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Here are five choice articles from the business press to start off your work week. I'm pointing you to articles about strengths that can hurt you, Toyota, the decline of business media, planning for the next recession, and an inspiring and instructive turnaround.

From the Financial Times: Strengths become weaknesses
"Last week, PCL, the business psychology consultancy, published a report, “A decade of the dark side”, which contained a study of 18,000 psychometric tests completed by senior managers during the past 10 years. The test that was used, the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), differs from other tests in that it analyses why leaders fail, rather than just providing a neutral account of individuals’ strengths and weaknesses."

Wally's Comment: This is one of those things that my mother used to warn about. The very things that make you successful can often turn around and bite you. You may not believe my mom or yours, but here's a little research to ponder.

From Business Week: Toyoda on Toyota: "Grasping for Salvation"
"Akio Toyoda thinks he knows what’s wrong with Toyota, the world’s biggest car maker. Success has made it cocky. It has been expanding in an undisciplined fashion. It has been in denial about the peril it faces."

Wally's Comment: Could Toyota be a victim of hubris? Akio Toyoda thinks that might be the case. It's the sin of pride that brings down the most successful companies just about the time they start thinking that the usual rules don't apply to them.

From Strategy + Business: What a Declining Business Media Means to CEOs
"As cost cutting narrows the field of business journalism, it has become more difficult to put out a corporate story — or take one in."

Wally's Comment: Business isn't easy to cover. A reporter needs to know something about business and businesspeople and have some interest in the subject. There are less and less of those as seasoned business journalists are kicked to the curb to be replaced with younger, less experienced, journalists. Don't say, "So what?" This is important. Read this article for more.

From the Washington Post: Time to Plan for the Next Recession
"If ever you were entitled to start breathing easier, now would seem to be the moment. So why am I telling you not to? The end of the recession seems so close that you can almost smell it. The stock market is surging, China and India are firing on all cylinders again, and no one would be surprised if in the next quarter the U.S. economy shows signs of growth, too. Yet this is exactly the wrong moment to let up on the mean and lean strategies you've adopted. In fact, it's time to go further and develop a new, even tougher mind-set: managing for -- yes -- the next recession."

Wally's Comment: Geoff Colvin is a Senior Editor at Large for Fortune. This article is one example of what a seasoned and savvy journalist can produce. No rookie could write this. Colvin used excellent writing to make several important points. His analysis is based on years of working as a business journalist.

From Industry Week: Forging Change: Miller Centrifugal Casting Comeback
"How does a declining company regain strong footing in the marketplace as a high performance organization?"

Wally's Comment: There's always learning in a good turnaround tale and this is one of those. You can learn a lot about business leadership from reading this.

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.