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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 feedback, innovative leadership, job satisfaction, leaders and results, and what a great company looks like from inside.

From Mary Jo Asmus: Feedback: The Whole Truth (Almost)
"Most good leaders appreciate feedback. They want to know how they are doing in the eyes of their stakeholders, and appreciate honest suggestions on what and how they can improve. Many believe that when they request feedback from their staff, peers, and manager that they will hear the unvarnished truth about their performance; seldom does that happen."

Wally's Comment: There are lots of articles about how important feedback is. There are very, very few that suggest how to ask for feedback and receive it so that you and everyone else come out better. Good news. Experienced executive coach Mary Jo Asmus has written just such a post.

From Great Leadership: Mastering Innovative Leadership
"Innovation is, in my book, quite simply a fertile union of creativity and leadership. Thus you might say that the term ‘innovative leadership’ is redundant and all leadership is innovative. That assumes people in leadership roles really are leading, as in visualizing the new and better and moving us in their direction."

Wally's Comment: Creativity is coming up with good ideas. Innovation is putting those ideas to use to make things better. Leadership is the linkage that helps innovation come from creativity. Alexander Hiam's guest post at Great Leadership describes how it can work.

From LeaderLab: What Is the Truth about Job Satisfaction?
"The evidence about job satisfaction seems confusing. I’ve been guided by the counsel of a 2006 meta-analysis published in one of our best research journals, The Academy of Management Journal, that found a strong relationship between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and multiple measures of employee effectiveness (job performance, extra-role behaviors, and withdrawal behaviors). This study advised that job satisfaction and commitment are the most useful things managers can focus on to help employees be more effective at work."

Wally's Comment: Discussions of the links between job satisfaction and productivity break down in many ways. Some participants confuse correlation and causality. Some seem to define "job satisfaction" as "happiness." And an astonishing number of those participating in the discussion haven't read much of the research.

Academics read research all the time. But most seem to do it for their own ends and talk about it in their own jargon. That's why management professors like Bret Simmons are on my must-read list. Bret reads and understands the research. And he makes the effort to relate the research to that real world most of us live in. As a bonus, he speaks in language we can understand.

From the DNA of Human Capital: Leadership and Organizational Performance...Lack of Linkage...
"So imagine my surprise last week as I started my Doctorate of Education program at Wharton and the UPenn Graduate School of Education when the creator of the Executive Program in Work-Based Learning Leadership, Dr. Doug Lynch, stated that there is a lack of academic research linking leadership to organizational performance. As a lifelong learner, I was curious about this statement, so I started looking at what research is there and was amazed…"

Wally's Comment: More on research. In this post Keith Dunbar points out some of the difficulties in determining the connection between leadership and organizational performance.

From Inflexion Advisors: The Best Company I’ve Ever Worked For
"It was 95 degrees in the shade when we arrived. The picnic area boasted the usual grouping of wooden tables surrounding a central grill, all (thankfully) shaded by a long-faded overhang. Greeting us were the warm smiles of colleagues I haven’t seen in well over ten years. Sure, the lines on our faces were a little deeper (time is unkind) but the memories flooded back quickly, with hugs, cheek kisses and “remember when” dominating the atmosphere. This was the twenty-year reunion of the founding of the best company I’ve ever worked for."

Wally's Comment: For years I've asked people in my programs to describe a time when it was great to come to work. Their descriptions are similar across people, industries and time. Mark Stelzner has never been in one of my programs, but his description of the best company he ever worked for matches up with all those descriptions I've heard over the years.

Suggestion: As you read Mark's description of a great place to work, ask yourself what was necessary to make it happen the way Mark experienced it.

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 virtual meetings, learning from manufacturing, Facebook, biology and modern management, and the importance of wording.

Check out information on my latest book, Ruthless Focus: How to use key core strategies to grow your business or just click over to Amazon and buy a few.

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.