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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 giving feedback, goals, the leader's balancing act, credibility, and evaluating men and women in the workplace.

From Management Excellence: The Feedback on Feedback
"Over the past several years beginning with the work for Practical Lessons in Leadership with my co-author, Rich Petro, I’ve made a professional hobby out of exploring the fascinating and very real fear that so many people have for delivering constructive feedback.

Wally's Comment: For over a quarter century, experienced supervisors in my programs have named "talking to team members about poor performance" as the toughest part of their job. Art's findings match mine. Giving tough feedback is hard.

To make matters worse, hardly any new bosses get any training in how to do it well. And to make matters even worse than that, it's a vital skill as i4cp noted in a post about their research titled."High Performers Purge the Unproductive."

From LeaderLab: The Champagne Test
"The other day I was involved in a huge debate over SMART objectives. This clever acronym was developed, and then grossly over-used, to describe a criteria for effective goal setting. Simply put, objectives ought to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Our argument centered around the measureable element. My debate foe argued that this meant all objectives had to have a numbered component. Whereas I argued, quite deftly, that a “Yes or No” objective counted as measureable. If you set a goal like become the top ranked office in the region, then you’re measurement is built in: you either did it or didn’t do it."

Wally's Comment: You've heard of SMART goals of course. Every guru, expert, and motivational speaker has their own version of the acronym. DePaul professor Robert S. Rubin found enough different meanings for each of the letters to form almost 9000 different versions of the SMART acronym. Phew! Maybe David Burkus' idea about simplifying the goal is a good one.

From Starbucker: Leadership Schizophrenia: The Fine Line Between Hubris and Humility
"Leadership is a balancing act.  Imagine the tightrope walker at the circus, precariously navigating from one side of the big top to the other. If the walker puts too much weight on one side or the other, they’ll take a big fall."

Wally's Comment: A great deal of a boss's work involves balancing two objectives that are often in tension. You must think both short term and long term. You must accomplish the mission and care for your people. Terry Starbucker has some sage advice about how to make it all work.

From HR Toolbox: Credibility in Leadership
"In tough times, leaders need to keep their people motivated while laying off some and cutting resources for the rest. Leaders grapple with that combined challenge – some knowingly and some not, some successfully and some not. The challenge illustrates a double bind for leader credibility that now exists."

Wally's Comment: You've heard it before. You have to be credible. But very few of those giving the advice ever tell you exactly what that means or how to do it. Tony Simons and Liz Guthridge wrote this post to remedy that lack.

From Dorothy Dalton: She’s Too Sexy for her Job
"I’ve come across a lot of material recently about how women should conduct themselves in the workplace ranging from: smiling (too much / too little), speaking up (too late/too quiet/too much), stretching the rules (not enough/taking advantage), flirting (do/don’t) and it just seemed to me yet again that women are in a double bind. Damned if they do and damned if they don’t. The final straw was when I saw an article about a woman in Citibank who was fired for being “too hot”, when the bank’s own diversity instructions and career advice for women encourages them to be more visible."

Wally's Comment: Dorothy Dalton has showed up on this list many times, mostly for thoughtful, well-researched, and sensitive posts about women in the workplace. This is another one of them.

I've got a bonus for you this week. Dr. Anne Perschel and Marion Chapsal have started a new blog carnival that they've named "NOW Leadership." Here's how they describe their intent.

"The music of 21st century leader is neither feminine nor masculine. It is a third sound created in the previously unoccupied space where feminine and masculine attributes meet. We call it NOW Leadership."

That's it for this week's selections from independent business blogs. If you liked this piece you may enjoy my regular post on "Leadership Reading to Start Your Week" which features five choice articles from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms. The last issue had pointers to articles about measuring corporate performance, choosing, Harry and David, social networks at work, and mindful leadership.

Be sure to find out more about my latest book, Ruthless Focus: How to use key core strategies to grow your business or just jump right over to Amazon and buy a few copies.

My Working Supervisor's Support Kit remains popular with bosses who want to learn to do the one-on-one part of their job better.

And be sure to check out Weekly Leader where I'll try to get you thinking about The Question of the Week.

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.