Dan McCarthy, of Great Leadership fame, produced and directed a terrific Leadership Awards show for you. I didn’t win, but then I was up against stars like Wally Bock, so I’m not too disappointed.

Therefore, without more ado, Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeesssssss Dan!

Art Petty sings and dances with a glamorous showgirl on each arm with Leadership Caffeine-Learning to Lead in the Project-Focused World posted at Management Excellence.

Best Supporting Actress:
The nominations are:

Janna Rust in Self Leadership: Lead yourself to success posted at Purposeful Leadership.

Erin Schreyer in Do I Have Food Stuck In My Teeth? posted at Authentic Leadership.

Anna Farmery in Why you should hate a weekend! posted at The Engaging Brand.

Jane Perdue in Let Us Be the Water posted at Life, Love & Leadership.

Becky Robinson in How To Develop Others posted at Mountain State University LeaderTalk, saying, “In order to grow, people need exposure, opportunity, and challenge.”

And the winner is….. Mary Jo Asmus !

Best Supporting Actor:
The nominations are:

Tom Magness in Learning Leadership from “The Office” — Part I posted at Leader Business, saying, “If you are hooked on “The Office” as I am, you will appreciate this post. We learn leadership from good and bad role models. There are plenty of both with the show’s star and office manager, Michael Scott. If you are hooked on the show, or on leadership, you’ll enjoy these comments.”

Chris Young in Startups, Culture-Shaping, and the “Lifetime Employment Award” posted at Maximize Possibility Blog, saying, “Start-ups are exciting organizations to be a part of. However, leaders can often be blinded by their history with a team member who was “there from the start” and unwittingly give them a “lifetime employment award” at great expense to the organization’s culture and the morale of its other employees.”

William Matthies in Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By.

Mike Henry Sr. in Community’s Forth Dimension posted at Lead Change Group Blog.

Tanmay Vora in Quick Thought on Leadership and Subordination to a Cause posted at QAspire – Quality, Management, Leadership & Life!, saying, “When people subordinate a leader, they are not a leader’s subordinates. They are subordinates to a cause. In that context, even a leader is subordinate to a cause. This post tries to emphasize on this very important facet.”

And the winner is…..Tanmay Vora

Best Actress:
The nominations are:

Mary Jo Asmus in Listening, Part II: What REALLY Gets in the Way? posted at Mary Jo Asmus.

Sharlyn Lauby in 7 Types of Power in the Workplace posted at hr bartender, saying, “Everyone has power. It’s using your power effectively that makes a positive difference.”

Alice Snell in Influence and Learning posted at Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions.

LisaRosendahl in Eliminating the Static in Performance Management posted at Lisa Rosendahl, saying, “Performance management is one of the most important things a supervisor can do and it is essential that it be done respectfully and professionally from start to finish.

Jennifer V. Miller in 25 Free Leadership Resources posted at The People Equation.

And the winner is…… Jennifer Miller !

Best Actor:
The nominations are:

David Zinger in Employee Engagement: The Zinger 2020 Vision posted at Employee Engagement Zingers, saying, “The future of employee engagement during this decade.”

Jason Seiden in Your Job Sucks? Really? I’m Shocked. Oh, Wait: No I’m Not. posted at Next Generation Talent Development, saying, “Leadership success starts with the ability to work through adversity… even when adversity comes in the form of our own bad attitudes.”

Steve Roesler in All Things Workplace: What Do We Expect From “Real” Leaders? posted at All Things Workplace, saying, “Leadership authority Steve Roesler says, “One thing I am sure of: You can’t microwave leaders and expect a 5-Star Experience.””

Scott Eblin in Next Level Blog posted at Next Level Blog, saying, “One of the biggest questions for managers moving into executive leadership roles is “How do I delegate bigger decisions to my team and still manage risk?” Scott Eblin has been talking with his clients about that question and has come up with some answers.”

Tom Glover presents Challenges To Being a Team posted at Reflection Leadership.

And the winner is….. Scott Eblin!

Best Director:
The nominations are:

Miki directs MAPping Company Success posted at MAPping Company Success, saying, “In any leadership position you are responsible for creating the culture or subculture (the culture of your group within the overall company culture). Here are 7 basic areas you need to think through and do in order to create and implement the kind of culture you want.”

Wally Bock directs 4 Reasons Why Being a Boss is Not an Olympic Event posted at Three Star Leadership Blog, saying, “Olympic athletes are fun and inspiring to watch. But they’re lousy role models for a boss.”

Adi Gaskell directs A siesta a day keeps the afternoon slump away posted at The Management Blog, saying, “An article showing the virtues of having a nap in the afternoon if you want to be at your best throughout the day.”

Amy Wilson directs Pay for Performance is Dead…almost posted at TalentedApps, saying, “This post covers several signals suggesting that the pay for performance model that we’ve touted in the past might need a serious makeover.”

