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It's weekend time again and, hopefully, you've got some time to read a few of the helpful bits of business journalism that crossed my screen this week. I'm pointing you to an article about special requirements for the top job, managing difficult but talented workers, and three articles about adapting lessons learned from Toyota's success to businesses as diverse as a worldwide services company and a small manufacturer of strings for musical instruments.

From the Wall Street Journal: A Different Animal Seeks the No. 1 Post; Often, It's Not No. 2
"His experience shows why the gap between No. 1 and No. 2 in a company is often bigger than many realize. CEOs not only perform different tasks from their second-in-commands -- who typically focus on running operations -- but they have to act differently, too. That means the two roles often demand very different personality traits, say people who have been there."

Wally's Comment: Jim Stroup has an excellent post on this titled "The CEO and the Rest of Us."

From Workforce Management: Do You Have What It Takes to Manage Your Toughest, and Often Best, Employees?
"It takes special skills to get such folks to perform at their best. After all, the most accomplished and talented people don’t think they need guidance. Here are several stories of dealing with unique personalities in the workplace."

From Industry Week: Strategic Deployment: How to Think Like Toyota
"In reality, Toyota's success derives largely from its planning and execution system, says lean consultant and author Pascal Dennis, a former manager at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada. Called hoshin kanri (or hoshin planning), the management system (which was not invented by Toyota) helps Toyota remain competitive year after year by keeping the entire organization's eyes and actions focused on achieving the same goals. It's not just an automotive solution, either, as other manufacturers also are reaping the benefits of hoshin planning."

From HBS Working Knowledge: Bringing 'Lean' Principles to Service Industries
"Thanks to the pioneering success of Toyota, the concept of a "lean" operating system has been implemented in countless manufacturing companies and even adapted for industries as diverse as insurance and healthcare. With its focus on standardization, quality improvement, cost reduction, and efficiency, lean's influence (and various interpretations of its tenets) continues to grow. In their working paper "Lean Principles and Software Production: Evidence from Indian Software Services," HBS doctoral student Bradley Staats and professor David Upton examine what happens when Wipro Technologies, an Indian outsource provider of software services, launches its own lean initiative."

From Newsday: String Company succeeds at reinvention
"Jim D'Addario's family has been making strings for musical instruments since the late 1600s. He heads a company that is one of the world's biggest makers of guitar and violin strings, drumheads and reeds. And he just might have found the secret to keeping manufacturing alive on Long Island. An early Beatles fan, he owns 75 guitars and displays a few of them in his office, along with a drumhead signed by Ringo Starr and a signed George Harrison album cover. D'Addario runs a factory with three shifts of workers in a series of low-profile buildings in Farmingdale, where he's engaged in a radical efficiency drive based on Toyota's lean manufacturing process."

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

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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.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.