Welcome to the April Leadership Development Carnival. This month we have a truly fabulous collection of reading on leadership, management, executive development, succession planning and coaching.
I wanted to take a moment this time and explain what a carnival event is all about. When I became a blogger, I kept hearing about carnivals and honestly, had no clue. It wasn’t until I decided to ask the question that someone explained it to me.
Imagine a carnival as this place where there are a whole bunch of rides, games, food etc. with the sole purpose of having fun. Same happens here: a blogger (in this case, me) hosts a group of posts from other bloggers (all those folks below) for the single purpose of showcasing a topic (leadership development). It provides both the bloggers and readers with a multitude of new thoughts and resources.
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.
Again, thank you to the bloggers who submitted posts this month. And many thanks to you for reading! Next month’s carnival will be over at Great Leadership blog, I look forward to seeing you over there.
P.S. If you enjoyed reading this month’s posts, I’ve created a Twitter list of the bloggers as well. You can follow them here.
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Robert Tanner says
Sharlyn,
Great work on putting the carnival together! It is a fabulous collection as you mentioned. Thanks for including my post and for all of your social media work on our behalf.
Regards,
Robert
Dan McCarthy says
Sharlyn –
You are amazing! Thanks so much for not only hosting this month’s Carnival, but for doing it so well. It’s an outstanding collection, on time, well organized, creative, promoted, and under budget.
Mary Jo Asmus says
Thanks Sharlyn, for including my post amongst this esteemed group. And ditto to Dan’s comments – thank you for hosting and organizing this month’s carnival, beautifully done!
Paul McConaughy (@minutrition) says
I don’t want to diminish Sharlyn’s great work or all the work on the posts in the Carnival… but I want to gently ask – Is the Carnival getting too big. If you are not really motivated to work your way through it… the size is overwhelming.
I’m a reader… not a contributor but I think it is time for priorities.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for the kind words everyone. This was definitely a labor of love.
And let me express my agreement with Paul’s comment. I’ve wondered it myself on many occasions. The carnival attracts lots of terrific authors and content, but if it’s overwhelming to read then at some point it’s defeating the purpose for everyone.
That being said, let’s toss this out to the group for discussion. What options are available? We could have carnivals more frequently (with the idea that there would be fewer contributors each time) or split the topics into smaller niches or maybe even something completely different.
Please do add your thoughts. It’s what makes blogging and the carnival so valuable. Thanks!
Lynn Dessert says
Sharlyn, Thank you for including me in this month’s carnival. I did not realize how many submissions there were until I read your email from yesterday. That is a lot of work for you and Dan who is our master host!
I submit to the HR Carnival too, it is published twice a month with a different host each time with a theme. I submit when the theme moves me or I have a recent post that applies to it. Just another twist.
Satish Sallakonda says
Sharlyn – Clearly, there is a lot of work that went into this. Appreciate all the efforts and insight in putting the Leadership Development Carnival together. Many Thanks to you for including Tahlent post!
Guy Farmer says
Dear Sharlyn,
Thanks for your efforts in putting this Leadership Development Carnival together and for including my post. I appreciate the great information you provide on your blog.
Take care,
Guy
Charles Chua C K says
Thanks for the acceptance of my article.
Sylvia Lafair says
Sharlyn, You did a fabulous job putting this Leadership Development Carnival together. Thank you for using one of my Elegant Leadership blog posts.
Best,
Sylvia Lafair
Andy Klein says
Sharlyn, I agree with Paul’s comments and your response — it’s quite overwhelming to get to all of the posts included in each carnival!
I think there could be something to splitting the topics into smaller niches. You’ve essentially done that with this month’s carnival — why not simply break up future carnivals in a similar fashion? Sure, there’s a lot of crossover between some topics but it seems like a very logical way to go.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks everyone for the comments, kind words and conversation about carnivals. I really appreciate everyone’s participation.
Laura Schroeder says
Thanks for hosting, Sharlyn, what a great assortment you inspired! I’ve posted at working girl: http://ls-workgirl.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-leadership-development-carnival.html
Krista Francis says
Great work, Sharlyn. I look forward to delving into these posts.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for the nice comments about the carnival! So much great thought leadership to enjoy.
Dan says
Is it possible to suggest articles to be reviewed?
Sharlyn Lauby says
Good question! I’ve never had someone submit another person’s writing for consideration.