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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 improving the potency of your team, accounting for personality, becoming a better leader day by day, earning your leadership merit badge, and leadership basics.

From Bret Simmons: How Can You Help Your Team Be More Potent?
"A potent team is one in which the members believe they can achieve their objectives. A study recently published in the Journal of Marketing Research entitled “The Role of Consensus in Sales Team Performance,” showed that when members of a sales team believed they could achieve their shared objectives, they put forth more collective effort and helped each other more. Enhanced team performance was the result of this collective effort and helping behavior."

Wally's Comment: Potent. What a great word. In my dictionary it means "capable of producing powerful effects." Wouldn't you want to be part of a team like that?

From Tanveer Naseer: Are You Fitting Employee Personality Into Your Leadership Puzzle?
"Of course, if we’re recognizing that a leader’s personality has an impact on their effectiveness in managing their team, it’s only reasonable that we consider the role personality plays on the other side of the workplace equation. Specifically, that we recognize how the myriad of personalities found within the workforce also plays a role in one’s ability to successfully lead the team in reaching the goals of the organization."

Wally's Comment: Tanveer Naseer does a marvelous twist on all those discussions of the best leadership personality by asking whether you, oh leader, are accounting for different personalities on your team. Remember, it's different strokes for different folks and you get farther, faster if you use the right one.

Special Note: The end of the year is a time when many people (including me) take stock of our performance and plan to do better. That may be the reason we've got three exceptional posts that will help you assess your leadership and where you can improve.

I urge you to read all three posts together, along with two of mine, "Becoming a Great Leader is Up to You" and "Crafting Your Personal Development Plan ."

From Great Leadership: 31 Days to Become a Better Leader
"With the start of a New Year looming, there’s no better time than now to commit to being a better leader in 2011. Here’s a list of 31 activities that can help you become a better leader. Each one can be done in a day."

Wally's Comment: "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better" was the core of the Coue method of autosuggestion that's the precursor of all the self-improvement programs that rely on affirmations. Well, Dan McCarthy has mapped out thirty-one days worth of better and better for you.

From Scott Eblin: Requirements for Earning Your Leadership Merit Badge
"It was fun to be reminded of the methodical and sequential approach that the Scouts have for the merit badge process.  If you think about it, the whole process of starting with learning the basics of any discipline and methodically working your way up to some level of mastery makes sense for undertakings far beyond Scout merit badges.  It led me to consider, “If there were a merit badge for organizational leadership, what would the requirements be?” Here’s a really rough cut at the first draft of the requirements for the Organizational Leadership merit badge."

Wally's Comment: This is a very clever and helpful piece. We may have to get Scott Eblin to start issuing leadership merit badges.

From Mike Myatt: Leadership Basics
"While I without question write more on the topic of leadership than any other subject, I realize that some of what I pen tends to deal with more complex arguments. However in reflecting upon my presentations and client engagements, I’ve noticed that it’s not an infrequent occurrence to find that even the most savvy executives misconstrue certain basic leadership ideas. Therefore, I’ve concluded it’s time to take a step back and review the fundamentals. So, in today’s post I’ve compiled a short list of 5 things you thought you already knew about leadership, but may not be putting into practice."

Wally's Comment: This is a great bring-it-all-together post. If you haven't reviewed your core leadership principles in a while, this will be especially valuable.

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 articles about banks and ethics, money and life, kindness at the office, social innovation networks, and making your growth plans fit.

Here, on Three Star Leadership, I post things that will help a boss at any level do better and live a better life. At Results vs Activities, I join other bloggers with posts on talent development. My blog at the Toolbox for HR is People and the Changing Workplace .

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.

If you're a boss, you should check out my Working Supervisor's Support Kit.

And be sure to stop by at Weekly Leader where I'll try to get you thinking about The Challenge 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.