Nissim Ziv directs Leading a Team Effectively posted at Job Interview Guide, saying, “Teams can be a very effective in producing innovative solutions in the workplace. In jobs throughout every industry, employers always emphasize the need for “good team players.” Teams can generate enthusiasm and increase communication between workers from different departments. “Teamwork” should be the mantra of every organization. Yet, we all know that creating a team can be a bit like creating a monster.”

And the winner is…. Wally Bock!

Best Special Effects:

Aaron Windeler presents Leadership: You don’t know it when you see it posted at Scientific Management.

Nick McCormick presents Social Media Policy Guidelines posted at Joe and Wanda – on Management.

Benjamin McCall in Thing about Leadership… One size does not fit all, posted at ReThinkHR.org.

Shawn M. Driscoll in Dealing with Disillusionment posted at Shawn Driscoll.

Anne Perschel in Fixing the Hole in the Corporate Soul posted at Germane Insights, saying, “Business guru Gary Hamel published “The Hole in the Corporate Soul,” (WSJ) the same day I was writing how to fix it.”

And the winner is….. Anne Perschel!

Here are the rest of our nominations:

Ericka Hines presents Leadership: The future that will exist posted at Ericka Hines, saying, “My blog is targeted towards those in the public sector(nonprofits/social enterprise/government) . I try to make the idea of leadership accessible to understand and to do. I hope that this works for the carnival.”

Jason Reid presents Multi-tasking – doing things badly in twice as much time posted at Sick With Success .com, saying, “A look at how using synergy accomplishes more than multitasking (with examples).”

Andy Klein presents Embrace failure as part of growth posted at The Fortune Group Blog, saying, “When people know they can try and fail and not be reprimanded for doing so, they soon get good at what they do. Growth means trying, so encourage people to try!”

Katy Tynan presents The Simple Path to Leadership Bench Strength posted at Survive Your Promotion!.

Divinelysmile presents The Gender Gap: 10 Surprising Stats on Women in the Workplace posted at JobProfiles.org – Job Descriptions and Online Schools to Start Your Career.

Angela Martin presents 50 Famously Successful People Who Failed At First posted at Online Colleges.org.

Heather Stagl presents Monitor Your Organization’s “Non-Verbal” Communication posted at Enclaria LLC, saying, “It is widely cited that 93% of meaning in a conversation is derived from non-verbal cues. Extrapolating this phenomenon to organizational communication means that most meaning comes from outside official sources.”

Kathy C presents Coaching as a Leadership Competency posted at The Thriving Small Business.

Russell Dygert presents Steak or Hamburger posted at Becoming Who I Should.

Gilda Bonanno presents Using Improv Comedy’s “Half-Life” Technique to Stay Within Your Time Limit While Presenting posted at Gilda Bonanno’s blog, saying, “Public Speaking is an essential success skill for leadership development yet many aspiring leaders still struggle with it. One of the most frequent mistakes they make is to go over the time limit when presenting. This blog post describes a technique from improvisational comedy that can help presenters learn to deliver the essential elements of their message while staying within the time limit.”

Image credit: Great Leadership

Dan McCarthy over at Great Leadership By Dan is once again hosting The July 5th Leadership Development Carnival (it will be hosted other places in the coming months) and, as Dan says, “It’ll help work the cramps out of your brain,” now that the holiday is over.

There’s a lot of excellent information available from the many outstanding participants.

Click around, read and enjoy, but with my normal caveat—leadership is for everyone, not just the person out front.

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: Great Leadership by Dan

Sometimes it seems as if the economic crisis is acting like an earthquake that’s turning over rock after rock and all kinds of icky things are crawling out much to our dismay. A few months ago I wrote about the mindset that seems to be so prevalent these days.

“These days” aren’t all that recent whereas the executive bonuses causing so much rage are just a blip.

Enron was eight years ago as was the phen-phen settlement rip-off, although the two lawyers were only convicted this week.

For decades, the Feds have been scamster heaven and that hasn’t changed, “about 32 percent of the combined monies paid out by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are fraudulent”—often enabled employees—and by 2007 more than $100 billion was spent on contractors for the Iraq war (you can outsource anything) and you can bet your bottom dollar there’s been plenty of fraud there. Just business as usual.

Of course lying, cheating and fraud aren’t new, but what’s depressing is that they seem to become more and more acceptable. Worse, all the signs are ignored until the situation blows up causing massive damage to thousands of people.

Maydoff and the other hedge fund scamsters operated for years with everybody ignoring the warning signs until the Wall Street bomb blew up and investors wanted their money back. At that point all those houses of cards came tumbling down.

Yet as recently as last August Congress was seriously considering turning over the private pension funds to these same people responsible for the financial crisis—even as those funds were crashing.

Remember when you were young and some boring older person told you that “if it seems too good to be true it probably is”? The problem is that as people grew up they tacked two words onto that phrase and those two words helped get us where we are today.

Do you know which two words?

But me.

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I hate leaving things on a down note, so here is something to raise your spirits and your skills.

Dan McCarthy over at Great Leadership hosts a terrific leadership carnival and the latest one just went live today. Click on over and check it out, I guarantee that there’s something there for everyone—and probably more than one something. Enjoy!

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: flickr