Smart lady that she is, Karin Hurt of Let’s Grow Leaders organized this month’s Leadership Development Carnival by topic, which makes it very handy to find great info on a specific problem.

Being a Better Boss

Dan McCarthy of  Great Leadership shares his post, 6 Types of Bosses.  Dan answers the question we all wonder from time to time, “ “If all of this leadership development stuff is supposed to be so great, then why are there so many bad bosses?”

Wally Bock of  Three Star Leadership shares  The Disease of Me.  The Disease of Me can destroy relationships and careers. It’s easy to catch.

Collaboration

Jon Mertz shares his post, In Collaboration We Trust from his blog Thin Difference.  Collaboration succeeds when trust is active and trust is embedded in interactions, mission, connections, and progress forward.

Empowerment

Dana Theus brings us, 3 Ways Men Can Help Women In The Workplace on her InPower Consulting blog.  If you’re a man leading people in your company, chances are that you feel somewhat stymied in how to address one of the biggest talent management problems all companies face: how to keep bright, talented women from leaving the company before they make it into the leadership ranks. …

Change expert Bill Matthies discusses the connection between employee personal problems and the failure of their companies to achieve their goals on his Coyote Insight Blog.  His reminds us, ”To achieve company goals, help your employees achieve theirs,

Jim Taggart of Changing Winds shares his post, No Soup for You! Tales of Amazing Customer Service.  This post is about customer service and how some organizations create a self-empowering workplace for their employees to provide extra-ordinary service.

Tanveer Naseer of Tanveer Naseer Leadership  asks Do You Give Your Power Away At Work? and then offers practical solutions to help ensure your voice is heard.

The Power of Letting Go

Lolly Daskal of Lead From Within shares: When we are faced with problems the first thing we want to do is identify it, define it, examine it, analyze it and seek solutions.  What if we could try something new?”  Read on… Don’t Solve Your Problems.

Julie Winkle Giulioni also talks about letting go in her Lead Change Group post, Letting Go with Grace.  Excessive attachments in today’s warp-speed world shape not only who we become – but what our organizations become. Could ‘holding on’ be holding us back?

Tim Milburn of timmilburn.com shares his post.  How To Wait When The Waiting Is Hard.  We all have to wait for things. Here are some ideas to make the most of those times when the waiting is difficult.

Execution

Jesse Lyn Stoner  of Seapoint Center shares her insights on The Space Between Supervising Closely and Delegating  Most of us know what it looks like when you are Supervising Closely or Delegating. But the space between is large and undefined… and very important. It’s the space where growth occurs and relationships are forged. This post explains what leadership looks like in that space.

Susan Mazza shares her post, It Sounds Great In Theory from her blog Random Acts of Leadership. Just because something “sounds great in theory” doesn’t mean we can immediately implement it. This post explains how to lessen the gap between theory and action.

Mary Jo Asmus of Aspire talks about change in her blog in her post Seeing resistance?  Look inside yourself.  Resistance to change is normal. When leaders notice it, the tendency might be to push harder. Mary Jo suggests an alternative.

Randy Conley shares two key factors of high performance that are completely under your control. If you’re a leader, you’ll want to see how these two factors relate to the people you manage.   Two Things Your Boss Should Never Have to Talk to You About from his blog,  Leading With Trust

Performance Management

HR Bartender,  Sharlyn Lauby, provides a step-by-step guide to coaching an employee in her post, HOW TO: Have a Performance Conversation with an Employee

Joel Garfinkle shares Have to Let Someone Go? Follow These Tips to Make it as Painless as Possible in his Career Advancement Blog.

Career

Mary Ila Ward of The Point, Sound Advice for Career and Leadership Development shares her post, Know your Value.  Part of a series of posts on personal leadership, this post discusses the importance of leaders in knowing and establishing their value in the workplace.

Learning

Julie Winkle Giulioni of juliewinklegiulioni.com writes about Unpacking Learning. Leaders dedicate considerable effort to engineer training and development opportunities their employees. The problem is that completing the experience leaves the work half done. The real benefit comes when we help others unpack the learning from the experiences they have.

John Hunter of Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog writes about The Art of Discovery.  It’s a video with George Box explaining the importance of directed experimentation with informed observers to improve performance.

David Burkus of LDRLB shares Why Learning from failure Works Better When Others Fail.  There are definitely positive lessons to be learned from failure, but new research suggests that the failure of others might be a better source of learning than our own short-comings or mis-steps.

Neal Burgis, Ph.D. talks about Leaders Over Using Their Strengths in his Practical Solutions Blog.  Anyone who has ever driven a car knows blind spots are potentially lethal.  This holds true in leading business organizations as well as on the road.  Are you aware of your strengths and how to use them to your advantage without overusing them? Do you recognize your strengths & how you use them?

Change

Steve Roesler of All Things Workplace  shares his post  Earn Your “Change Chips” Early.  When it comes time to ask your people to make a significant change, have you earned enough “chips” to be heard and trusted?

Miki Saxon of MAPping Company Success shares her post Ducks in a Row: 7 Steps to Change. When you want to create change, whether of culture, process or something else, there are seven steps you need to follow whether you are CEO or a first line supervisor.

Culture

Chris Young of the Human Capital Strategy Blog asks Are You Creating an Avoidance Culture?  Perhaps you have worked for a boss who was difficult to approach – a person you actually came to avoid.  Chris offers ways to avoid a culture of avoidance.

Linda Fisher Thornton shares  15 Ways to Encourage Moral Growth in Leadership in her blog, Leading in Context.  She has compiled a list of 15 things that we can do in our organizations to encourage ethical awareness and moral growth. These elements can be applied as part of ongoing leadership development in any organization.

Organizational culture guru S. Chris Edmonds outlines three “what” questions that can help you get traction on desired culture changes on his Blog Driving Results Through Culture.  See Get Traction on Your Desired Culture

Lisa Kohn of The Thoughtful Leaders Blog presents Conflict is Good-5 Ways to Make It Even Better!  She presents a few simple, but not so easy, steps to take that can help make conflict more effective and productive.

Erin Schreyer of ErinSchreyer.com shares Three Crucial Ingredients for Leadership Success. Regardless of your position, title or experience, you need these ingredients to excel.

Image credit: Great Leadership

I don’t buy into “leadership” as taught by the leadership industry, but I find those who contribute the  Leadership Development Carnival don’t sell the “you are special”/“chosen one” Koolaid.

Instead, they offer up pragmatic advice and help that fosters leadership in everyone, whether they are in a leadership role or not.

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Wally Bock from Three Star Leadership presents The Key to Engagement. “Supervisors are the key to engagement. What are you doing to select and prepare better supervisors?”

Jim Taggart from Changing Winds blog presents Big-Bang in Practice: Antifragility, Innovation and Leadership.

Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender presents Is Leading While Learning Really Effective. “In a “do the job then get the job” world of work, is leading while learning really effective?”

Joel Garfinkle from Career Advancement Blog presents How to stop employee turnover in the first 90 days. “We seem to have a particular problem keeping our new hires from jumping ship. Turnover in the first 90 days is the main area of concern. Here are three steps you can start taking right away to turn your situation around.”

Bernd Geropp from More Leadership presents Five Questions you should ask before holding a meeting! “Lots of managers spend 50 % of their time at work in meetings.
Many meetings are just a waste of time. They are boring, they don’t serve a purpose.
If you want an effective meeting you need to answer 5 crucial questions before you hold the meeting… “

Linda Fisher Thornton from Leading in Context Blog presentsWhich of These is Ethical Leadership? “The graphic in this post illustrates the point that leaders are interpreting “ethical leadership” at very different levels. Which one of the 3 represents ethical leadership”

Mary Jo Asmus from Mary Jo Asmus presents Embracing Feedback. “For those who want feedback but haven’t yet learned to fully appreciate it.”

Jesse Lyn Stoner from Jesse Lyn Stoner Blog presents Let’s Stop Confusing Cooperation and Teamwork with Collaboration. “Using collaboration, cooperation and teamwork interchangeably dilutes their meaning and diminishes the potential to create powerful, collaborative environments. This post defines the difference, discusses Marissa Mayer’s memo that she was recalling remote Yahoo employees back to offices in order to promote collaboration and explains what is required to create a truly collaborative environment.”

Julie Winkle Giulioni from juliewinklegiulioni.com presents Building the Bench. “Recent research suggests that just as many organizations are beginning to feel that they’re stabilizing after a long period of economic uncertainty, they may in fact find themselves facing a new and unexpected challenge: deficient management bench strength. This post spotlights an under-leveraged approach to addressing this issue… while at the same time driving business results.”

S. Chris Edmonds from Driving Results Through Culture presents WOW Your Customers, Grow Your Business. “How employees treat customers has a huge impact on your business’ buzz . . . and your business’ revenues.”

