Ahhh, it’s that time of the month (no, not that time) again. The first Monday brings you all kinds of leadership, management and all-around useful information and advice from some of the most common-sensical people on the planet. What’s not to love?

And thanks to Jason Seiden for being such a gracious host this month.

How can I not love Laura Schroeder’s post? The 7 Habits of Highly Effective 5-Year-Olds is pitch perfect. Thanks, Working Girl, for a delightfully simply reminder of just how complicated we tend to make simple issues. (Elle would agree.)

From Amy Wilson: Why Business Leaders Should Conduct Talent Reviews. Amy has a unique ability to see around corners and figure out what’s coming in the talent development space. Here, she tackles the resource allocation that accompanies big change. At Wilson Insight.

“I hate doing these yearly performance evaluations.”
“What is it you hate so much?”
“They are nowhere near accurate and often times I feel forced to use recent information to determine employee performance.”
“What would be better?”
This: Michael “I know a thing or two about performance reviews” Cardus’s Yearly Performance Reviews SUCK! Managers Can Change That. posted at Team Building & Leadership Blog: Create-Learning.

Innovation is a challenge because it is largely a right brain activity. But once this is understood, innovation can become a personal leadership skill as well as a corporate one. Dana Theus talks playtime, the boredom that precedes the brilliance, and the risk of looking foolish in Why Is Leading Innovation So Hard?, posted at Reclaiming Leadership.

Read Wally Bock’s The 97% Solution right now. The Army says that there are “toxic leaders” in its ranks, and that’s a problem. But 97 percent of officers and sergeants have experienced an exceptional leader, and that may be part of the solution. Wally’s use of statistics demonstrates how to find the good.

Art Petty suggests Respectfully Speaking, Let’s Cure Respect Deficit Disorder at Management Excellence.

Utpal Vaishnav presents a very common corporate challenge in a clear and compelling (and non-alliterative) way. The title is a bit over the top, but the article itself is dead on. This is one to hand out to your employees. In Corporate, Non-communication Equates to Crime… posted at Utpal Writes.

Confused about which change model to pick for your organization? This post from Dan McCarthy’s Great Leadership will point you in the right direction. Dan McCarthy presents Which Change Model Should You Pick? at Great Leadership.

How do you talk to a CEO? Mark Stelzner nails it with his hard-won advice to anyone who may find him- or herself in that position. Take a moment to read How To Talk To A CEO, posted at Inflexion Point.

Sometimes, it’s good to have someone remind you that it’s not all complex conversations and deep thinking that drives success. Sometimes, it’s  the basics like getting out of bed early enough to get a jump on the day. Not a morning person? Follow Jon Milligan’s tips on how waking yourself up in his post How to Wake Yourself Up at Simple Life Habits.

The demand for innovation requires creative genius. But where and how do we find it? Genius is closer than you think. In fact, the path to your genius starts right here in this post by Anne Perschel: Knock Knock ? Who?s There? Genius posted at Germane Insights.

Jim Logan has seen his share of business plans. In this post, he lays out the questions few entrepreneurs prepare for but that every entrepreneur needs to have a good answer for. According to the case he makes in The magic sales plan that can’t be explained, “if you can’t convince me you can be successful now, your chances of being successful later are slim to none.” At Saleskick.

If I had an award for Most Profersonal™ Post, this would be it. Hats off to Michael Lee Stallard for Starbucks’ CEO’s Broken Heart, which demonstrates the power that comes from doing business with a heaping serving of humanity. Posted at Michael Lee Stallard.

Ben Brabyn offers an important lesson in how to bring a group together in How to boost team performance without increasing costs posted at Brabyn.com.

Here’s one surprising tip for leaders to help them maximize their message. Steve Roesler presents Be A Presentation Pro: Do This at All Things Workplace.

Not sure how social media can help (or hurt) your business? Click over to the Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior blog and read his post, The Most Important Social Business Metrics. You’ll be glad you did.

I love Joe and Wanda on Management. In this post, Nick McCormick shares Russell Bishop’s perspective on decision making (from his new book, “Work-arounds that Work”), and Joe and Wanda respond. It’s a well-framed discussion of framing: Managers and Decision-Making.

In this straightforward and compelling post, Eric Pennington explains why your life is to be managed and cared for before it’s taken away: Getting Your Life Back. Gotta love a blog called Epic Living!

