For people who love blogs and crave a variety of ideas, viewpoints and opinions carnivals are like potato chips—you can’t read just one.

But unlike potato chips, blog posts don’t get stale, so return as often as you like before (or after) the next Carnival goes live November 1 at Dan McCarthy’s Great Leadership.

This month’s host is Becky Robinson at Leader Talk.

Ever wonder how the posts are chosen? The answer is by the blogger—each of us chooses a recent post that we feel brings exceptional value to you.

There is an enormous amount of practical advice in these posts; useful whether you are in a classic ‘leadership’ role, raising kids or in the most important role of all—leading yourself.

Scan down the list and cherry-pick the ones that will be most useful to you immediately; then read those whose descriptions pique your interest.

One last note. Please some back and share the links of those you found to be of the most use.

(You can find other carnivals in which Leadership Turn has participated here.)

Enjoy!

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Leadership’s a funny thing, a lot is written and some has zing;

management and motivation, care for employees vs. depredation.

Many, many ply this trade, coaching, training, getting paid;

they also give their help away on blogs they write most every day.

Dan McCarthy is one of the best and the cream de la cream have joined him as guests,

so be sure to click the link for content that will make you think!

A marvelous time will be had by all at the Leadership Development Carnival.

(Innovation week has been extended through next week, please join us.)

Image credit: MykReeve on flickr

Have you ever thought about what leadership sounds like?

Real leadership makes no noise.

Real leadership goes quietly about its tasks.

Real leadership doesn’t announce itself or blather on about what it plans to do in the future.

Real leadership isn’t a pied piper that mesmerizes you to follow along on its journey.

Real leadership happens every day all around you; it’s done by your colleagues, those you pass on the street and the people in your home.

So the next time you hear leadership be suspicious, be very suspicious.

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I never really paid attention to leadership as an industry until I took over Leadership Turn a couple of years ago. But now I realize that it’s as pronounced and cyclical as the fashion industry.

Jim Stroup at Managing Leadership describes it well.

“Initially the gurus told us that leadership was a superlative individual characteristic reserved to the elite, then a democratically distributed attribute accessible by all… first to vision, then decisiveness, then courage, then team-building skills, then forcefulness, then empathy. It’s about looking inward to one’s core self. No, it’s about communication and connecting with others.”

The list of leadership fashions is actually much longer than Jim’s list; different looks are marketed by different leadership houses and each has a name designer at the helm with more junior designers doing much of the actual work. Every so often one of these junior people leaves and starts her own house and so the industry grows.

Along with the major houses are the small independent designers who may be aligned philosophically with a larger house, but put their own spin on the product.

Just as fashionistas drive the cutting edge (which can be pretty weird) in clothes, anoint designers, models and wearers as icons and then trash them for being out of touch or too <whatever>, so, too, do leaderistas drive what’s fashionable in leadership, hold icons up for adulation, dump them from their pedestals when their feet soften and switch when more trendy designs comes along.

The greatest difference is that fashion products are made of real stuff, while leadership products are built of words.

Consider Lao Tzu, who, 2500 years ago said,

“The superior leader gets things done with very little motion. He imparts instruction not through many words but through a few deeds. He keeps informed about everything but interferes hardly at all. He is a catalyst, and though things would not get done well if he weren’t there, when they succeed he takes no credit. And because he takes no credit, credit never leaves him.”

and

“As for the best leaders,
the people do not notice their existence…
When the best leader’s work is done,
the people say, “We did it ourselves!”
To lead the people, walk behind the.”

In 1987 The Leadership Challenge presented the 5 Practices of Leadership

• Model the Way
• Inspire a Shared Vision
• Challenge the Process
• Enable Others to Act
• Encourage the Heart

These days the hot terms are thought leadership and servant leadership.

If you’re getting tired of the leaderistas go back to Lao Tzu’s Tao Teh Ching; I have a copy that, measured in inches, is 4.5x3x3/8 in an easily readable font.

It will rev up your brain, sink into your MAP, juice your leadership abilities and add peace to your soul—not bad for a book you can put in your pocket.

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As I’ve always said, the best managers are also leaders. Here are three examples, one tech thing and two people.

First up is Google, the current leader in finding and managing information, but there’s a new kid on the block.

“The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet’s Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.”

Next is a great article dissecting the leadership of Capt. James T. Kirk who, for those of you that live in a barrel, was commander of the original Starship Enterprise.

Lastly, an interview with Rear Admiral Margaret Klein, who drops some great jewels, especially not to be afraid of making mistakes and to try things outside your comfort zone. Enjoy! (Sorry about the link; the Washington Post’s embed code never works—at least not for me.)

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Three great interviews on tap today with lots to learn.Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the embed code to work for either video (the Washington Post and McKinsey may need lessons from YouTube:), but they’re both worth clicking over to watch.

First up is Anne Mulcahy, chairwoman and chief executive of Xerox Corporation, a company that she took over on the brink of extinction and turned around. “In 2002 this company lost almost $300 million, and by 2006 we were making over $1 billion.” Now that’s a turn around!

When asked what the secret was, Mulcahy said, “It isn’t a secret sauce. It’s actually fundamental communications, in terms of your ability to really get out there and be with your people, tell a story. People really have to begin to believe in a story to get passionate about the direction the company is going in, which hopefully you’ve been able to do through the way you articulate it, simplifying the complex so that people can get their arms around it and see how they can make a difference. There’s nothing quite as powerful as people feeling they can have impact and make a difference. When you’ve got that going for you, I think it’s a very powerful way to implement change.”