Randy Conley from Leading with Trust presents Trust is…. “Trust is…” – How would you complete that phrase? Trust means something different to each person, and in this reflective post, Randy shares thoughts on what trust is to him and he invites you to add to the list by completing the phrase, “Trust is…”

Steve Roesler from All Things Workplace presents Self-Leadership & 3 Key Variables.  “When it comes to making career and leadership changes, there are three variables that come into play. If you are wrestling with where you are right now, this may help you clarify where you need to focus your energy and your effort.”

Tim Milburn from www.timmilburn.compresents Five Ways To Turn Your Crisis Into A Comeback. “Leadership is difficult (even in your own home). This heartfelt post was written from my own personal experience of moving forward in the face of failure.”

Bill Matthies from Business WisdomWhat I Will, What I Won’t. “While the philosophic take on this is what we will resist versus what we will attempt to maintain, the business version is about spending or saving resources. In Vegas, knowing when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em. It’s not easy is it?”

Dana Theus from InPower Consulting Blog presents The 3% Leadership Revolution: A (Missed) Opportunity for Women. “There is a quiet leadership revolution going on, a shift in the definition of success from “what” to “how.” In times of major change, the underdog has a strategic opportunity to end up on top. In this revolution, the women-in-leadership underdogs have a unique opportunity to capitalize on it and use it to define our leadership careers – to play a leadership role in the revolution, so to speak – or miss our chance at squeezing out from under the dominant culture that keeps women and men (both!) from valuing what women bring to leadership table.”

Bruce Lewin from Four Groups’ Blog presents Why is Understanding People So Hard.
“The lack of well recognised tools and techniques that help us better understand people through reliable predictions undoubtedly contributes to the fact that understanding people is hard. Taking this conclusion at face value, it’s then easy to see how some managers don’t want to get involved in ‘people’ issues and instead they prefer to pass the problem to HR. Time will tell how long this situation endures but given the 50 year time frames above, it’s difficult to see this cliché being consigned to history any time soon.”

Miki Saxon from MAPping Company Success presents You are NOT Your Company. “Ego-merge has an out-sized negative effect on people and companies, yet it is rarely, if ever, recognized, let alone discussed.”

Karen Kanakanui from Lead Change Group! presents a post by Karin Hurt called Why Doesn’t My Team Feel Recognized? “You’ve served up regular recognition cocktails of programs, plaques, bonuses, and fun. You’ve spent lots of money… you’ve put in heartfelt effort. And then… the employee survey results come in. It’s not enough. They want more. What if your recognition cocktails don’t work?”

Anne Perschel from Germane Insights presents Dear Leader: Verbal Feedback Not Working? Try Action Feedback Instead.

Lolly Daskal from www.lollydaskal.com presents Leadership: Disappointed To The Core. “If you meet a leader who’s a loner, who doesn’t communicate, who’s not engaged, who seems removed and not trusting, it’s probably not because they enjoy solitude or disengagement. It’s far more likely that they have been disappointed. There will always be people and events that will let us down, and when that happens it can shake us to the core.”

Kevin Eikenberry from Blog: Leadership & Learning presents Leading in Living Color. “Too many leaders think they can leave their real selves at home, leading from a place of policy, procedure and a pursuit of perceived perfection. If you want to be a more effective leader, be real and relatable. Lead in living color.”

Anna Farmery from The Engaging Brand presents What is the definition of empowerment. “People often mistake delegation for empowerment, yet in a networked world empowerment becomes even more vital.”

Susan Mazza from Random Acts of Leadership presents The Key to Being Adaptable. “If you want to be adaptable you must be willing to let go of one particular need.”

Wendy Appel from The Enneagram Source presents I Choose Now.

Jon Mertz from Thin Difference presents Follow / Unfollow – Making Relationships Work. “In business and life, there are people we associate with and build relationships with. The key questions are: Who do we follow, and who do we unfollow?”

Karin Hurt from Let’s Grow Leaders presents Humility and Leadership: Can We Teach Leaders to Be Humble? “Is it possible to teach humility?”

David Burkus from LDRLB presents Do You Have Executive Presence? “David Burkus examines the research on “executive presence” and its role in developing leaders.”

Robyn McLeod from The Thoughtful LeadersÔ Blog presents Your strengths can hurt you, “where she shares four tips to avoid having your strengths turn into derailers.”

What does the Millennial generation seek in leadership development opportunities and do generational stereotypes get in the way? As part of her article research for the Huffington Post on “filling the leadership pipeline” Jennifer V. Miller of The People Equation interviewed what Gen Y professionals had to say in Gen Y and Leadership: Young Professionals Speak Up.

Neal Burgis, Ph.D. from Practical Solutions Blog presents Coloring Outside the Lines of Your Leadership. “Many leaders are known as unconventional, non-traditional, and even trailblazers. These individuals step over the boundary lines to be creative and implement their creative side in business, and sometimes in everything else they do. Coloring outside the lines is primarily about stepping outside your comfort zone & take a risk to be creative with your thinking skills. This is where you get to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

Mary Ila Ward from The Point Blog: Sound Advice for Career and Leadership Development presents Questions for Striving Servant Leaders. “This post examines if you are truly acting like a servant leader by questioning where is your car parked and where is your nursery located.”

Joan Kofodimos from Anyone Can Lead presents Why are you so swamped? “Most causes of managers’ work overload aren’t in the nature of the work – they’re from within the manager. Understanding your own patterns and what you do to keep yourself swamped is key to getting un-swamped, and key to making the transition from managing to leading.”

Tanveer Naseer from Tanveer Naseer’s blog presents “What Organizations Really Need To Succeed And Thrive”.

Anadi Upadhyaya from TalentedApps presents Getting it Right: 100KM, Team of 4 and 48 Hours. “A great story about the four C’s of Shared Goals: Criteria, Communication, Change and Collaboration.”

Bret Simmons from Positive Organizational Behavior presents How we enhance our organizational citizenship. “The evidence on what makes us more likely to be good citizens at work”.

Nick McCormick from Joe and Wanda on Management presents Listen Up Managers. Don’t Forget to Change Your Oil. “Advice on listening from Greg Blencoe’s book, The Supermanager”.

Image credit: Great Leadership

As I’ve said many times, I really don’t like the whole “leadership thing” as taught by the leadership industry.

But I find those contributing to the March Leadership Development Carnival aren’t preaching that “you are special”/”chosen one” type of leadership.

Instead, they offer up pragmatic advice and help that fosters leadership in everyone, whether they are in a leadership role or not.

Leadership Practices and Approaches

Mary Jo Asmus of Aspire-CS makes a compelling pitch for being intentional about giving praise and recognition as a daily practice in When things go right. Mary Jo reminds us that “leaders need to look and remark on the things that go right as well as those mistakes made by those around them.”

Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership says, “A lot of leaders make the mistake of using the same conflict management strategy for all kinds of conflict. There are actually three types of conflict, each requiring a different approach.” In How to Handle 3 Kinds of Conflict, Dan shows you how to be more effective next time conflict arises.

In her post 6 Qualities in a Leadership Role Model, Sharlyn Lauby, The HR Bartender, describes six qualities associated with Servant Leadership.

According to Neal Burgis at Practical Solutions Blog, “The old model of leadership was all about having the answers. In the current model, the leader’s primary role is to initiate conversations that bring out the best thinking of the group.” Powerful Conversations that Yield Powerful Results offers tips for holding these conversations.

Gwyn Teatro of You’re Not the Boss of Me says, “A team is made up of people.  It is the leader’s job to learn as much as possible about what those people are capable of bringing to it and to encourage their willingness to do so.”  Gwyn poignantly describes the consequences of a missed opportunity in A Reflection on Teambuilding… and the Story of Edith.

Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership Blog points out “there should be no surprises at annual performance review time.” In Performance Reviews Made Effective, Wally offers sound advice that will not only make them more effective, but also helpful instead of painful.

In her excellent TEDx talk, The Woman Effect  – Video and the Research Behind It, Dana Theus of InPower Consulting Blog examines the modern state of feminine leadership and invites us to show up and participate.  She describes the “Tragic Queen” and the “Underdog Princess” and makes a compelling case that ultimately the real difference is in their belief in their own power.

According to Art Petty of Managing Excellence, we live and work in a world filled with chaos and turbulence and must plan and prepare for instability, disruption, and chaos in advance. Art describes 5 Priceless Lessons from Amundsen and Scott and points out, “we will all be better off if we incorporate this explorer’s constancy of purpose and unrelenting focus into our personal and professional endeavors.”

Anna Farmery of The Engaging Brand tells us it’s the little spontaneous gestures that mean so much in What is the Customer Experience.

Bernd Geropp at More Leadership discusses the difference between efficient and effective and your role as a leader. In Why Your Employees Are Not Working Efficiently, he points out it’s not just a simple matter of proper training.