Organizations should market the great things they are doing to educate the public on internal best practices. Kathy C presents 7 ways to do this in Leverage What You Do Right in Your Marketing Plan! at The Thriving Small Business.

A short post on love in organisations? Check! Jon Ingham presents Leading in the Love Shack at Management 2.0 developing social capital.

Giving feedback as a leader can be challenging, especially to the employee who is highly sensitive to criticism. Lynn Dessert tells how to do it right in Can leaders deliver feedback without someone taking it personally? at Elephants at Work.

Have a laugh and learn something about the uneasy relationship between HR and managers. Wayne Turmel presents The Cranky Middle Manager Show #290 Why Does HR Hate Us The Evil HR Lady posted at TPN :: The Cranky Middle Manager Show. It’s funny because it’s true.

Mike Haberman delivers a fastball down the middle on the Omega Solutions Blog with The Key to a Successful Team: Lessons for HR. Mike says, “I got these lessons from John Schuerholz, the former GM and now president of the Atlanta Braves.”

For all you TEDTalk geeks, Adi Gaskell presents a good one in Is your chief exec suffering from the God Complex? | Chartered Management Institute, posted at The Management Blog | Chartered Management Institute.

Guy Farmer delivers a 2×4 upside the head of the management status quo in Leaders’ Obsessive Focus on What Employees Do Wrong, at Unconventional Training.

Charles Chua C K presents 10 P’s To Be Successful posted at All About Living with Life.

Jane Perdue offers a quick mid-year checklist for leaders: The 7 C’s – A Mid-Year Leadership Checkup at Get Your Leadership BIG On!.

Any one can develop skills to become a good leader – and here Malik Mirza presents tips from Jim Rohn, one of Malik’s favorite inspirational and motivational speakers. Jim Rohn’s advice on leadership is posted at WisdomfromBooks.com.

Many leaders seem to be having difficulty finding employees who care. Miki Saxon finds a solution to the problem by flipping the issue on its head in Ducks In a Row: Who Cares? at MAPping Company Success.

Patrick Bradshaw presents The Name of the Integrated Talent Management Game posted at TrendWatchers.

S. Chris Edmonds covers The Five Disciplines of Servant Leadership at Driving Results Through Culture—a simple post that left me thinking hard about how to recalibrate my time each week.

John Chappelear wrote: When you focus on making your people great, the result is a great organization.
Jailan Marie presents There are no great companies, just great people, who happen to work there. Live at Innovative Solutions For Positive Change.

Hey, tough guy: get your a** in gear and embrace those “touchy-feely” management techniques that science keeps showing works. Robert Tanner tackles the big issue head on in Not More Of That “Touchy-Feely” Stuff! posted at Management is a Journey.

Anecdotally, we all know that micromanagers are a headache to work with. But what are the actual business problems that they can create? Here we look at two reasons why they can be so damaging to companies. From Andy Klein and the Fortune Group Blog: The perils of Management OCD – an undesirable management malady.

Ah, leadership & ethics. Linda Fisher Thornton presents Ethical Leadership Context at Leading in Context. Regardless of where you ultimately shake out on the issue, this is always a good topic to revisit.

Jim Taggart sideswipes the time-honored tradition of the strategic off-site with his suggestion that leaders “co-create” organizational vision with employees. The VISION Thing at ChangingWinds is quick, light reading that squares perfectly with the headiest research on effective leadership.

Juliet Jones presents 10 Successful CEOs Who Failed at Politics, which is a helpful ego check for those delusional to think that success in one area automatically qualifies them for success elsewhere.

Finally, there’s 4 Ways to Become a More Emotionally Mature Leader. This one’s mine. And here’s a clue: it is impossible to say the words “I’m taking the high road” from the high road.

Image credit: Great Leadership

How ’bout that; the Fourth had the courtesy to fall on the first Monday of July, so along with your beer, buddies and BBQ you can enjoy the 2011 July Leadership Development Carnival.

My best wishes for a safe and happy holiday!

Flickr image credit: Daniel Morris, mastermaq and delgaudm

Jennifer Miller, author of The People Equation, is host for the June edition of the Leadership Development Carnival. She tagged it Commencement Edition in honor of the potential represented by the Class of 2011. My quick sampling of the different categories tells me it offers a well-rounded meal no matter what you are looking for.