Next is a video interview with John Chambers of Cisco Systems. The dot com bomb blasted Cisco and Chambers brought it back. In the interview Chambers talks about managing in this downturn, how collaboration is the next phase of management style, change, and identifying market transitions. He also discusses how business leaders need to “earn back” public trust, how he is adapting the company and why he’s “far from a perfect leader.”

Finally is a great McKinsey print and video interview with venture philanthropist Jacqueline Novogratz.

“As a venture philanthropist, Acumen Fund’s Jacqueline Novogratz leads entrepreneurial projects across the globe—many of which put women at the helm of emerging local businesses. In this video interview, she discusses her experience developing other women leaders, the way they have shaped her own approach to leadership, and the different leadership cultures she sees at play in the public and private sectors.”

Fabulous. Do click over to see the video and read the print part, also.

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As regular readers know, I don’t believe that leadership is reserved to the few, the chosen, the anointed. I do believe that it can and should be practiced by all, every day and in all aspects of their lives.

That said, now and then there comes someone who truly leads in all senses of the word.

Mahatma Gandhi was such a person.

He was murdered on January 30, 1948, by a Hindu extremist.

61 years after his death, while fanatics of all stripes continue to wreak their own brand of havoc on the world, his ideas and actions remain a shining beacon.

Thank you, Mahatma Gandhi.

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Another day, another leadership book. I sometimes wonder how far around the earth they would stretch if laid end to end. Most have viable lessons, useable by everyone, not just the person running the show.

Many of the attitudes, actions and lessons learned and offered are similar, but each seeks a teaching mechanism that will catch and hold your interest.

Not an easy task in a time of information abundance.

Chris Warner and Don Schmincke manage to do it in High Altitude Leadership.

It’s not that their leadership guidance is new, but the presentation is riveting.

I like it because it directly addresses MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and offers examples from a world where screwing up easily results in death—real death as in gone from the world, not the company.

Amazing how different the advice feels when viewed through the lens of the “death zone,” i.e., the top altitude of the planet’s tallest mountains where mistakes are usually fatal.

“In achieving peak performance as a high-altitude leader, you also risk death. It could be the death of a career, project, team or company, or in extreme situations, someone’s physical death. Learning the best way to succeed comes from studying the death zone.”

Chris Warner is founder of Earth Treks (indoor climbing centers) and has led more than 150 international expeditions.

Don Schmincke started as a scientist and engineer who became a management consultant after realizing that most management theories fail to work.

There are eight dangers in the death zone and, although the authors stress that it’s the high altitude leaders that face the same eight dangers, I think that everybody faces them every day and in all facets of their lives.

The dangers are

1. Fear of Death
2. Selfishness
3. Tool Seduction
4. Arrogance
5. Lone Heroism
6. Cowardice
7. Comfort
8. Gravity

Not really new information, but when seen in the light of the death zone they have a very different impact.

High Altitude Leadership is an exciting, sometimes hair-raising read (even when the transference to business doesn’t work well) that will get you thinking whether you’re heading a Fortune 50 or trying to raise your kids. It’s a book that helps you see the problems in your own MAP.

What the book doesn’t offer are easy, paste on solutions—changing how you think means changing your MAP which is doable, but not easy.

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I have a question for you.

Jean Murray, who writes Small Business Boomers, sent me a link to this story.

“The city of Alexandria, Virginia has hired a professional ethicist to help decide how budget cuts should be made.

The Washington Post reports the ethicists has helped with decisions that include turning apartments built for the mentally ill to temporary housing for the disabled.

Hiring ethicists is not unusual for public hospitals, but seldom has been a practice for local officials who are grappling with difficult budget choices.

When difficult choices have to be made, many see using an ethicist as a moral compass in an effort to do the least harm.”

A friend of Jean’s said, “It sounds to me like a failure in leadership.  These people were elected by the citizens of Alexandria to make the tough decisions, and they want someone else to get them off the hook.”

Do you agree? Should the politicians have made the decision or was it a wiser choice to get input from someone who makes a living being ethical?

Please cast your vote in comments, whether you choose add something else or not.

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A newspaper article 30 years ago talked about the initiation rites of girls who joined gangs. Previously, girls hadn’t been active members of gangs and I remember thinking then that equality was happening in the wrong places.

There was a time when attitudes and actions moved from older to younger.

But it seems that more and more, instead of children learning from their grandparents, the grandparents are adopting the attitudes of the kids and, as with girls in gangs, it’s not the good ones that are moving—it’s the worst.

Entitlement. Instant gratification.

There are thousands who knowingly bought homes they couldn’t afford (as opposed to buying out of financial ignorance and/or mortgage chicanery) because they wanted it now, not in three to five years when they could actually afford it.

When I was young I thought the same way, but there were all kinds of adults who, by example, showed me that that wasn’t the way the world worked.

Now, with these attitudes spread throughout the generations, where are the everyday examples that show a different way? Worse, the examples that are out there are often ridiculed as being out of step with the current world.

I know that some of you reading my Thursday posts wonder what they have to do with leadership, managing and business.

The answer is simple; these are the people who work for and with you; they are the people you hire now and the people you’ll be hiring for decades.

Can you build a successful business or non-profit of any size on attitudes of entitlement and instant gratification?

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