Do KRA’s and Rewards Help in Quality? by Tanmay Vora at QAspire Blog touches upon Alfie Kohn’s work and questions if external reward systems help in tapping the intrinsic motivation of people.

Linda Fisher Thornton of Leading in Context Blog addresses the challenges of complexity. She says, “As our work becomes more complex, so do our ethical dilemmas.” in Complexity in Leadership, Linda discusses the thinking skills to needed to navigate complex situations more easily.

Nick McCormick of The Joe and Wanda on Management Blog asks Are You a Manager or a Host?

The Workplace Environment: Culture, Change, Innovation, and Empowerment

Lolly Daskal of Lead From Within explains that to successfully implement a change effort, “leaders much acknowledge and deal with the emotions of the people who are affected.” Change the Sixth Sense shows us that “change cannot be comprehended without taking into account our feelings.”

John Hunter of Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog points out that “the need in so many organizations to avoid failure means wise actions are avoided because there is a risk of failure.” On the other hand, “reducing the impact of failure is very wise and sensible.” Taking Risks is Necessary, But Costs of Failure Should Still be Managed discusses how to maximize innovation and improvement while minimizing the impact of failure.

Leadership Development – a Key Strategy in Change Management, by Jennifer V. Miller of The People Equation explores how coaching, training and 360 degree feedback is a key strategy for creating an organization that’s responsive to change. As a bonus, Jennifer includes an infographic of a 2013 survey by The Institute for Corporate Productivity that demonstrates how critical of an issue change is for today’s organizations.

In his TEDx talk, Why Great Ideas Get Rejected, David Burkus of LDRLD demonstrates that we possess an inherent bias against innovation in part because we evaluate new ideas through the lens of the status quo. He offers helpful advice on how we can get better at recognizing the value of new ideas when they are presented.

Tanveer Nasser shares Lessons on Effective Leadership From a Nobel Laureate derived from the work of James Watson. Tanveer notes “as innovation continues to evolve into a required cornerstone in today’s organizations, science will certainly play a guiding role in helping leaders to understand how to develop a experimentation mindset within their workforce,” and he stresses the importance of the role of observation.

S. Chris Edmonds of The Purposeful Culture Group asks “how well do your leaders communicate, model, and champion your organization’s desired culture?” in Enable Employees with Liberating Rules.

Chery Gegelman of  Simply Understanding  by Giana Consulting discusses the importance of organizational culture in The greatest opportunity for improvement and competitive advantage.

Joel Garfinkle of Career Advancement Blog discusses three best practices in recruiting and retaining talent in What’s It Worth to You? — Valuing Human Capital.

Mark Stelzner of Inflexion Point explains that fear is pervasive for all of us and makes the case that an important role of HR is to support employees in facing their fears: On Fear And HR.

Ray Benedetto of Guiding Star Blog describes three anchors of effective leadership systems and provides a checklist to assess your ability to survive the next leadership change in Avoiding Organizational Leadership Crises.

Chris Young at Human Capital Strategies Blog shares 7 Business Lessons from Peter Drucker Every CEO Must Follow.

In Stuck in the Middle, Mary Ila Ward of The Point offers suggestions to C Level executives for empowering middle managers.

Personal Mastery, Communication and Networking

Wendy Appel at The Enneagram Source Blog show us that better decisions will result if our head, heart and gut all have a seat at the table in Integrated Response: Head, Heart, Gut. 

Steve Roesler of All Things Workplace offers Tips To Pinpoint Real Issues At Work. If you’ve ever been frustrated by a colleague or a boss who is “talking around an issue,” here are 4 good questions you can ask to help them get focused and right to the heart of the issue.

How do you respond to feedback?  Jesse Lyn Stoner describes the peril of ignoring it and provides 4 tips for How to Answer a Wake Up Call. (Hint: Don’t hit the snooze button.)

Julie Winkle Giulioni says “networking is a core competency and requirement for business success.” In Networking Not Working? 6 Strategies for the Intrepid Schmoozer, Julie offers six practical suggestions to increasing your comfort and confidence in networking situations.

In Simple Virtual Touchpoints – A Catalyst for Global Conversations, Susan Mazza of Random Acts of Leadership says, “One of the most valuable outcomes of engaging with people via Social Media has been the opportunity to network with, learn from and build communities with thought leaders from around the world.”

Mark Bennett of TalentedApps explains that to achieve your goals you need a plan that “translates into specific behaviors for your particular situation” in Make sure you know the second shot.

In The Secret Behind the 9 Box Performance Potential Grid, Karin Hurt of Let’s Grow Leaders explains how to take charge of your career. She suggests finding out where you fit in your organization’s succession plan and offers some additional tips.

Miki Saxon of MAPping Company Success explains that stress itself might not be bad, but rather the problem is how you handle it. She says, “If you put your energy into controlling stuff to avoid stress you are bound to fail” in Cope or Control (That is the Question).

Jon Mertz of Thin Difference Blog recently attended the Wisdom 2.0 Conference and shares his learnings in Six New, New Things I Learned from Wisdom 2.0.

Jim Taggart at Changing Winds outlines 9 types of intelligence in Are You Emotionally Intelligent? EI–The Inner Side of Leadership: Part I

In Leadership that Limits Success, Guy Farmer of Self-Awareness Workshops Blog says self-awareness is important so you can choose behaviors that increase success.

Joan Kofodimos of Anyone Can Lead Blog offers some excellent advice on how to Make Sure Your Strengths Don’t Become Weaknesses.

In Saddle Up and Lead  Claudio Morelli of The Lead Change Group says,“Overcoming fear is key to a leader’s success in working through difficult situations when their leadership is challenged and sometimes threatened.”

In her post The real ways to capitalize on failure, Robyn McLeod summarizes an Inc. magazine blog post by Lewis Schiff on 5 things to do when you fail.

Randy Conley of Leading with Trust closes out the carnival by providing encouragement to us all by reminding us that we matter in You Matter – The Truth About Your Purpose and Value. A message we all need to remember.

Image credit: Great Leadership

The February 2013 Leadership Development Carnival was hosted by David Burkus at LDRLB, which “tends to see the world through: leadership, innovation, and strategy,” so that is how they sorted this month’s  submissions. The categories overlap, as David points out, but personally I’ve never found that anything breaks down so simply. But that doesn’t negate the value of the information or the skill with which it is presented by 37 skilled and savvy bloggers.

Leadership

Wally Bock at Three Star Leadership on why Questions are Our Friends. There aren’t many courses about how to ask questions, but great questions can help you become a great boss.

Jon Mertz from Thin Difference explores the increased presence of millennial in the workplace with Millennial Leaders – Building a Horizontal View.

Mark Miller from Great Leaders Serve asks Is Your Team Really a Team?

Sharlyn Lauby, also know as the HR Bartender on the importance of developing your people in Coaching Employees to the Next Level.

Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership on making talent reviews work in Why You Should Conduct Talent Review Meetings and 10 Tips for Doing Them.

Andy Uskavitch from SuperVISION Motivation on the importance of Communication and Partnerships.

Randy Conley with another gem on Leading with Trust with Five Lessons from Lance Armstrong’s Failure.

Mary Ila Ward from Horizon Point Consulting brings another Leadership How-to with How to Combine Communication with Teamwork.

Lisa Kohn offers simple steps for constructive feedback in The Zen of Giving Feedback on the Thoughtful Leader’s Blog.

Mike Henry of Lead Change Group runs a diagnostic on recognition with 5 Reasons Your Recognition is Backfiring.

Julia Winkle Giuolini’s post stretches to a new medium: video as she shares with us a Few Words on Focus from TEDx.

Joan Kofodimos at Anyone Can Lead brings some insight into coaching with Biggest Coaching Mistakes Managers Make.

Joel Garfinkle of the Career Advancement Blog offers Seven Steps to Success in Your New Management Job.

Jennifer V. Miller of The People Equation takes a team perspective on new leaders with 9 Things Team Members Want to Know About the New Boss, but Won’t Ask.

Jim Taggart from Changing Winds analyzes another changing wind, From Transactional Leadership to Reflective Leadership.

Innovation

Our own David Burkus offers this post from right here at LDRLB, Six Proven Ways to Pitch Your Idea.

Dana Theus of InPower Consulting looks at women in leadership roles with Different But Good: What We Can Learn from Women in Leadership.

Jesse Lyn Stoner of Seapoint Center explains how Collaboration is the Remedy for Polarization.

Bernd Geropp brings us another video his piece On Leadership: My Interview with Serial Entrepreneur Chris Ducker.

Anna Farmery of The Engaging Brand offers an engaging post on How To Guarantee Your Self-Improvement.

Bill Matthies gives us a Coyote Insight on change in his post If The MBAs Don’t Know How to Handle Change How Can I?