First up, it’s regular Leadership Development Carnival host Dan McCarthy, with 10 Ways to Get More Candid Feedback (and 5 ways if you really can’t handle the truth) from his blog Great Leadership.

Management

Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender serves up solid advice on a way to enhance your company’s performance review process in Should Employees Do Self-Appraisals?

I’m not sure what the trophy would look like for this award, but Jane Perdue at Get Your Leadership Big On has a great list of what a manager would need to do to earn top honors in 10 Ways to Win Bad Boss of the Year.

Over at Learning Curves, Lakshman Rajagopalan asks the tough (but necessary) questions of prospective managers in Why do you want to become a Manager?

Robert Tanner finds that he’s gleaned wisdom, emotional intelligence, and leadership lessons from Colin Powell in Revisiting Colin Powell’s 13 Rules of Leadership . As Robert says in the post, “The truth never goes out of style!” Read it on his blog Management is a Journey.

Miki Saxon from Mapping Company Success takes on the issue of Positional Deafness, remarking, “I’ve never understood why managers expect workers who were consistently ignored and shut down to suddenly start contributing because they receive a promotion.”

From the Fortune Group Blog and Andy Klein comes this thought: are some managers too wrapped up in being “needed” to properly develop their people? Andy says, “The best managers don’t make people dependent on them; they create an entity that will function in their absence”. See his thoughts on Effective Managers Must overcome the Emotional Need to be Needed.

Enda Larkin gives us a list of 7 typical managerial mistakes in What are the Most Common Mistakes that Managers Make? on his blog HTC Consult.

Adi Gaskell uncovers research that doesn’t paint managers in a very good light, so he offers a balancing perspective with In Defense of Management at The Management Blog | Chartered Management Institute.

Team Development

Mary Jo Asmus of Aspire –CS highlights the process of a leader skilled in developing his team.  See the guidelines he used to launch a very creative, hands-on team development project in Six Tips to Help Your Team Learn.

At John Spence’s Achieving Business Excellence blog, John outlines the HPT competency models he uses when working with teams. See more via How to Build a High Performance Team (HPT).

Dave Doran, who is an executive coach and writes at The S4P Blog , offers How to Develop a Pre-Coaching Ritual. This post is geared towards external coaches, but could easily be used for leaders coaching an employee in a one-to-one setting.

Rosaria Hawkins draws an interesting connection between being “lost” and developing leaders.  In her post Lost: The Key to True Learning, she says: “It’s been said that true learning occurs when we are lost—in a liminal place, where nothing works, where old methods, strategies and knowledge just don’t cut it. How can we, as leaders, tap into this potent developmental space?” See more at The Mindful Leadership Blog.

Michael Cardus explores the 4^th phase of building high performance teams, inquiring, Accountability to the Team; When does that happen? on his blog Create Learning Team-Building Blog.

Using an analogy of tending plant life, Will Lukang identifies five things leaders must do to “grow” future leaders in Planting the Seeds for Leaders of Tomorrow at Will’s Blog .

“The use of the word team has greatly diluted what teamwork is really about. And along the way, the cult of teamwork has created skepticism, mistrust–and even guilt–among employees.” Because of this, Jim Taggart wants to rock the teamwork boat in his post Rethinking Teams: Getting Over the Guilt Complex. See more at the ChangingWinds blog.

Over at Management Excellence, Art Petty gives us plenty to contemplate about the challenges of developing a high-performing team in It’s Time to Start Teaching Your Team to Succeed.

Organizational Culture

In his travels Mark Stelzner meets some interesting people. Fortunately for us, he gleans wisdom from these unlikely sources and shares it in 4 Reasons Change is So Damn Hard at Inflexion Advisors.

Linda Fisher Thornton asks, “How are curiosity and imagination related to ethics and business leadership?” Read Curiosity and Imagination Necessary Ingredients in Ethical Business on her blog Leading in Context to see her answers.

John Kotter contributes to a Forbes.com blog called Change Leadership and submitted the post Throw Out Your Strategy? Not So Fast. It’s about how leaders can preserve a strategy they’ve worked hard to develop while they take a step back and focus on getting people in their organization to feel a renewed sense of urgency about the strategy.

