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John Hunter has trusted me to host the latest edition of his excellent carnival. So here it is: Management Improvement Carnival #104 with pointers to some other carnivals and pointers to posts on making sure that lessons are learned, the toxic side of leadership, expressing confidence, coaching, and the most dangerous part of a manager's body.

There are two kinds of carnivals in the blogosphere. Most are submission-based. They accept pretty much anything sent to them as long as there's some relation to the topic.

Other carnivals are selection-based. Like the editors of old, the people running the carnival choose excellent posts on the topic. John Hunter's Management Improvement Carnival is a selection-based carnival.

The Carnival of Trust is an excellent selection-based carnival. Some others (not called "carnivals") are Eric D. Brown's weekly list of links, Chris Young's "Fab Five Blog Picks of the Week," and my own "Leadership Reading to Start Your Week" and "A Midweek Look at the Independent Business Blogs."

And now, in the spirit of the editors of old, here are some first-rate management improvement posts from the last month. I went searching for blog posts that were practical, helpful, and, if appropriate based on research.

From QAspire: 5 Ideas To Ensure That Lessons are ‘Really’ Learned
"All improvement depends on lessons you document and what you, as a leader, do about it. If you are a business leader, project leader or an improvement expert, here are five practical things you can do to ensure that lessons are really learned."

Wally's Comment: Tanmay Vora says that his QAspire blog is about "practical insights on quality, leadership and improvement. This post is a fine example of his work.

From Great Leadership: Beware of the Dark Side of Leadership: 11 Tragic Flaw Behaviors 
"Many leaders have what Aristotle would have called a “tragic flaw”. Othello's jealousy and Hamlet's failure to act are two well known literary examples. This weak spot that can lead to a leader’s downfall is often one of the leader’s greatest strengths, which when stressed and overused, turns into destructive behavior. I’ve always believed that most, if not all, leadership behavioral problems are a result of strengths that are over-used. I see it over and over when I review 360 assessments with managers. I can usually connect low scores for a problem behavior back to 1-2 high scores for overused skills. It’s one of the reasons I’m so concerned about the potential for misunderstanding and misuse of the whole “strength-based” leadership development movement. Only developing your strengths and not your weaknesses is a surefire recipe for leadership derailment."

Wally's Comment: Dan McCarthy's Great Leadership blog is the best source I've come across for leadership development. Dan has spent his career in the field and is truly adept at applying his experience and knowledge to specific current problems. In this post, Dan, makes that case that, just maybe, simply building on strengths and ignoring weaknesses is a bad idea.

From Work Matters: The Wise Boss: More Evidence For Expressing Confidence, But Harboring Private Doubts
"One of the challenges that I write about in Good Boss, Bad Boss and that Jeff Pfeffer and I discuss in Hard Facts is that leaders walk a fine line between exuding confidence while simultaneously making decisions and updating their actions based on the best possible information.  The best bosses, we argue, have what psychologist's call the attitude of wisdom: They act with confidence, while doubting what they know. "

Wally's Comment: You may know Bob Sutton from his books, including Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense, and The No Asshole Rule. His blog serves up similar content. This post zeroes in on the question of what to do when you've got doubts that everything will come out right. Be sure to read the comments, too.

From Mary Jo Asmus: Coaching Others: Short Term Pain for Long Term Gain
"One of the biggest pushbacks I get from those I teach almost always has to do with the time that coaching takes. Admittedly, it can take longer to coach others than to either ignore them or to bark orders. Coaching is a methodology to help people figure things out for themselves, so you can see why it might require more time and effort than other methods a manager could use."

Wally's Comment: Mary Jo Asmus is an executive coach who has actually been an executive. How cool is that? She also shares powerfully simple observations and suggestions. In this post, Mary Jo points out why spending time to coach your people is really an investment.

From Terry Starbucker: Why The Knee Is The Most Dangerous Part Of A Leader’s Body
"Leaders are constantly processing information, and in the course of doing that are called upon to make decisions based on that information. Or not make them. That’s where our knees come in. Sometimes the nature of this information, its source, or the manner in which it was delivered,  puts some kind of strange electric charge into the knee, and consequently, it jerks upward, causing a powerful reaction."

Wally's Comment: Terry Starbucker has no connection to any coffee company, living or dead. He's a blogger who brings broad experience and a wide range of interests to the table. After you read this post on decision making, you may want to poke around the site till you find his "Crash Davis Belief Statement."

But wait, there's more.

Bonus: Evidence Soup. This is a great blog that highlights surveys and studies. Tracy Allison Altman uses her considerable analytical and writing skills to help you see clearly through the evidence to reality.

That's it for this edition of the Management Improvement Carnival, the brainchild of John Hunter. You'll find the carnival's permanent home on John's Curious Cat Management Blog where he shares insights and pointers to all sorts of wonderful things.