Mary Jo Asmus on the importance of staying fresh and Remaining a Beginner.

Tom Walter, the Serial Entrepreneur, explores whether ethical behavior in leadership is still given the weight necessary in Ethics in Leadership.

Susan Mazza with Random Acts of Leadership on how to Experiment Like An Expert.

Wendy Appel, master of the Enneagram Source, outlines the Essential Role of Curiosity.

Corporate culture guru S. Chris Edmonds shares an example of how a compelling purpose statement inspires staff to excellence in Clear Purpose Inspires Aligned Action.

Strategy

Puja Ghelani of Strategistas examines the career of Lucille Ball through the lens of a Blue Ocean Strategista.

Linda Fisher Thornton of Leading in Context asks and answers the question How is Ethical Leadership a Strategic Advantage?

Chris Young of the Rainmaker Group offers an insight into human capital strategies with Executive Strategies: Who is Your Executive Team Loyal To?

Jane Perdue at LeadBIG tackles crisis management with Rewarding Hat Tricks or Planning.

Karin Hurt from Let’s Grow Leaders on how urgent versus important balance gets tipped and 7 Ways to Prevent False Urgency.

Neal Burgis always offers Practical Solutions and does so again in Hard Goals Challenge Your Goal Achieving Skills.

Miki Saxon from MAPping Company Success on how we learn best with Single Loop vs Double Loop learning.

Anne Pershcel serves up another Germane Insight with Step Back to Lead Forward.

Tom Magness of Leader Business offers another battle-tested strategy for Leading in the Fog of War.

Debbie Mills-Scofield has some reassuring advice for all of us: If You’re Not Scared, You Aren’t Leading.

John Hunter from the Curious Cat Management Blog looks at how to develop leadership culture in any market condition with The Mark Discounts Proven Company Leadership Far Too Quickly.

Flickr image credit: Robert Nunnally

In honor of the New Year Dan McCarthy solicited “their best posts of 2013” for the January Leadership Carnival as chosen by each authors. The result are 33 posts providing insight and inspiration for all of you, whether you manager or managed the information will prove useful.

S. Chris Edmonds, from Driving Results Through Culture, picked Create a Validating Corporate Culture.
“This post was my most popular (generated the most comments) and is one of my favorite posts from this past year. In it I present very new insights (for me!) on the health of organizational culture: civility (basic “niceness;” no yelling, cursing, or tantrums – yet a stretch for many organizations because civility is NOT the norm), then acknowledgement (active recognition of effort, accomplishment, and demonstration of desired values), to the highest level of cultural health, validation (proactive, explicit valuing of team members’ ideas, skills, enthusiasm, work ethic, and cooperation).”

Anne Perschel, from Germane Insights, picked Dear CEO: What’s Your 400 Year Business Plan?
“What can leaders learn from the makers of fine cognac? How to grow a company that remains healthy long into the future. This post begins by considering the 400 year forest management plans that produce trees for making cognac barrels. Sip slowly and enjoy the read.”

Mary Jo Asmus picked A Question of Courage.
“This is my favorite because it addresses fear, a huge negative (and silent) driver that keeps leaders from speaking up against injustice, lack of ethics, morality issues and other things that damage individuals and people in our organizations. Leaders must learn to recognize their fear when it surfaces and ask themselves several questions – provided in the article –  and one very important question in order to take action against negative influences at work.”

Julie Winkle Giulioni picked Make Sure to Learn from Your Successes.
“It may not have been my most popular… but I think it’s ‘best’ because it’s a simple message… but one that too many of us forget. I firmly believe that if we redeployed even a fraction of the time and energy we spend focusing on failure toward learning from success, we’d get a lot farther faster.”

Sharlyn Lauby, from HR Bartender, picked How to Tell if Your Boss is a Bully or Just Tough.
“Believe it or not, this is my number one leadership/management related post. There are very fine lines between being a tough boss, a jerk manager and a bully.”

Bernd Geropp, from More Leadership, picked What makes a great business vision statement?
“In my opinion having a vision is crucial for a leader.
A true vision shows that the leader and the company strive to solve a meaningful problem.
It is not about money, it is about solving a problem which makes the world a better place.
I believe the included video helps that this post is one of my most popular ones.”

Karin Hurt, from Let’s Grow Leaders, picked Humility Matters: 9 Ways Confident Leaders Remain Humble.
“One of my most popular posts, and one that expresses an important essence of leadership. We want to follow people with confidence, charisma and a strong sense of direction.  Confidence inspires, attracts, excites and ignites.  We think, “they sure do seem to know what they’re doing…”  And yet, I have observed that confidence, without humility, can be dangerous.  I have seen it significantly limit a leader’s effectiveness.  They stay their course, but may miss important input.  People may follow, but not with their full spirit.  Truly confident leaders are secure enough to embrace and share their humility.  In the long run, their humility makes them stronger.”

Joel Garfinkle, from Career Advancement Blog, picked 3 Ways to Avoid Burnout in Today’s High-Pressure Work Environment. 
“I’m feeling exhausted and burned out, but I’m afraid to slow down. What should I do? Here are three ways to get yourself back on track: (1) Schedule yourself first, (2) Set and maintain boundaries, (3) Monitor overload warnings.”

Lisa Kohn, from The Thoughtful Leaders Blog, submitted Balance is a dirty word.
“Here’s a few simple ideas for achieving more balance in our worlds and our lives.”

Linda Fisher Thornton, from Leading in Context, picked What is Creativity?
“What is Creativity?” was the most popular post of 2012 on the Leading in Context Blog. It explores the variables that make up what we call creativity, and investigates whether it is a skill or a mindset.”

Here’s my own favorite from 2012,  10 Simple “Truths” about Management vs. Leadership. Although one of my shorter posts, it took a long time to write, and represents over 20 years of experience and learning about leadership.

Tom Magness, from Leader Business, picked March Tables.
“It is a leadership lesson from my days as a young lieutenant.  Timeless lessons about…time!”

Bill Matthies, from Business Wisdom, picked Stagnant Thinking.
“Real change stems from the ability to alter one’s views. The next time you find yourself in a heated discussion with a co-worker, remember this.  If you can’t change your mind, what can you change?”  

Jim Taggart, from Changing Winds leadership, picked Even a Bullet to the Head Couldn’t Stop this Young Female Leader.
“I chose this post not just because it elicited strong interest from readers in many countries, but because it may help foster personal reflection and inquiry at the start of 2013. Malala Yousafzai is still healing physically and emotionally from her wounds, yet her courage and perseverance to her cause- that girls in Pakistan have the right to education and to be safe while doing so -  is a testimony to true leadership. And it’s why I chose her as the top leader in my Leadership 2012 blog post (which I’ll release on January 7). The book is not closed on Malala. Expect to hear much more from her in 2013.”

John Hunter, from Management Improvement, selected We are Being Ruined by the Best Efforts of People Who are Doing the Wrong Thing.
“Determining which post deserves the honor of being selected the best of the year, isn’t easy. As did the other candidates, this post presented an important leadership lesson.  But, in addition, it has the added value of a cute video with a baby porcupine (demonstrating that effort without the proper insight is often wasted); that proved enough to allow the post to edge out the others.”

Tom Walter submitted How to be a Good Coach: Tips for employee-focused leaders.
“Being a good coach means putting others before yourself and always making decisions for the good of the team.  Here are eight tips on how to take coaching principles into the workplace in order to be an employee-focused leader, it all starts with listening.”

Mark Stelzner, from inflexionadvisors, picked 5 Career Lessons From The Road.
“I believe that real life experience often serves up the best advice and this particular flight (plus a little eavesdropping) served as great inspiration.”

David Burkus, from Leaderlab (next month’s Carnival host), picked Strategy is About Choice.
“It was one of the most read pieces in 2012 and the one with the most active discussion BY FAR, on how developing strategy is just as much about what you choose not to pursue.”

Eric Pennington, from The Epic Living Blog, picked An Early Morning in June.
“This post is my best/favorite for 2012 because it reveals much about me and gave my readers a since of my heart and experiences. The readers got to see clearly that experiences shape a true mission.”

Art Petty, from Management Excellence, selected Leading in the Matrix-7 Ideas to Cultivate the Right Skills.
“I remain convinced that the leaders of tomorrow are those who are best able to lead with accountability and often without authority in distributed and heavily matrixed environments. These “integrator leaders” must survive on their ability to build temporary coalitions, cultivate a shared vision, and drive results all without the hire/fire/promote authority that traditional organizational leaders have enjoyed. Blend in the need to be able to do all of this across time-zones and cultures, and you can see why those who master the art of leading in the matrix are increasingly in demand.”

Randy Conley, Leading with Trust, picked Five Leadership Lessons From the Life of Neil Armstrong.
“This past year saw the passing of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon and a true American hero. In one of his most widely read and tweeted posts, Randy shares five leadership lessons from the life and career of Armstrong.”

