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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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Independent business blogs are blogs that aren't supported by an organization like a magazine, newspaper, company, or business school. Those people provide lots of great content, but they don't need any additional exposure. In this post, every week, I bring you posts of quality from excellent bloggers that don't get as much publicity.

This week, I'm pointing you to posts on how to build a culture of fear, the misuse of technology, two posts that look at what happens when crisis hits, and challenges that develop leaders.

From Leadership Tangles: How to Build a Culture of Fear in 3 Easy Steps
"Leaders, follow these three easy steps if you want to ensure that tough issues are never raised, that you don’t receive early warning signs, and that employees are seen and not heard. If you follow these steps faithfully, you and your executive team will hold all the power. You will be secure in your conference room, knowing that no outside influences sway your decisions. You will be assured that you are right, and all others are wrong! But beware; pursuing this path could result in a totally avoidable train wreck."

Wally's Comment: It's not that hard. You can turn your workplace into a miniature version of Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union and hardly break a sweat. Here's how.

From Compensation Force: HR Technology... Only as Good as the Underlying HR
"Technology is bringing us some amazing tools.  Talent management software packages continue to expand their features and capabilities.  A recent article profiling one particular human capital technology vendor even bragged up their tool's ability to identify who to lay off. I have to admit, that claim stopped me in my tracks.  Presumably, this divination about who should go and who should stay is drawn from the trove of employee performance data the system stores and makes available for intricate analysis and reporting."

Wally's Comment: Repeat after me: "Technology can help you make the decision, it should not make the decision for you. Garbage in, garbage out." Now read Ann Bares' excellent post about using HR technology.

From Management Excellence: Surviving as a Leader When Things Go Horribly Wrong
"Learning to cope with the unexpected deviation from your most carefully laid plans is an important part of growing up as a leader."

Wally's Comment: Some years ago an experienced project manager for the giant worldwide engineering and construction firm, Bechtel, gave me his view of how things worked: "About ninety percent of what you try won't work the way you expect," he said, "and the other ten percent won't work the first time." Project management expert Art Petty knows that as well as anyone. Here's a great post about how to learn to adjust when mud hits the fan.

From You're not the Boss of Me: When Change Hits "Upside the Head"
"Sometimes change hits us “upside the head” and cares not whether we have had time to think about it or prepare for it.  It simply happens, rudely and without ceremony, leaving us grappling to make some sense of it all."

Wally's Comment: Unraveling plans aren't the only kind of "Oh my God!" moment. Sometimes those come as change you don't control. Gwen Teatro has some cogent thoughts on how you should respond when it happens to you. It will, you know.

From Great Leadership: 30 Challenges That Can Develop Leaders
"There is no shortage of developmental challenges a leader could face throughout their careers. Here is a summary of three decades worth of research that describes these challenges. Note the overlap and similarities between the lists."

Wally's Comment: Dan McCarthy draws on a career's-worth of experience to identify "developmental experiences" for leaders. The best leadership development includes lots of developmental experiences, so what Dan's really given you is a menu to pick from.

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.