Weaving social media use into an existing company’s culture is still presenting a challenge for many, even if they have a policy in place. According to Mark Bennett of Talented Apps, it’s because Social Media Policy: Only Just the Start. “The more you can determine a specific business performance measure that you can connect to the purported benefits of social media, the better” offers Mark.

Bob Lieberman likens executives resistant to a change initiative to encountering an elephant on the road– “if it wants to block the road, you’re sunk”. And this, he asserts, spells trouble for a change effort that’s not supported at the top of the organization. His post The Elephant In The Road appears on his blog Cultivating Creativity – Developing Leaders for the Creative Economy .

Read how Chery Gegelman of Giana Consulting was inspired to write the post Discover THE Solution after hearing presentations from executives from Coca-Cola and Chick-fil-A. Chery’s post highlights the value of strategic partnerships.

Leadership

You’re Not the Boss of Me is the name of Gwyn Teatro’s blog and in Going First Gwyn discusses what it means to be a leader and (bonus!) offers up some of her favorite leadership blogs.

The post Spotted: A Leader Without Title narrates a short encounter with a leader who needed no title to lead, causing Tanmay Vora to wonder, “what if well-bred, educated professionals stop looking at their jobs as a ‘transaction’ and start treating it as a ‘service’?” Learn more at QAspire Blog.

The post It Takes Courage and Character to Unify People by Don Shapiro appears on the multi-contributor site Lead Change Group Blog – Leaders Growing Leaders. In it, Don writes about the importance of unity and courage contrasted against division and fear. “The crisis we face today isn’t about techniques, methods and attributes of good leaders. We face a crisis of courage and character.”

Lisa Petrilli of C-Level Strategies shares insights from the recent CEO Connection Boot Camp regarding the most pressing issues on CEOs’ minds today in her post Four Priorities Keeping CEOs Up at Night.

In Leadership Guru Reality Check, Brett Simmons of Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior implores us to be wary of the impressively packaged books touting the next leadership “guru”. To be serious about the practice of leadership, he advocates getting to know the true heavy-hitters in the leadership development discipline.

Jason Price draws upon lessons learned in carpentry to define the two key aspects of leadership in Cutting Boards and Building the Leader Within at his One Money Design blog.

David Burkus of Leader Lab muses about the merit of making the distinction between “leadership” and “management” in Toward a New Kind of Distinction.

Personal Effectiveness

Miriam Gomberg sees a connection between customer service and leadership. She writes “I believe that great leaders do what is right without asking for anything in return and the post The Meaning of Customer Service: Pay it Forward embodies the sentiment well.” Find out about the leadership/customer service connection at Miriam Gomberg.

David Wentworth contributes to the Institute for Corporate Productivity’s TrendWatcher site and offers up ways that leaders can incorporate mobile learning into their daily practices in Mobile Learning Anywhere Anytime

Jason Seiden’s 10 Great Ways to Get Focused… Fast! is a quick hit-list of ways to help you “get yourself grounded, focused, and ready to crush”. See it at My blog is profersonal (yes, that’s the correct spelling)

On Utpal Writes, being open and willing to admit what you do (and don’t) know is the way to being “self cognizant” says Utpal Vaishnav . He urges readers to Know Thyself Better! to develop their leadership skills.

In his post Why Going Back Doesn’t Work Eric Pennington explains why going back is rarely a good plan of action-in work and life. “Revisionism gives us the luxury of telling ourselves lies”, he tells us on his blog Epic Living and gives us 7 reasons why he believes this to be true.

The entry by Bill Matthies is succinct, yet thought-provoking: “Management is often thought of as one telling others what to do but do we give enough thought to what we should do?” Check out his unique blog format at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By in the post Personal SWOT? in which your comments form the bulk of the post.

Steve Roesler of All Things Workplace wonders Is Everyone Coachable? See his list of 5 traits you must possess to be a viable candidate for coaching.

So there you have it— yet another excellent round-up of leadership essays. Oh, and one more—my entry is Following. It’s the New Leadership, which was inspired by my first in-person attendance at a TEDx event.

Image credit: Great Leadership

It’s May Day and it was actually sunny all day long. This is a big deal here in the great Pacific Northwest, where we are having our second cool, rainy, late spring. I spent the day in my yard, moving a few plants, but mostly pulling weeds. It was great. Dan McCarthy spent a few hours of his day putting together this month’s Leadership Carnival. Guess who had more fun?