Wally Bock, from Three Star Leadership, picked Magical Bosses.
“Great bosses get results that often seem magical. But there’s method to the magic and you can learn it.”

Jane Perdue, from LeadBIG, picked Let’s end the paradox of kindness.
“Power has gotten a bum rap of being all ego-centric and self-serving. Hooey. One can do well, show kindness and be as powerful as all get-out. Dare to be kind.” As my most read post of 2012, I’m delighted that others agree!”

Mike Henry Sr., from Lead Change Group, picked Playing the Part of a Leader (by Alan Derek Utley).
“Alan Utley challenged us to avoid the temptation to simply “go through the motions” of leadership. We can’t simply act the part.  We must “be the leader.” Simply acting like a leader won’t get it. He proposed 6 things we must do to “be” a genuine leader.”

Neal Burgis, Ph.D. picked Happy New Year: Holiday Challenge for 2013.
“This is my best work as it relates to the brand new year of 2013. Having 12 fresh approaches for your leadership & organization, helps move you to thrive instead of just surviving. This article helps you set a new goal for the next 12 months. Follow them for the success you want. Every new day gives you a chance to move forward from your present situation. You can improve your business on a number of fronts. To help launch the New Year for your business, the following are 12 ways you can move your organization forward.”

Chris Young, from Human Capital Strategy Blog, picked When Emotion Becomes Leadership’s Biggest Enemy.
“This post stands out to me because emotion is the challenge I must overcome most often.  Here are 5 things that I have found to be effective in keeping emotion controlled in myself and those around me.”

Mary Ila Ward, from Horizon Point Consulting, picked Pot, Meet Kettle.
“This was the most viewed post of 2012 for Horizon Point’s blog.  It speaks to the fact that what annoys or angers us most in others is the flaws we also see in ourselves.  It also gives tips for recognizing these flaws and correcting them in order to be better leaders.”

Jesse Lyn Stoner selected How to Influence Without Authority.
“This was the 2nd most popular with my readers according to the combined number of shares on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, but the excellent discussion and reader comments added so much value that I consider it my best post. We are being called on more and more to collaborate across reporting lines and work with people we don’t have direct authority over. How to influence in these kinds of situations is such a timely and important topic.”

Jennifer Miller, The People Equation, picked Develop Leaders by Loaning Your Belief
“I chose this post for two reasons: first because it’s aligned with the core purpose  of the Leadership Development Carnival – providing tips for how to develop your team members’ leadership abilities on a daily basis. Secondly, this post-within-in-a-post addresses another key aspect of leadership development – shoring up emerging leaders’ belief in their abilities.”

Chery Gegelman picked a post from Smartblog on Leadership, Diamonds in the Rough ~ How to recognize your star employees.
“My best 2012 was a huge debate!  As change begins “with me”, many of my posts are focused on self-development.  This post focuses on the life-changing difference we can make for individuals and our organizations when we focus on developing others.”

Joan Kofodimos, from Anyone Can Lead, picked The End of Men…as Leaders?
“In 2012, the old debates about gender and leadership were reincarnated in a big way – from Sheryl Sandberg’s TED talk claiming there aren’t enough women leaders because they don’t want it enough, to Anne-Marie Slaughter’s rejoinder in The Atlantic arguing that it’s impossible to have it all, to Hanna Rosin’s controversial book The End of Men. In this blog post, I try to tease out the implications for those of us, men and women alike, who want to survive and thrive in the organizations of the future.”

Jon Mertz, from Thin Difference, picked How to Get and Keep Respect – 4 Practices.
“While we work to be productive in what we do, we also want more. We want to feel valued, listened to, and called upon to do ordinary and extraordinary things. In this post, I discuss how we can begin to do just that.”

Susan Mazza, from Random Acts of Leadership, picked The Secret to Being Effective.
“This post in particular was shared quite a lot through social media channels.  My clients have shared that this “One Secret” was a key lesson from me in our work together this year.”

Mark Miller, from Great Leaders Serve, picked Simplify.
“It was one of the most popular posts to appear on  in 2012. I think it’s a valuable addition to the carnival because the best leaders are gifted at simplifying things. This post shares some examples of how leaders do that every day.”

Miki Saxon, from MAPping Company Success  gives us Ducks in a Row: Managing Weeds.
“Most stars are made, not born, which means that the quality of a team reflects the quality of its management. Managers should consult the mirror when considering an under-performing employee.”

Jon Ingram, from Strategic HCM, closes out the Carnival with Engagement or Entwistle.

I’m posting the December Leadership Development Carnival today, because its regular location as an Expand Your Mind feature is taken next week as promised Saturday.  This is a sacrifice for me because posting it early enough for East Coast readers to have with their morning coffee means doing it in the middle of my night—but anything for you, dear readers. Fortunately, host Jennifer Miller at The People Equation posts early in her morning so, with the time difference, my post will only be a bit later than normal. I also want you to have it early enough this month that you can use it as an educational cover if/when you have any holiday slow time—there’s always lots of great stuff in this carnival.

Regular carnival host Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership kicks off the carnival with A Manager’s Guide to Crying at Work. It’s a pragmatic, yet compassionate discussion on the science and dynamics of tears in the workplace.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

What does a stay in Las Vegas have to do with leadership or management? Is there some takeaway? Robert Tanner of Management is a Journey makes his case in his article, What Las Vegas Taught Me Again About Change, Management & Life!

Chery Gegelman of Giana Consulting offers up Comfort or Magic?  Stay?  Go?  Go?  Stay? in which a simple Venn diagram from Debbie Laskey and song lyrics by Jimmy Durante have inspired Chery to think of change in a whole new way.

Over at Jane Perdue’s LeadBIG blog, she’s offering up three ways to be better with 3 Ways to Blast Outside Your Comfort Zone. 

Guy Farmer says “Leadership is about seeing change as an opportunity to grow and succeed rather than sticking one’s head in the sand and hoping it will go away.” See more at his Unconventional Training blog with Leadership and Welcoming Change.

CULTURE AND ENGAGEMENT

Julie Winkle Giulioni’s latest blog post identifies four characteristics that leaders must have to create a supportive environment in Cultures that Support Career Development.

Mark Miller of Great Leaders Serve believes that “the collective habits of people can be a powerful asset to any organization, or they can be a tremendous liability.” Mark post suggests four ways to create a vibrant culture that will help in Today’s Challenge: Culture as Competitive Advantage.

Over at Jesse Lyn Stoner’s blog, she explores 8 Things Collaborative Leaders Know. Says Jesse:  “The good news is anyone can be a collaborative leader, regardless of role. Because they understand these 8 truths about today’s world, collaborative leaders are able to build successful networked communities.”

Steve Laswell explores the concept of The Self-Managed Employee, saying that it goes beyond self-managing one’s workload. See more at Next Level Executive Coaching

Kristal Sauer explores Control v. Openness in a Mobile World in which she asks, “Have you considered how mobile capabilities continue to play a more central role in the way we work, the careful balance between security and productivity, and the challenge in how to establish parameters for how employees use mobile technology to do their jobs?” See more at Let Go and Lead.

Miki Saxon draws a thought-provoking parallel between romantic relationships and team relationships via brain chemistry in Love, Sports, Management and Oxytocin. Check out the case she makes on her MAPping Company Success blog.

Karin Hurt of Let’s Grow Leaders offers up this interesting thought: “Empowerment is easy when things are going smoothly, but what about when someone makes a really bad decision?” Her post Empowerment Run Amok:  How One Bad Decision Leads to Another  explores how leaders can respond well and maintain the trust of their followership.

DEVELOPMENT

Addressing performance problems with employees is an opportunity to either build or erode trust with those you lead. In his post Addressing Poor Performance is a “Moment of Trust”, Randy Conley outlines 5 steps on how leaders can use these challenging situations to build trust and get an employee’s performance back on track. Via the Leading with Trust blog.

Let Em Shine, says Andy Uskavitch, CM, of the Supervision-Motivation blog. Andy says that clear communication and direction helps staff to shine on their own.

Do we need leadership training devoted specifically to advancing women? Dana Theus provides an answer that might surprise you in The Paradox of Women’s Leadership Training at the InPower Consulting Blog

Sharlyn Lauby generated excellent discussion by creating a distinction between coaching and mentoring on her HR Bartender blog. Sharlyn says, “Mentors and coaches are two different things. For that reason, maybe it’s good to have both. Choosing the right one depends on the situation.” See more at Mentors or Coaches – Why You Need Both.

LEADING WITH CHARACTER

John Bossong, writing for the Lead Change Group blog, offers up 8 Reasons Why Pride Is the Core of Leadership Failure. In this post, John details the risks of unchecked pride and the solution which is humility. Humility isn’t being weak; it’s accurately knowing where you stand.  John provides 8 practical ways you can move your organization away from pride and toward humility.

