There are two great things about reading blogs.  First of all, you usually get a real point of view.  There's not even any pretend objectivity.  Second, when comments are posted you can see how others react to that point of view and maybe even put your own two cents in.

Here are some blog posts that caught my attention at mid-week. There are posts about dealing with jerks at work who stay on because they're seen as winners, replacing key staff members (or not), applying enduring leadership truths, the sad state of the implementation of work-life policies at accounting firms, collaboration and competition within the firm, root cause analysis, and the dark side of open source.

From Bob Sutton: Winning Assholes: “Making Money Gives a Pass to Even the Worst Manners”
"How do we change things so that the assholes are treated as failures even when they bring in the big bucks?"

From Business Week: Why Firing Doesn't Always Help
"Replacing key staff members can take a serious toll on your business. Instead of switching employees like cogs, study and nurture their skills"

From Management Craft: Things Change, Things Stay the Same
"I wonder what I can do next that will be of greatest help to managers and leaders. No fads, no programs du jour. I find that most of my readers and clients - you - are already more enlightened. You value continuous growth and are open and coachable. You want to scale the next mountain, even if you have been there, done that, and gotten the shirt already. I really like that about you."

From Management-Issues: Work-life policies are window dressing
"The big accountancy firms in the U.S. are keen to trumpet their adoption of work-life balance and flexible working arrangements. But look more closely and this new-found concern for their employees is revealed as little more than window dressing.  Researchers who studied two Big Four firms and two second tier firms have found that not only are flexible working policies viewed with suspicion by management, but anybody brave enough to actually ask for alternative working arrangements is going to find that their career prospects suffer as a result. "

From David Maister: Lions, Wolves, Beavers and Humans
"Back in August of last year, I posted a blog about Corporate Strategy and Personality Profiles. The basic argument was (and is) that many firms are incapable of firmwide strategy because the key players have not agreed either to (a) collaborate or (b) invest in their mutual future. I have now expanded my thoughts into a full-length article (Are we In This Together? The Preconditions for Strategy), which has been posted on my website and can be read or downloaded now."

From the AntiSysiphus Effect: More RCA [Root Cause Analysis] Resources
"I started this series ten entries and nearly one month ago. I hope you've been able to take away some useful information; in particular, I hope you've gained an understanding of just how much your business can gain from using RCA to help diagnose business problems and prevent them from recurring."

From Business Pundit: Getting Rich Off Free Labor
"Time magazine looks at getting rich off those who work for free. It's not very in-depth, but is one of the articles that, finally, is beginning to break out the real rules of open source work and peer production. Volunteering is nothing new - people have donated their skills to non-profits for generations, but over the last few years there has been this ridiculous movement that acts like a volunteer workforce is going to reshape commerce and take down big companies. It will, but only in a few instances. "

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

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