So without more ado, here is The May 1st Leadership Development Carnival; Thanks, Dan!

We’ll start off with a post from Jennifer Miller, called “8 Ways for CEOs to Tap Thier Insiders“, posted at The People Equation, saying “Management by walking around gets a fresh look with this research that touts productivity gains for CEOs who build relationships with company insiders”.

Next up is Wally Bock, with “You don’t “build” people, dammit!”, hosted at his Three Star Leadership blog, saying “People are living things. You don’t build living things, they grow.”

Steve Roesler presents Real Change: Add Behavior to Your Vision posted at All Things Workplace, saying, “Leading Change means getting beyond the vision and impacting behavior.”

Mary Jo Asmus presents Reflecting On Your 360 Degree Feedback posted at Mary Jo Asmus.

Art Petty presents Trying Not to Fail Is Not the Same As Striving for Success posted at Management Excellence.

Sharlyn Lauby presents If You’re Not With Us posted at hr bartender, saying, “Part of management is being able to help employees manage their workload.”

Mark Stelzner presents Will I Fit In? posted at Inflexion Point.

David Burkus presents The Designful Leader posted at LeaderLab.

Anne Pershel gives us Power: How to Build it over Time & Lose it Overnight, posted at Germane Insights, saying “I learned the hard way to respect the dynamics of power in organizational life. In this post you will read the story and lessons learned.”

Eric Pennington presents The Giving Up Thing posted at Epic Living – Leadership Development , saying, “In this post I address the crossroads of “giving up.” The reasons we’re tempted to give up and the key reasons to keep going are addressed in this timely piece.”

William Matthies presents A Macro Business Plan? posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By, saying, “Life guidance will hopefully be grounded in positive ethics.”

Bret L. Simmons presents Employee Empowerment: Why It Matters And How To Get It posted at Bret L. Simmons.

Mike Henry Sr. presents a post from Deb Costello called “Inspiration vs. Perspiration” posted at Lead Change Group Blog, saying, “You are a leader in your work whether you have that title or not. People see you do your job. Do you do it joyfully or are you working for the weekend?”

Miki Saxon presents Ducks In A Row: Are You Well-Put-Together? posted at MAPping Company Success, saying, “Based on today’s definition, well-put-together is the last thing you want to be.”

Erik Samdahl presents Dance With the One What Brung Ya posted at Productivity Blog, saying, “Howard Schultz’s focus since returning to the helm of Starbucks has been to remind the company of what made it great from its beginnings and, in effect, re-teaching all levels of the company how to execute against its original brand promise.”

Jon Ingham presents John Lewis’ Co-Ownership Model and The Royal Wedding posted at Management 2.0 developing social capital.

Anna Farmery presents Connecting Bill Clinton, music, Elvis and business! posted at The Engaging Brand.

Utpal Vaishnav presents Entrepreneurship 30 posted at Utpal Vaishnav, saying, “30 thoughts to know whether Entrepreneurship is for you or not.”

Adi Gaskell presents Do entrepreneurs think differently? | Chartered Management Institute posted at Do entrepreneurs think differently?, saying, “New research into the type of behaviour differences between entrepreneurs and managers.”

Michael Cardus presents 2 Kinds of Workplaces. 1 of Paranoia 1 of Trust posted at Create-Learning Team Building & Leadership Blog, saying, “The workplace has the capacity to develop paranoia and/or trust. Psychologically when aroused either mechanism in people readily takes over. They magnify and distort the reality that is separate from our perception and experience.”

Meg Bear presents Bring your whole self to work posted at TalentedApps, saying, “Encouraging employees to be full and complete people — with a wealth of experiences, ideas, commitments, values and thoughts to offer your company, is a linchpin for most engagement strategies.”

Laura Schroeder presents Top Ten Tips for Managers posted at Working Girl.

From Guy Harris, “Three Clues You Can Use to Find Out What Motivates Another Person.” The key to motivating others is understanding what they view as rewards.

From Becky’s own blog, “Share What You Know.” Leaders can make a difference by freely sharing their ideas, wisdom, and insights with others.

Debbie Owen presents How to Bring About Sustainable Change posted at Online Doctorate Degree.

