People Focus – 2010 Management Improvement Carnival

Some of my most significant learning in quality and continuous improvement have come from John Hunter’s Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. This year, John invited me to participate in 2010 Annual Management Improvement Carnival, and I was thrilled to host it on this blog.

The prime focus of this carnival is people development – and I have the honor of reviewing three amazing HR and leadership development bloggers – all of whom I have learned something significant from in this year – and list some of their best posts in 2010.

Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy

Dan has built an amazing community of leadership thinkers, writers and practitioners through his blog titled “Great Leadership” and by initiating/hosting ‘Carnival of Leadership Development’. So, here are three posts from Great Leadership blog that I enjoyed the most in 2010:

• “The Best Career Advice You Will Ever Get” – I loved reading all parts and I think you should too. Some very valuable career advice there.
• Great Employees Trump Perfect Processes – This post resonated with me so well because as an amateur practitioner, I thought processes were silver bullets. Many years later, now, I now believe that good people are at the core of any Quality Management System.
• How to Discuss an Employee Performance Problem – This is one thing most leaders hate doing, and Dan offered some excellent tips to handle such situations. This post is a must read if you are a supervisor/manager at any level.

Renegade HR by Chris Ferdinandi

Chris writes short and thought provoking posts on HR, hiring great people and letting them do amazing job. I have been following the blog for last few months and this carnival enabled me to dig into the older posts written earlier this year. Here are my favorite three:

• Renegade HR: Getting Started – This post offers four simple-yet-difficult-to-practice ideas that forms the core of Renegade HR. The fundamental belief? “A great organization starts with the people you bring into it.“
• 21 Random Ideas About HR – This is a great list that offers some radical ideas on HR. My favorite? “Curiosity and drive are more important than experience.”
• HR Should Put Itself Out of Business – Check this post out to know the new ways for HR to become even more awesome as a business function.

Glyn Lumley  – The HR Maverick

It is unfortunate that Glyn Lumley is not blogging anymore (a very recent announcement), but I am grateful to him for having shared some insights while implementing Deming’s system of management. Here are a few posts I particularly liked:

• Down with staff suggestions! – This post takes a dig at the traditional staff suggestion systems and emphasizes on the fact that instead of people suggesting improvements, they should be an integral part of improvement process. I agree!
• Questions about appraisal – An excellent post that suggests a continuous feedback system through effective coaching as a great alternative to meet performance goals.

Thanks to all of you for sharing your wisdom/insights to enlighten and educate me in 2010.