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Here's my pick of the five best posts from this week's business blogs. I'm pointing you to posts on ways to kill a good idea, leadership exchange programs, making good presentations, bad meetings, and communication. There's also a bonus item. But first a bit of Carnival news.

Beginning in July, Dan McCarthy will be hosting a monthly Leadership Development Blog Carnival at his Great Leadership Blog where you'll find more details. Submissions are due the last Saturday of the month.

And now, without further ado, my business blog picks for this week.

From Michael Wade at Execupundit: 21 Ways Bright Ideas Are Squelched

Wally's Comment: Michael Wade is succinct and wise as usual. Use this as a "What Not to Do" checklist.

From Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership: How to Start a Leadership Exchange Program
"However, even if a company does have the potential to move their high potential leaders around in developmental assignments, they don’t always do it. Why not? Because without some kind of intervention, or top-down process, it won’t happen naturally. Job changes, especially to new areas, are inherently risky, for both the manager as well as the hiring manager. They both may understand that these moves are for the longer term greater good, however, shorter term priorities always come first. One way a company, or HR leader, can overcome this dilemma is to implement a “Leadership Exchange Program”, or 'LEP'."

Wally's Comment: Leadership exchange programs are a great way for small and mid-sized businesses to create developmental assignments for their leaders. Fits right in with my Apprenticeship model.

From Rowan Manahan at Fortify Your Oasis: Presenting - is the ranting having any effect?
"Considering the body of knowledge that exists out there on the optimal way to get ideas across to audiences, along with the hard scientific data as to those approaches which categorically do not work, it’s more than a little surprising that the proven, effective methods have not been embraced to … well to any extent really."

Wally's Comment: Presenters seem to be ignoring the research about what makes a good presentation and if you read this post you'll recognize aspects of presentations that have been inflicted on you. On of the joys of reading Rowan's blog is that he is one of the few people in the blog world who not only knows what the word "supplicant" means, but can use it devastatingly and unpretentiously in a sentence.

From Nina Simosko: Why Talk Kills Meetings
"Studies have shown that meetings work best for speakers and not for listeners. So to amp up the productivity of your leadership meetings there are simple things you can do."

Wally's Comment: While Rowan was concentrating on making presentations better, Nina was asking: "Should we have presentations at all?" As usual, she's done her homework before writing.

From Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace: Is Communication the Real Issue?
"About 80% of the phone calls I receive from clients and prospective clients are described at the outset as "communications problems". That seems to be a catch-all for anything having to do with people. Here are three issues that come up quite often along with related solutions."

Wally's Comment: This is one of those blog posts that give you the benefit of the writer's years of experience.

Bonus Round

From Freakonomics: Who Is the Greatest Modern-Day Thinker?

Wally's Comment: Here's a bonus for those of you who like this sort of thing. When I checked today, there were over two hundred comments, almost all worth reading.

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.