Mary Jo Asmus says, “Reluctance, resistance and anger may be caused by fear of taking action in the workplace. Here’s how to determine if fear is negatively driving you and an important question to ask yourself to overcome it.” See more in her post A Question of Courage.

Linda Fisher Thornton of the Leading in Context blog features a graphic showing 10 types of leadership thinking that can “cripple our effectiveness and undermine our ethics.” See the graphic and more in 10 Thinking Traps (That Ethical Leaders Avoid).

Steven Snyder of  Snyder Leadership Group turns to history for a reflection on one’s “True North” in The Lincoln-Stevens Debate: Your True North and the Swamp.

Joan Kofodimos of the Anyone Can Lead blog takes on one of my organizational pet peeves – the leap to “fix” ethics problems with training. See why she says “not so fast” in Ethics Training to Address Senior Military Officers’ Bad Behavior?

MUSINGS ON LEADERSHIP

Robyn McLeod of Chatsworth Consulting Group presents Leading like a Dog Whisperer on The Thoughtful Leaders Blog where she discusses what we can all learn from the Whisperers’ approach to leadership.

Dr. Anne Perschel resorts to prose and declares “there is one and only one reason to lead. Furthermore, if you can lead on behalf of same, you must” in The Only Reason to Lead on Germaine Insights.

Jim Taggert has A Big (Obvious) Idea for Leadership–There Are NO Experts! See the details at the Changing Winds blog.

Deb Mills-Scofield muses about the use of technology and posits that True Leadership is Social on her blog Mills-Scofield.

Over at the Horizon Point Consulting blog Captain Davis Ozier, U.S. Army, suggests reversing the order of a familiar methodology used by the military to achieve more empowerment in Task- Purpose- Endstate.

PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Susan Mazza of Random Acts of Leadership asks, “What if holding someone to account is actually the process of holding them up to be the best they can be every step of the way rather than hammering them down after they fail?” See her answer in the thought-provoking Accountability is Not about Justice.

On Joel Garfinkle’s Career Advancement Blog he says it can be hard for some people to feel confident in being “visible” at work. Joel provides tips on how to do so in Let Your Light Shine: How to Stand Out from the Crowd.

How influential are you as a leader? Neal Burgis, Ph.D. of Practical Solutions offers Influential Leadership Trait in which he discusses the specific influential traits of business leadership.

Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership says, “You’re not going to succeed every time. So it’s a good idea to consider how to get the maximum return on your failure.” Spot on, Wally! See more with Return on Failure.

What does it mean for leaders who must choose whether to go with data or experts when making important decisions? Mark Bennett of the TalentedApps blogging group covers this issue in  Data vs. Experts: Nine Years On.

On his blog More Leadership, Bernd Geropp tells this story: “As a true leader you want committed people who contribute and act on your behalf – then you must first explain what the point is. Why should they follow you and your rules? I just recently learned about this at a cash register of a grocery discounter when someone wanted to buy red wine.” He makes the connection of these seemingly disparate things in Why? Rules, Purpose and Merlot!

Where do you focus your impatience? Is it focused on your important things in life? Jon Mertz of the Thin Difference blog says, “Our life needs the right balance to keep our pace and stride focused.” He elaborates in Where Is Your Impatience Placed?

PODCASTS

For those who prefer an auditory experience –

John Hunter of the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog offers up Deming’s Management Ideas Today in which John discusses some of his history with Dr. Deming’s ideas on management and his thoughts on the application of those ideas today.

S. Chris Edmonds presents the podcast A Deeper Look at the #CoolCulture Research, in which analyzes initial results from his new Performance-Values Assessment and points out some disturbing trends on vitally important culture practices. Listen in at Driving Results Through Culture.

Image credit: Great Leadership

Well, the election is over and Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but life goes on and work never seems to end. To give you a leg up on dealing with all that here are the best posts about leadership, culture, communication and a myriad of subtopics from Dan McCarthy’s Leadership Development Carnival. Enjoy!

We’ll lead off with Jennifer Miller, from The People Equation. “When you hire someone, did you know you’ve agreed to an unspoken “contract” with your new employee? Learn the 10 Answers People Want Before Saying Yes to a Job so you’ll be prepared to address those unspoken questions.”
Corporate culture guru S. Chris Edmonds, from Driving Results Through Culture, examines Lance Armstrong’s fall from grace from the perspective of personal integrity: Personal Integrity is in Your Hands.
Jim Taggart, from It’s from my Changing Winds blog, gives us Are You a Hang Dog Leader? Anything that brings dogs into the leadership equation needs to be read. (-:
Ann Pershel, from Germane Insights gives us Seven Steps for Paving Your Road to the C-Suite. “Your arrival at the C-suite will not happen by accident, coincidence or luck. Nor will it result from being smart, accomplished and talented….alone. You have to pave your path, then move along down the road, purposefully and with a plan. Over the years I’ve had many conversations with clients and non-clients who are, or will soon be, C-suite leaders. If you’d like to know how they get there, read on …”
Mary Jo Asmus, from Mary Jo Asmus uses William Bridges change model to provide a framework for Personal Transition for Better Leadership.
Joel Garfinkle, from Career Advancement Blog shows us how to Take on High-Visibility Projects without Doubling Your Workload.

One of our Carnival regulars, Meg Bear has a new blog, Meg Bear. Here’s Don’t Make it about you: “Tips on how to better tailor your professional communication to get the outcome you are hoping.”

John Hunter, from The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog, serves up Appreciation for a System in the Deming Context. “A systems approach to management provides a view of the organization in terms of many internal and external interrelated connections and interactions, as opposed to discrete and independent departments or processes governed by various chains of command.”

Mike Henry Sr. submits this post from Alan Derek Utley, from his Lead Change Group: Playing The Part Of Leader. “Alan makes a powerfully descriptive analogy to illustrate the difference between going-through-the-motions of leadership and actually becoming a leader.”

BTW, if you like these monthly Carnivals, then I’d highly recommend buying and reading The Character-Based Leader: Instigating a Leadership Revolution…One Person at a Time. It’s a great collection written by Mike and many of our Carnival regular contributors.

Sharlyn Lauby, the HR Bartender, serves us 5 Qualities of Professional People. “A reader asks how a manager can become more professional and get the respect of her employees.”

Bernd Geropp, from More leadership, gives us Are you a true leader? 5 unmistakable symptoms that you are not!. “If you are a true leader you are a people person. A leader encourages and rewards people. A leader pays attention to people. “

David Burkus, from LDRLB, reviews some research on how individuals are better able to comprehend relationships inside a hierarchical structure: Why We Love Hierarchies. “It’s been the most popular article on our site for the past week.”

Karin Hurt, from Let’s Grow Leaders, gives us Beginning Well to End Strong: Stories and Tips for Successful Starts. “How we begin matters. As leaders, we set the stage for great results by beginning well. In this article, Karin shares specific tips and tricks for engaging and energizing beginnings across a variety of contexts.”

Mary Ila Ward, from Horizon Point Consulting, presents Your Horizon Part 1: Know Yourself. “The first step in making career decisions is to know yourself. This posts helps individuals at any stage in life begin to consider their talents, passions, and values in order to make wise career decisions.”

Anna Farmery, from The Engaging Brand, submits 5 Truths about Profit as a Goal. “We can so easily focus on profit that we make the wrong decisions for the business. Profit is an outcome of great decisions ,not the goal in itself, this post attempts to explain why…”

Jesse Lyn Stoner, from Jesse Lyn Stoner blog serves up To Create an Enduring Vision, Values Must Support. “With examples from companies like Disney, Sony, and BMW, this post demonstrates the importance of and how to look at values in the context of purpose. Test your values against your mission or purpose to ensure your company’s culture is prepared to support your strategic direction. Remember, “culture trumps strategy.”"

Carrie Koens (Weaving Influence), submits a post by Julie Winkle Giulioni (Julie Winkle Giulioni blog), called The Fallacy of Focus “This is part one of a two-part post, describing the “two faces of focus” and what that means for us.”

Julie Baron submits a post from Dr. Ray Benedetto, from GuideStar Inc, called Leadership Begins with a Capital C.

Randy Conley, from Leading with Trust, gives us Ten Signs You Might Be A Frankenboss – “If any of these ten behaviors describe your leadership style then you might be a Frankenboss.” Randy gets this month’s award for best post title. (-:

Mark Stelzner, from Inflexion Advisors, presents HR Fear Factor – Are You Ready To Be A ‘Performance Advisor’? – “Our latest post features study results from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). One of the most interesting findings? To get ahead in HR, you need to get out.”

Wally Bock, from Three Star Leadership, offers up Just for Today. “You can be a great boss if you do the little things that the great bosses do over and over. Do them just for today. Then, tomorrow, do them again.”

