June Leadership Development Carnival!!

I'm pleased and proud to present June's Leadership Development Carnival here at Working Girl.  Below you'll find a fabulous line up with all your favorite leadership gurus!

As a reminder, here's the topic:  "Although all brilliant submissions about leadership are welcome, I’m really interested in sharing stories from the trenches.  In other words what is the best (or worst!) leadership moment you can remember, either yours or someone else’s. Get personal!"

But before we get to the good stuff, please note I was on vacation all last week and had some odd experiences with disappearing submissions so if you don't see your post here please let me know and I'll add it!

We'll start with the people who followed the instructions. :-)

Best leadership moments:

Wally Bock leads this category with his post Dealing With the Dust Catcher.  "They called her the "Dust Catcher." It wasn't because she liked to clean. It was because she stood so still." 

 Robin McLeod offers some terrific advise about managing people without micromanaging them in her post You Don't Have to be Bossy to be the Boss.  "I can admit today that my move from a strong individual contributor to a young manager of others was not a smooth journey."

Jane Perdue strikes a satisfying blow for early women leaders in her post Stereotype Speed Bumps in My Career Path.  "Little did I realize that one of my first decisions as a newly promoted manager would be to decide if I was going to be the nice girl who poured the coffee or the b—- who refused to do so."

Chris Edmonds offers some personal insight on how leaders can avoid getting out of touch in his post Leaders, Observe and Align Culture Practices.  "Great bosses are keen observers of the human condition. They keep their fingers on the pulse of how safe and inspiring their work environment is, day to day."

Robert Tanner explores how to identify and use your organizational power in his post What's Your Power in Your Organization?  Don't Give it Up!  "I’m tired of giving 150% to this organization and only getting grief back from my boss! I’m going to pull back and just do the minimum until I can get out of here!"

Joel Garfinkle turns a worst leadership moment into a best leadership moment in his post Grow Your Influence by Building Positive Relationships at Work. "With the help of his coach, Alan put together a plan to increase his influence by focusing on building positive relationships at work." 

 Jesse Lyn Stoner offers excellent advice for leading without formal power in her post How to Influence without Authority.  "Back in the good old days, if you were in a position of authority, you could just announce what needed to be done and assume it would be carried out. But times have changed."

Worst leadership moments:

Dan McCarthy kicks off this category with his post 10 (+1) Dumb Leadership Mistakes from Recent Headlines.  "Don't slap your employees.  Two words: anger management." 

 Mary Ila Ward boldly exposes her own work style flaws and invites colleagues to participate in her post Self-Awareness Test! "Today, I sent the list of top 20 flaws or bad habits discussed in last week's blog post  to approximately 25 of my colleagues, clients, friends and family.   I asked them to send what they believe to be my two biggest flaws to a friend and colleague of mine to compile." 

 Mixi Saxon takes off with the poor leadership baton - although not a personal story - to remind us where disengagement comes from in her post Ducks in  Row: Who Cares? "None of them sees “not giving a damn” as a result of the way they manage, but 98% of the time it is."

Joseph Varcasia shares a great example of what happens when you don't move on in his post New Job? Stop Meddling with Your Old One. "The trouble is that I was interrupting my real work responsibilities and wading into an area for which I had no formal responsibilities"

Other leadership topics: 

Mike Haberman explores how you coach an arrogant employee in his post Arrogant versus Confident.  “True arrogance is the belief that you have nothing left to learn, while true confidence is the belief that you can help others to learn as you continue learning yourself.”

Linda Fisher Thornton explores the the role of creativity in leadership in her post What is Creativity?  "In the leadership development world, creativity is getting a great deal of attention.  But what is it?  Can you learn it?  Is it a skill?  How do we lead in ways that encourage it?"

Jesse Lyn Stoner stresses the importance of clear values in business in her post Without Clear Values, You Are Probably Losing Business.  "The nice gentleman spraying my son with chemicals was guided by his personal values of courtesy. He had quite nicely asked my son whether he minded, and he was as nice as could be when he explained to me that there was no problem."

Stephen from NerdWallet explains how travel can improve both your financial and personal leadership skills in his post How Traveling Round the World Enhances Your Financial Prowess / Independence.  "A healthy concern for your finances can help break down social barriers. On the road, it’s helpful to be outgoing and affable. You never know who will be able offer advice or assistance."

 Eric Pennington explains how to recognize quality leadership and why it can be so powerful to the follower in his post Who Would Follow You, the Leader?  "This all should make us remember that how we influence people (every day) is what builds true followers."

 Sean Glaze explains how personality analysis can improve team performance in his post Improve Team Communication with a Style of Influence Personality Profile. "Completing a personality profile and identifying the reasons why you and your teammates act the way you do, or process things in a certain preferred fashion, can be a significant first step in beginning to improve team communication, rapport, and relationships."

 Jim Taggart offers some excellent advice about embracing change in his post Are You a Quick Change Artist? "Break off that rearview mirror; it’s not helping you position yourself for the future."

 Anna Farmery talks about getting the most out of social business in her post Stepping Stones to Social Business Model.  "Think crowdsourcing, think kickstarter, think ideas and creativity like MyStarbucks, think cubify which is creating a community of ideas available to manufacture to one and all......"

Bernd Gerrop shares excellent advice on improving leadership in his post How to Improve Leadership with Only 1 Min per Day.  "Lots of business leaders spend 90 % of their work time on these day-to-day operational tasks – 90 % of their time or sometimes even more!"