Subscribe to the Three Star Leadership Blog

The 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.

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

Find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.

Find out more about Wally's coaching services.

Here's my pick of the five best posts from this week's business blogs. I'm pointing you to posts on talking about leadership, merit pay, the power of position, when promoting from within is a bad idea, and persuasion.

From Jim Stroup at Managing Leadership: Will lead for food
"Never mind asking what leadership is – let’s start by asking what it does. We have enough people jumping into the pool trying to make the biggest splash over definitions of leadership and leaders – especially by setting up disparaging comparisons with management and managers. But how many people actually start from the beginning? What, after all, is the demand for individual leadership? What do they do that really needs doing? And what about leadership itself? What are the functions that leadership performs uniquely for our organizations that otherwise would go begging? You’d be surprised, perhaps, at how little serious discussion there is of this. It’s there, but you have to work to locate it amid all the dross. What you’re most likely to find tends to fall, in generally descending volume, into three categories.

Wally's Comment: Pundits and gurus beware. This post will make you blanch with recognition.

From Ann Bares at Compensation Force: The Tragedy of the Commons and Merit Pay
"The topic of pay-for-performance came up in a recent meeting, and someone drew a comparison between the challenge of making merit pay work and the classic dilemma The Tragedy of the Commons. It was a beautiful point and I'm not sure I can do it justice here, but I am going to give it a shot."

Wally's Comment: This is a great post about why merit pay systems often seem to collapse of their own weight.

From Jena McGregor at Business Week: A New Power Principle?
"You may think it’s your boss who’s always the one messing things up. But according to new research in the journal Psychological Science, people with lower-ranking titles are more likely to make errors than those with higher-ranking roles."

Wally's Comment: There's very little reasoned discussion about the role that being in a position of authority plays in leadership performance. Here's some good research that's worth your time.

From Michelle Malay Carter at Mission Minded Management: The Dangers of Promoting from Within - Avoid “Right Place at the Right Time” Promotions
"When organizations try to use their HR employee hired to cut paychecks back when the company had 50 employees to now design an integrated Talent Management system when your company is 20 times the size, you’ve got trouble. I’ve seen organizations do this. “Right place at the right time” promotions wreak havoc."

Wally's Comment: Michelle Malay Carter writes an excellent piece about the Peter Principle applied to growing organizations.

From Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace: Three Ways To Persuade
"As a public service to humanity in general, here are the three distinct ways--talents--that offer the ability to persuade."

Wally's Comment: If you think you hate selling (persuading with a commercial purpose) read this post. You might be surprised.

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.

Request your free copy of "Meeting the Challenges of the Boomer Brain Drain: An integrated approach."

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.