane Insights, saying, “INSTIGATING CHANGE. When truth speaks and the leader acts, change happens. Be Bold. Speak your Truth.” While you’re there, take a look at the new “NOW Leadership Carnival”.

Tanmay Vora presents The Quest of Better Outcomes: Hierarchy And Process posted at QAspire – Quality, Management, Leadership & Life!.

Michael Lee Stallard presents Servant Leaders Outperform Because They Connect posted at Michael Lee Stallard.

Anna Farmery, the Leadership Development Carnival founder, presents Are you too professional! posted at The Engaging Brand.

Benjamin McCall presents Compensation, Pay Raises and Becoming a CEO | ReThinkHR – (ReThink Human Resources) posted at ReThinkHR – (ReThink Human Resources), saying, “Many employees believe that they are being mistreated. Lately it has been in the form of decrease in benefits and lack of merit and pay increases. But is this truly mistreatment, a sign of the economic times or just the fact that they do not feel they are getting what is owed or deserved?”

Kevin W. Grossman presents We are responsible for EQ learning that sticks, not slides posted at Leaders. Better. Brighter.™ The Glowan Consulting Group L3 Blog.

Lisa Rosendahl presents We Are All Bullies, Sometimes posted at her new Women of HR. Check it out, the site has a great collection of contributors.

Anna Smith presents Inspire The World – A Recipe posted at WDYWFT Blog, saying, “A post on how to bake an inspiration cake. Just in time for the holiday season.” Sounds yummy.

Jennifer V. Miller presents Leaders Help People Connect the Dots posted at The People Equation. Jennifer’s great – she always connects the dots for me.

William Matthies presents More Than Honesty, Now What? posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By, saying, “How much “truth” can you handle?”

Sharlyn Lauby serves up another round of wisdom with Developing Your Mission Statement posted at hr bartender, saying, “Managers need to be involved in creating and evaluating the company mission. It’s an effective way to keep them engaged and focused on operational goals.”

John Hunter presents A Theory of a System for Educators and Managers posted at Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog.

David Zinger presents Leveraging Positive Deviancy for Employee Engagement posted at Employee Engagement Zingers, saying, “Leverage positive deviance to enhance your employee engagement work.”

Adi Gaskell presents I’ll hire you so long as you don’t threaten my mojo | Chartered Management Institute posted at The Management Blog, saying, “Insight into how management recruit talent based upon their own strengths and weaknesses.”

Nick McCormick presents Live Your Deepest Values at Work posted at Joe and Wanda – on Management, saying, “Stan Slap, author of “Bury My Heart at Conference Room B,” is the guest on this episode of “The Management Tips Podcast Series.” Stan explains that emotional commitment is the key to optimal performance, and the only way to achieve it is to live your deepest values at work. Listen in to find out more.”

Mike Henry Sr. presents 5 Performance Tips When You Are Micro-Managed | Lead Change Group posted at Lead Change Group | Site Wide Activity, saying, “What can someone do when their boss is a micro-manager. This post contains 5 ways you can use your performance to attempt to affect your situation.”

Jason Seiden will never give you the usual party line. Here’s Promoted In a Flat World—Wait, Is That Possible? posted at Fail Spectacularly!, saying, “The way in which people are promoted for good work has got to change. Now.”

I had a chance to meet Lynn Dessert recently, and have been following her blog ever since. I’d recommend you do to! Here’s Succession planning: Always a good outcome? | Elephants at Work posted at Elephants at Work, saying, “Succession planning done in a vacuum rarely works to a manager’s benefit when they are interested in employees from another group.”

I think this may be Mike Hoban’s first submission, but if it’s DDI, it’s got to be good. Here’s Cast Your Vote at the Office posted at DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence.

GreatManagement presents 6 Steps To More Effective Management posted at Great Management, saying, “Here are six basic skills to increase your abilities as an effective manager:”

I run a family blog, so this one almost didn’t make the cut…. but I can’t turn away Miki Saxon. Here’s Ducks in a Row: Leadership or LeadershIt?, posted at Mapping Company Success. Don’t worry, it’s clean.

Michael Cardus presents Is Your Leadership & Work Matched to Capability; How do you know? posted at Create-Learning Team Building & Leadership Blog, saying, “This is why leaders and people within the organization NEED to be properly matched with their capability to make decisions, use their judgment for completion of task assignments (within Goal Setting Structures) and have the opportunity to work for a leader that knows their values & commitments, plus can establish clear and distinct good and bad quality definitions of work. All people who work are due that from the leader.”

Shawn M. Driscoll presents The Innovator in Each of Us posted at Shawn Driscoll.

Heather Stagl presents 99 Ways to Influence Change posted at Enclaria LLC.

John Coleman presents My Leadership Failure posted at Developing the Leader in You

Joe Tichio presents Oct 4, Famous Leadership Quotes posted at Inspirational Quotes Blog, saying, “A collection of leadership quotes from famous people in government, the military, business, and more.”

Namita Panigrahi presents Do you challenge your high performer(s) ? posted at TalentedApps, saying, “We often overlook a very important way to motivate our high performers (hint: it isn’t money)”

Mike Miranda presents Leadership and Ice Cream | Workforce Management Opinions & Trends posted at Aquire Blog, saying, “Here is a leadership blog post sent on behalf of Lois Melbourne, CEO of Aquire.

Iván Ríos-Mena presents A System Isn’t Enough (And What You Can Do About It) posted at Iván Ríos-Mena, saying, “Systems and methods by themselves aren’t enough to change workplace values and attitudes. Here are three ways to start changing your organization’s culture to make it deal better with conflict.”

JeremyMDay presents How To Promote Teamwork posted at Jeremy M. Day, saying, “These are three things I have learned from being a manager in my own company about how to promote teamwork among all colleagues.”

Image credit: Great Leadership

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In today’s world those classed as truly wealthy are also considered leaders.

I have a politically moderate friend who believes that how people spend their money is no one’s business but their own. I used to feel that way, but the growing concentration of wealth is changing my mind.

What are the responsibilities of wealth? Is there a “line in the sand” beyond which spending on “I want” becomes immoral?

Possibly Meg Whitman’s spending $140 million to become governor of California can be defended (although personally I don’t see how), but Mukesh Ambani’s new home in Mumbai has to have crossed the line.

…cantilevered sheath of steel and glass soaring 27 floors into the sky. The parking garage fills six levels. Three helipads are on the roof. There are terraces upon terraces, airborne swimming pools and hanging gardens…estimated the total residential space at 400,000 square feet, though people close to the project say the real number is a humbler 60,000 square feet.

60,000 square feet for a family of five is ‘humbler’?

The extravagance of the ultra-wealthy is increasing no matter the political system and these are the leaders that young people seek to emulate.

What do you think? What should be expected of a leader? Would you draw a line? If so, where?

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