Diane Laux submits this post from Maril MacDonald, from Let Go and Lead, called Slowing Down – The Next Big Cultural Challenge. “Organizations can gather speed by slowing down.”

Lisa Kohn of Chatsworth Consulting Group, presents How your shoulds are hurting you on The Thoughtful Leaders Blog “where she offers a few simple steps for conquering your shoulds (for Give Up Your Shoulds Day and beyond) and how you can renew your energy and strengthen your leadership.”

Neal Burgis, Ph.D., from Practical Solutions Blog, gives us Engagement of Extraordinary Leaders. “Typically, leaders blame employee disengagement on their employees for one reason or another. Employee engagement begins and ends with engaged leaders. It is these engaged leaders who create great/extraordinary/remarkably engaged employees out of their workforce.”

Miki Saxon, from MAPping Company Success, presents Ducks in a Row: Arrogance and Empathy. “How lacking one essential ingredient can make competence feel like arrogance and change a reputation from being “the best” to “second best.”"

Chery Gegelman, from Simply Understanding, gives us 7 Tips for Leading Change from The Middle.  “Are you convinced that you and your team are capable of making a bigger difference? Do you dream of working for an organization that is committed to Character-Based Leadership? Are you concerned that you don’t have the power or the position to make it happen?”

Guy Farmer, from Self-Awareness Workshops presents Business Ethics and Rationalization. “Leaders choose what kind of organizations they design and whether ethical behavior is part of the equation. Their own behaviors are often reflected in how their organizations function.”

Joan Kofodimos, from Anyone Can lead, gives us Want to be less stressed and live longer? Think like a leader.

Mark Miller, from Great Leaders Serve, serves up Today’s Challenge: Am I Coachable?

Wendy Appel, from The Enneagram Source, gives us Case Study: 2 Key Leverage Points for Change.

Molly Page submits Jon Mertz’s post How to Avoid Drift into Mediocrity from his Thin Difference blog.

Susan Mazza, from her blog Random Acts of Leadership, presents What is Your Leadership Promise?

And to close out this month’s edition of the Leadership Development Carnival, last, but certainly not least, here’s Tanmay Vora, from his blog QAspire Blog with Building Engaged Teams with Power of Appreciation.

Image credit: Great Leadership

Robert Tanner and his blog Management is a Journey are both pretty cool dudes and he did a superlative job narrating the October Leadership Development Carnival using a back to school theme. I thought it would make expanding reading on a Saturday and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

BACK TO SCHOOL

As a leader, is it important for your team to respect you or like you? The good news is that it is not an either/or decision. As Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership explains both Liking and Respect will happen if you concentrate on helping your team and team members succeed.

Shakespeare once said, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.” What type of leader are you? This is the subject Neal Burgis, Ph.D. of Practical Solutions explores in his article, Characteristics of a Natural Leader.

If only those working with you could see how great your idea is! What’s the matter with them anyway? Many business leaders have felt this way a few times in their career. In his article, Why Can’t Those People See that this is a Great Idea, Kyle Dover of Anyone Can Lead provides tips to significantly increase the chance of getting other people to adopt your proposals.

What does it take to manage an organization’s culture? As S. Chris Edmonds of Driving Results Through Culture explains in his article, Feel How to Keep Culture on Track, it’s more art than science. It’s similar to effective auto racing. “It’s not about pure speed. It’s about feeling the car ‘in the moment,’ every moment.”

As a business leader, Do you Measure your Emotional Capital? This is critical as Anna Farmery of the Engaging Brand explains with her signature quote: ”People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did BUT people will never forget how you made them feel.”

What’s the insider secret for building a strong organization? It turns out that the “secret” is known information. Strong Organizational Foundations are Rooted in Timeless Truths as Chery Gegelman of Simply Understanding explains in her slideshow of leadership quotes.

Deadlines — competing, missed, impossible to meet, have to be met — they are a regular occurrence for leaders! What’s the solution for busy professionals? In his article, Meeting deadlines! Here is how to do it!, Bernd Geropp of More Leadership provides 10 tips for getting deadlines under control.

Sometimes all it takes is a reminder to put everything in its proper perspective. This holds true for leadership and organizational problems as well.  In his article, How You See Problems Helps You Solve Problems, Tim Milburn of Developing Lifelong Learners explains how problems provide an opportunity for leadership.

There’s a Rodney Dangerfield problem for some in the workplace. It seems they cannot get any respect! As Miki Saxon of MAPping Company Success explains getting respect is not that difficult.  You just need to put your Ducks in a Row: When It Comes to Respect You Get What You Give.

What does it take to achieve a high level of organizational performance? As Jim Taggart of Changing Winds explains in his article, Are You a Passionate Leader, it takes passion to propel an organization forward. “Having a burning passion is a requisite to instilling a sense of mission among one’s followers.”

Servant leaders focus on developing the talent of those they lead. It’s easier to work with those star performers, but how can leaders develop their poor performers?  In her article, A Performance Development Tool for Servant Leaders, Mary Ila Ward of Horizon Point Consulting provides a guide for starting the conversation with poor performers.

What’s the value of a referral? For leaders, a good referral can mean finding high performing talent to help the organization achieve its objectives. In her infographic article, It’s All About Who They Know, Meg Wheaton of Gagen MacDonald explains how leaders can use social media and other tools to find new talent and build a culture of collaboration and inclusion.

Now that we have been properly schooled on the practice of leadership, our next group of contributors will provide their insights on the art of leading transition.  Something all leaders must do themselves and help others to do as well!

TRANSITION

“Every year a stream of nameless, faceless executives withdraw from their offices and gather somewhere offsite as part of a long-standing corporate ritual called strategic planning.” How effective is this process in practice? David Burkus of LDRLB tackles these issues head-on in his article, Strategy is About Choice.

“For organizations to thrive in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, leaders have to learn how to build a culture of trust and openness.”  In his article, Four Strategies to Increase Organizational Trust and Transparency, Randy Conley of Leading with Trust shares tips for building a culture that will unleash creativity and innovation in organizations.

As Joel Garfinkle of Career Advancement Blog explains, for most people, changing careers is a process, not an overnight, snap decision. This process does not get easier with time. In his article — My Job Isn’t Satisfying: Changing Careers at 30, 40, or Even 50 — Joel provides tips to successfully make this transition.

When you care strongly about developing effective leaders, it’s frustrating to find out that support for leadership development and training is on life support in your organization! In A Strategic Story About Strategic Storytelling, Karin Hurt of Let’s Grow Leaders shares the approaches she used to revive a stalled leadership development project.

You’ve made the jump to management!  You’re no longer just an individual contributor responsible for your own work only.  You now are responsible for the work of your entire team. Now it’s starting to hit you!  What exactly are you supposed to do with these people? Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership has some help for you in his article 25 Tips for New Managers.

Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) is a management philosophy where leaders evaluate employees on results — not on their presence in the office. Is this new philosophy, where employees can independently manage their own time as long as the work gets done, viable for companies? Jennifer Miller of the People Equation provides insights in her article, 7 Considerations for Launching ROWE at Your Company.

“If you think you’re leading and no one is following, you’re really just taking a walk.” Jesse Lyn Stoner of Seapoint Center gives real world proof to this saying in her article, The Process is as Important as the Product: 7 Tips to Manage Both. She explains why creating a “critical mass” of employee support is critical to implementing any change.

“To lead for innovation, leaders need to become comfortable not having the right answers, and instead think about possibilities.” Linda Fisher Thornton of Leading in Context provides these and other insights in her article, Failure is Part of Innovation.

While transition is never easy, some aspects of leadership can be scary especially when leadership is exercised ineffectively. Our last contributors for this month discuss barriers to effective leadership.

SCARY SEASON

A wise grandmother often shared the following with her family: “What you believe about people is how you’ll treat them.”  Robyn McLeod of Thoughtful Leaders builds on her grandmother’s wisdom in her article Are your Beliefs Getting in the Way of Better Leadership? “As a leader, being aware of our beliefs and being flexible and open enough to shift our beliefs when necessary is a skill that pays off in many ways.”

Mention the word poison and you will get people’s attention! Poison brings harm and destruction. While the natural world has its sources, so too does the business world. Leaders can and do inflict poison on their work teams. The result — whether accidental or intentional — is the same: damaged and destroyed working relationships! In a post from my blog, Management is a Journey, I share Seven Ways to Poison Your Relationship with Your Employees.

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho and Great Leadership

As Sharlyn Lauby, our August Carnival host, points out, we’re already a third of the way through third quarter! My, how time flies when you’re having fun—or fighting fires.

Along with the great posts this month, she queried everybody for their book recommendations, especially useful to the heavy travelers among you or those who just prefer curated reading lists. So without any more blathering on my part here is the carnival. Enjoy!