Chris Edmonds presents The Leader’s Primary Contribution: Discretionary Energy posted at Driving Results Through Culture.

Jason Price presents The Biggest Lie of Leadership posted at One Money Design, saying, “This post shares an important ingredient of good leadership which is most often not what people see when thinking of leaders.”

Joe Tichio presents Inspirational Leadership Quotes posted at Inspirational Quotes Blog, saying, “A collection of inspiring quotes on leadership and being a leader.”

Robert Tanner presents Leading Change (Step 5): Empower Broad Based Action | Management is a Journey Blog posted at Management is a Journey Blog, saying, “This article provides strategies on implementing Step 5 of John Kotter’s Leading Change Model–empower broad based action.”

Andy Klein presents A leader’s dilemma: What’s the best way to influence action? posted at Fortune Group Blog, saying, “Leaders are confronted with two options when trying to influence people to act. To us, picking between the two is an easy choice.”

Bob Lieberman presents Nobody Wants To Know Me Anymore posted at Cultivating Creativity – Developing Leaders for the Creative Economy.

Alicia Arnold presents 5 Ways to Get Out of a Creative Slump posted at Daily Creativity, saying, “Around the globe, innovation is cited as one of the top three leadership skills for the future. This article provides easy to implement tips for increasing personal creativity as a building block for harnessing creativity and innovation with the workplace.”

Image credit: Great Leadership

Another month another Leadership Development Carnival hosted by Sharlyn Lauby at HR Bartender. It’s the perfect way to start your weekend. Click around and you’ll start Monday with great new tools and knowledge to jumpstart your week and your future.

Many thanks to our Carnival Leader, Dan McCarthy from Great Leadership, for allowing me to host this event for a second time.  Be sure to check out his latest post I’m Your Boss, Not Your Friend: 10 Reasons Why Your Boss Shouldn’t be Your Friend

Leadership

Need a little energy to get started on this month’s carnival reading?  Art Petty serves up some Leadership Caffeine: 5 Ideas for Creating a Tenacious Culture

Wally Bock at Three Star Leadership tells the story of when Susan was promoted to team leader, it was the highlight of her career, for about 12 hours in his post A New Boss who Shouldn’t Be One

At times, leadership can be less about your circumstances, what you were born with or what you’ve learned.  Benjamin McCall at ReThink HR explains Leadership is about what you have…

Tanmay Vora from QAspire Blog provides 10 Key Lessons on Leading Virtual Teams Effectively

Leaders shouldn’t just go along with the crowd, according to i4cp’s Productivity Blog.  They should be a positive irritant, as explained in the post Thank You for Being Irritating

Linda Fisher Thornton discusses Judging and Bullying: Are They Different? at Leading in Context

Changing Winds blog shares their thoughts for dealing with the rapid advancements in telecommunications technology in Leading in a Virtualized World: 10 Traits of a Cyber Leader

Jane Perdue at Get Your Leadership BIG On! talks about All the Broken Leaders

Guy Farmer at Unconventional Training discusses Leadership Training: Are You an Effective Leader?

Jesse Lyn Stoner tells us the story of what happens When Leaders Don’t Lead

Elegant Leadership blog gives a first-hand example of one of the most difficult patterns to change in the post Splitters Cause Mayhem

Erin Schreyer at Authentic Leadership blog asks Are You a Win-Win Leader?

Anna Farmery at The Engaging Brand outlines the 5 Pitfalls of Democratisation

Should a CEO seek to destroy their office?  That’s the question Chartered Management Institute asks in their post Do You Need a CEO?

Mike Henry at LeadChange Group gives us a list of the 13 Bad Excuses for Letting Poor Performance Slide

Do the Team a Favor – Get Rid of the Loser is Trent Cotton’s advice on his blog, A Driver Minded Guy Living in a Passenger Minded World.  He draws comparisons between toxic organizations and the phases a neoplasm must go through to becoming a life threatening malignancy.

