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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.

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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 the ROI of leadership development, hubris and computer models, pay inequality, performance reviews, and myths of leadership development.

In addition to blogging here about leadership issues, I'm now blogging at Momentor on career issues. There will be a post similar to this one but on career issues over there every week.

From Art Petty on Management: In Search of a Quantifiable Return on Leadership Development
"Every few months, I run head-on into a discussion with someone (usually a prospective client) about how to value the return from investments in leadership development. The question is not asked as a means of qualifying my services, but rather as a genuine practitioner-to-practitioner inquiry, not dissimilar to what two MDs might talk about with respect to the latest treatment results for an experimental drug program. The person asking knows as well as I do that Return on Leadership Development continues to be an elusive issue that no one has substantively put to rest, and that our best answers are no stronger than impassioned, qualitative opinions. "

Wally's Comment: Art Petty takes on the subject of how to measure the payback on leadership development programs.

From Carmine Coyote at Slow Leadership: Numerology, Statistics and Other Magic
"At the height of the credit boom, one of the pieces of mythology doing the rounds was that you could quantify and measure risk so precisely that it pretty much ceased to be . . . well, risky. Banks and hedge funds employed all kinds of pointy-headed types, from mathematicians to theoretical physicists, to produce ‘risk-management’ algorithms that they claimed made it possible to make money all of the time."

Wally's Comment: Yes, once again the great computing gods have let us down. Carmine Coyote outlines how and what lessons we can learn.

From Freek Vermuelen at Random Rantings: Pay inequality – good or bad for team performance?
"When you have a team of people working on a common task, who all fulfill a similar role in the team (like a football team, a string quartet, a team of engineers, etc.) should you pay them all pretty much the same, or would you be better off creating quite different levels of remuneration within the team?"

Wally's Comment: Professor Vermuelen looks at a study of the affects of pay inequality that was undertaken by Matt Bloom at Notre Dame. .

From KnowHR: Annual Performance Reviews Don’t Work
"What if you were on a diet but only were allowed to weigh yourself once a year? How likely would you be to stick with it? If your answer was, “Not a chance,” why is it okay to have once-a-year performance reviews? Does anyone actually think that one uncomfortable hour once a year is any substitute for effective leadership? Seriously? Why waste the time?"

Wally's Comment: I absolutely agree with this post. I've written about this issue several times. This post is just clearer and shorter. It's a great, insightful post.

From Wes Ball at Leadership Turn: The Modern Mythology of Successful Leadership
"How can we create successful leaders when we lie about what creates success?"

Wally's Comment: A great review of the "theory in practice" about leadership development.

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.