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The business blogs have been getting back into action this last week and that make choosing the top five great posts even harder than usual. Here are my picks. I'm pointing you to posts about the management lessons of Charlie Wilson's War, building on strength, common supervisory mistakes, employee engagement around the world, and whether a bad boss is good for the bottom line.

Let's look at the Carnivals first. NHG Consulting hosts the latest edition of Carnival of the Capitalists. And Ask a Manager hosts the most recent Carnival of Human Resources.

From Tom Peters: You, Me, and Charlie Wilson's War
"Over Christmas I read George Crile's Charlie Wilson's War, the tale of the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan and the subsequent implosion of the Evil Empire, our undisputed nemesis for the first half century of my life. I can state with some certainty that it was the most incredible non-fiction story I have ever (!!) read. Last night I saw the movie—it was, for me, wonderful, though a pale reproduction of the full 550-page treatment by Crile. Turning to the practicalities of your and my day-to-day professional affairs, the story was peppered with de facto analyses of how Charlie did his amazing thing. He is indeed "larger than life," and yet his practical "can do" tactics have a lot to teach all of us. As I imagine it, 100% of the readers of this Blog are Professional Change Agents, fighting wars against the bureaucratic evil empires that impede success. So what follows is rather (!) lengthy for a Blogpost, but ridiculously short considering the importance of the subject matter."

Wally's Comment: This post is everything I love about Tom Peters that also drives me crazy. It's emotion let loose. It's prose peppered with insights and exclamation points. And it's definitely worth reading.

From Joe Raasch at the Happy Burro: What Talent Do You Have?
"We all have talent of some sort. How do you know what is innate talent, what is talent you could be the best in the world with, and what talent do you get paid to do?"

Wally's Comment: Figuring out what you do well and what you can build a life and career on are among the most important things you can do.

From HR Web Cafe: Common supervisory mistakes
"Ten Critical Mistakes Made by Supervisors Dealing with Federal Employees in Trouble at Work - This is an excellent article by Bob Gilson, a consultant and employee relations advisor who authors articles at FedSmith.com, an information portal for sources of information impacting the federal community. This concise and sensible list is one that should be mandatory reading for all with supervisory responsibility, regardless of whether they are in the public or private sector. "

Wally's Comment: I thought this was more of a grab bag than a thoughtful list, but I also thought it was something every supervisor should look at.

From Management Issues: The many faces of employee engagement
"For Britons and Americans it is all about respect. For workers in France and India it is the type of work they are doing. For Germans it is who they work with. And for the Japanese, it is pay. Employee engagement, it is clear, takes many different forms around the world."

Wally's Comment: This shouldn't be a new insight. True, there's a whole school of American thought that thinks making everybody the same is a good thing. But then there's reality. This is a field that I first saw plowed in Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars' excellent book, The Seven Cultures of Capitalism fifteen years or so ago.

From Mike Holman at Fresh Inc: Is a Bad Boss Good for the Bottom Line?
"Earlier today, I was interviewed by Stuart Varney on Fox Business News, about a column Leigh Buchanan wrote that listed seven signs that your employees hate you. (The column appears in the January issue of Inc.; to read it, click here.) After dutifully running through a few of the signs on Leigh's list, Varney shifted the conversation and basically said, Does any of this matter? He went on to argue that it's perfectly fine--and often smart--for a boss to instill fear and hatred in his or her employees. Fear is a great way to ensure that a group of workers meets a key business goal, particularly in an environment such as this one, where the economy appears to be on the down swing. I like a good debate, and I was happy to take on Varney. I said that I thought, having reported on entrepreneurial businesses for more than a decade, that fear was at best a useful short term motivator. It can work to get a group of employees--especially relatively young workers--to work intensely on a project, and to produce extraordinary results."

Wally's Comment: It's fascinating to me that a journalist like Varney would actually ask if bad bosses were, by definition, good bosses. Maybe he's a big fan of Chainsaw Al Dunlap.

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.