Management

The first job of a manager is to provide clarity.  Explaining what “not” to do is one natural approach. Steve Roesler cautions us in offering direction with Management Direction: Does “Don’t” Mean “Do”? at his blog, All Things Workplace

We’ve heard the cliché that managers should hire slowly and terminate quickly.  The Thriving Small Business blog explores Why Hiring and Firing Decisions are Difficult

Working Girl Laura Schroeder shares her experiences on managing more experienced workers in Project Social: Young Manager

Over at Joe and Wanda on Management, Dr. Todd Dewett explains When Managers Should Address Performance Issues and provides a framework for intervening

Middle Managers Get No Respect! discusses the challenges of being middle management over at Management is a Journey blog

Guy Harris, The Recovering Engineer, says You Cannot Punish People into Good Behavior

Andy Klein at the Fortune Group Blog reminds us Think creating value is only the sales team’s responsibility? Think again

Want some useful tips from Tina Fey’s experiences on SNL?  Check out Alex Drexel’s post, Lessons in Management from Saturday Night Live, over at Talented Apps

Executive Development

Jennifer V. Miller offers 5 Tips for Creating a “Speak Up” Culture over at her blog, The People Equation

David Burkus at LeaderLab discusses the potentially faulty assumptions of Jack Welch’s favored “rank and yank” method in his post The Topgrading Dilemma

The Bud to Boss blog reminds us of the 10 Common Mistakes Leaders Make Delivering Feedback

Is it really possible to “think outside the box” or is something else going on?  Miki Saxon shares her theory in Entrepreneur Creativity Grows in Boxes

All About Living with Life blog tells us Effective Ways to have a Successful Personal Brand

Mark Anthony McCray shares a great exercise for keeping a positive attitude in Get Some Balls!

Leaders can prepare for the future when they see emerging waves before they hit the shore.  But where are those secret clues?  Anne Perschel tells you the answer in The Future: All Upside Down & Inside Out

With technology distractions chipping away at our everyday productivity, it’s little wonder that so many people are looking for ways to get more work done.  The personal finance blog, MoneyedUP, offers 5 Ways to Get More Work Done

Succession Planning

Dr. Bret L. Simmons tells us why Leaders Invest In Their Employees

Developing Talent is the message from The CEO’s Desk blog

Richard Bosworth ponders the question What if…you appointed more women to senior positions?

Becky Robinson’s Weaving Influence tells a story about leadership, Spring and Hatching

Coaching

Meg Bear shares the secret to success in Want to Enhance Your Career…Get Happy on Tahlent blog

Mary Jo Asmus distinguishes between Compete, Cooperate, or Collaborate? at Aspire CS blog

Want to know The Forgotten Key to Effective Feedback?  Kevin Eikenberry tells us at Leadership & Learning blog.

No team in business or life could perform at a high level without a few unsung heroes.  Eric Pennington at Epic Living explains Sometimes It’s Better to be a Role Player

Louise Altman talks about Why Neuroscience SHOULD Change the Way We Manage People over at Intentional Workplace

Ken Klaus from Talented Apps writes Abandoning Successful Careers to Embrace Our Vocations: A Less Than Historic Lesson from the Life of Vincent van Gogh

We always want to share our experiences and how we solved problems.  Michael Cardus at Create-Learning blog explains why Your Solution Will Not Work For Me

Business Wisdom’s Bill Matthies says what’s more important than knowing you can’t do it all is determining what you won’t do.  Check out his post What You Won’t As Much As What You Will

And last but certainly not least, Lynn Dessert at Elephants at Work lists 20 Ways to Help Today.  It’s a resource for helping a family member, friend, or colleague who is dealing with job loss.

Image Credit: MykReeve on flickr

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From a couple of our past Carnival hosts:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image credit: Great Leadership

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

Who (And What) To Choose?

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

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

So Many Questions.

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

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

Polite Dinner Conversation

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

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

It’s Not You, It’s Me

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

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

Check Please!

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

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

Live to Love Again

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

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

Image credit:  MykReeve on flickr

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More great leadership advice:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Glen Madden presents New leaders legacy list posted at MissionLogs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image credit: Great Leadership

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

Gifts for Helping Others Grow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celebrating Connections and Giving

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

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

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

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

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

Some Holiday Twinkle and Cheer

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

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

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

Presents for Becoming a Better Leader

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celebrating Polarities

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

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

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

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

Making Merry and Pushing Comfort Zones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Under the Learning Tree

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Joyfully Becoming Better

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

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

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

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

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

Holiday Potpourri

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flickr image credit: Great Leadership

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

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

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

Enjoy the Carnival, it’s a good one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image credit: Great Leadership