Joel Garfinkle, author of Career Advancement Blog, shared the story of a manager overcoming being passed over for a promotion in “How to Get a Promotion After Being Rejected”

And he spent his summer promoting his new book “Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level” – congrats!

Changing Winds blog by Jim Taggert submitted “Real Leaders Don’t Have the Attention Spans of Squirrels”

On his summer reading list was “A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter’s Journey from Refugee Camp the the Arab Spring” by CBC journalist Nahlah Ayed

At the Driving Results Through Culture blog, S. Chris Edmonds utilizes the recent sanctions against Penn State to start a discussion about “Gauging Your Organization’s Integrity”

He’s reading Mark Levy’s “Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content” – and says, it’s well…genius.

Anne Perschel at Germane Insights discusses “Killer CEO Character Traits and How to Find Them”

Her summer reading suggestion? “The Dovekeepers” by Alice Hoffman

Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy published “10 Simple ‘Truths’ about Management vs. Leadership”

His summer reading list included Robert B. Parker’s “Lullaby” written by Ace Atkins

Horizon Point blog discusses the need for leaders to have expertise in the post “The Es of Leadership”

Mark Stelzner at Inflexion Advisors tells us “10 (Avoidable) Ways to Lose an HR RFP”

He cranked through two excellent novels by Gillian Flynn – “Sharp Objects” and “Dark Places”

Jesse Lyn Stoner communicates “How to Identify Your Team or Organization’s Purpose”

And she just finished “Buddha’s Brain” The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom” by Rick Hanson

David Burkus at LDRLB penned “Celebrity Leaders May Actually Be Falling Stars”

The best read of his summer was Cynthia Montgomery’s “The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs”

LeadBIG blog’s Jane Perdue tells us it’s okay to throw some spaghetti in her post “In praise of mad genius”

Her must read is “Leading with Kindness: How Good People Consistently Get Superior Results” by William Baker and Michael O’Malley

Mike Henry at Lead Change Group shared a post written by David M. Dye on the “7 Practical Questions that will Multiply Your Influence”

He recommends reading “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” by Patrick Lencioni followed closely by “Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All” by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen

Leading with Trust by Randy Conley asks the question “Are You a Good Boss or a Bad Boss? 8 Ways to Tell”

His good book this summer was “One Big Thing: Discovering What You Were Born to Do” by Phil Cooke

Management Excellence by Art Petty shares with us “The Hard Work of Getting Better at What You Do”

His book recommendation: “Do Nothing: How to Stop Overmanaging and Become a Great Leader” by J. Keith Murninghan

Management is a Journey blog, written by Robert Tanner, talks about the “Three Questions Senior Leaders Must Ask Before Undertaking Organizational Change”

MAPping Company Success talks about extremes in “Hate, Intolerance and Responsibility”

Miki recommends “Screw Business as Usual” by Richard Branson

Tim Milburn shares the lessons he’s learned in “3 Things Putting a Golf Ball Taught Me about Decision-Making”

And he read “Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life” by Garret Kramer

Bernd Geropp at More Leadership blog tells us “What you ought to know about performance based bonus”

He just finished “Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation” from Sally Hogshead

Anna Farmery, author of The Engaging Brand, outlines the “5 Trends Driving Social Business”

Her good read of the summer is “Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital Frontier” by B. Joseph Pine

Jennifer V. Miller at The People Equation discusses integrity in her post “4 Filters Your Team Uses to Gauge Trust”

Her summer reads included Michael Hyatt’s “Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World”

Three Star Leadership by Wally Bock teaches us “Lessons from Sam Walton as WalMart turns 50”

And last but certainly not least, Lisa Kohn tells us “5 surprising reason why you shouldn’t be so nice” at The Thoughtful Leaders Blog.

Image credit: Great Leadership

Can you believe the year is half over? I can’t, but it must be since I’m getting ready to watch fireworks. And speaking of fireworks, here is the July Leadership Development Carnival with fireworks of its own if you’re the wrong kind of boss.

Part One:
From Wayne Turmel, The Connected Manager blog, here’s Why WebEx is like Soylent Green.
Lynn Dessert, from Elephants at Work, gives us Leadership Agility: How to Improve it. “Knowing what gets in the way of leadership agility is the easy part, improving it proves to be more difficult.”
Art Petty, from his Management Excellence blog, presents Just One Thing: Always Add Clarity to Challenge.
Here’s Bernd Geropp, from More Leadership, Less Management, with Micromanagers and the e-mail trap. “Many entrepreneurs and senior managers tend to work around the clock, but take too little time for the real leadership tasks.”
Jesse Lyn Stoner closes out our first sement with a bang with A Big Goal Is Not the Same As a Vision, from her Jesse Lyn Stoner blog. “It’s easy to confuse a really big goal with a vision, but the difference is important. Here’s how to tell.”

Part Two:
Chris Edmonds presents Build a Culture of Accountability, from his Driving Results Through Culture blog. Chris tells us how to set clear goals and citizenship standards then hold all staff accountable for both.
Anne Perschel, from From Germane Insights, presents Dear Leader: Do We Have a Deal?
Adi Gaskell, from Process Excellence Network presents Seven habits of Highly Inefficient People.
“A light-hearted look at some habits you don’t want to mimic at work.”
Mary Jo Asmus, from Mary Jo Asmus presents Stand Up. “Leading others sometimes means taking a stand for what’s right, even when there is risk involved. The best leaders have the courage to stand up in order to stand out.”
Jane Perdue gives us Effective leaders are tough AND tender, from her LeadBIG blog. “Combining empathy with accountability is a unique skill set no leader should be without.”

Part Three:
Tanmay Vora, from his QAspire Blog presents Leading Projects: Balancing Rational with Emotion.
“When leading projects and building an organization, leaders have to balance rational with emotion, processes with empathy and practices with people.”
Jim Taggart, from Changing Winds, presents The 6 Inner Leadership Selves. “In the post I talk about different ways leadership can be practiced. I provide contrasting questions for each of the six elements I present. These questions are aimed at fostering personal reflection by the reader.”
Mary Ila Ward from Horizon Point Consulting submits Pot, Meet Kettle. “Many people seek to model the behaviors of their leaders. But are you modeling behaviors that you want others to demonstrate?  This piece highlights how the behaviors we dislike in others are often ones we demonstrate ourselves, and seeks to outlines ways to overcoming derailing workplace behaviors.”
Linda Fisher Thornton from her Leading in Context Blog presents Leading for Ethical Performance.  “Senior leaders need to work together as a team to create an organization where ethical leadership is rewarded and unethical leadership is quickly corrected.”
Margy Stoner (of Weaving Influence LLC) submits on behalf of Wendy Appel, from her Wendy Appel: The Enneagram Source blog: What it Means for Leaders to Show Up. “In this post, Wendy Appel, author of “InsideOut Enneagram” discusses the meaning of the words “show up.” She writes, “When we show up and are present, we can listen to what has heart and meaning, tell the truth without blame or judgment and be open to outcome, not attached to outcome.”

Part Four:
Lisa Kohn of Chatsworth Consulting Group presents 6 steps to avoiding analysis paralysis on The Thoughtful Leaders Blog, where she talks about the challenges of balancing between planning and doing. Submitted by Melody Bridgewater.
Wally Bock, from his Three Star Leadership Blog presents The People-Centered Workplace. “Too much management thinking tries to turn people into something else.There’s a better way.”
Randy Conley, from his LeadingWithTrust blog presents Father’s Day Special: Five Leadership Lessons From Being a Dad. “Lessons on being a better leader are all around us if we’re only willing to pay attention. In honor of Father’s Day a few weeks ago, I reflected on just a few of the many lessons I’ve learned from being a father and how they’ve helped me as a leader.”
Nick McCormick from Joe and Wanda on Management presents Continuous Learning.

The Grand Finale:
Miki Saxon from MAPping Company Success presents What is Diversity? “What constitutes true diversity? Is there more to it than can be seen? Is there an accurate indicator for you as a leader that you are actually achieving it?”
David Burkus from LDRLB presents a guest post by Betty Bailey: Going off the Rails.
Jennifer V. Miller from The People Equation presents Leading a Meeting? How to Avoid a Snooze-Fest. All leaders run meetings, but not all of them do it well. Jennifer V. Miller, a former corporate trainer, shares tips for managing group dynamics that work equally well for workshops or meetings. Bonus content – she’s offering a free reference sheet called “6 Tips for Getting People Involved”.
Guy Farmer from Unconventional Training presents How to Keep Your Employees Motivated.
“Proactive leaders understand that motivating employees is about helping them feel great about themselves and doing meaningful work.”
Mark Bennett from TalentedApps presents Leadership and Complexity. “One of a leader’s job is to reduce complexity. How to do that isn’t very simple.”

Image credit: Great Leadership