Note from Art: every Friday, I share three thought-provoking management posts for the week. Fair warning: I take a broad view of management, so my selections will range from leadership to innovation to finance and personal development and beyond.

This week’s selections feature content on gaining control of your body language, ensuring that your participative leadership approach is genuine, and dealing with employee and management communication challenges during periods of change.  Enjoy!

From Nick Morgan at Public Words: The Body Language Series. In case you haven’t noticed, I cannot get enough of the great personal development suggestions that Nick offers at his Public Words blog. This excellent series on dealing with your own body language issues in front of an audience is well worth your time, even if your not on stage regularly. As Nick indicates, “Most people go through their days telegraphing their state of mind, and it’s typically distracted.” As leaders, we need to be focused and engaged, and Nick’s guidance in this series of short, idea-filled posts will help.

From the post: “Is body language really necessary?” A frustrated executive asked me that once.  He had his hands full with learning his talk, coping with the technology, and, well, picking out his tie.  His question was really, “Do I have to think consciously about my audience’s body language – and my own – with everything else I have to do to deliver a great speech to that audience?  It’s just too much to worry about!” My counter-intuitive answer is no.  Let me explain… “

From Bret L. Simmons writing at his Positive Organizational Behavior blog: The Participative Leader Charade. Bret pulls no punches when it comes to his views on effective leadership or lousy leaders and their practices. This post will smack you right in the leadership face  and force you to think about your perception of your own leadership style and your possible hypocritical reality.

From the post: “If you call yourself an inclusive leader, yet your de facto test of whether or not people “fit” the culture is everyone gets along, or at least never questions or disagrees with you, then you have an integrity gap.”

From John Baldoni writing at HBR Blogs: Help Employees Listen When They Don’t Want to Hear. John offers a nearly endless stream of great management and leadership ideas in his blog posts and books, and I’m hooked. In this post, John tackles the vexing issue of communicating and gaining buy-in during times of change, and he reminds us: “Communication isn’t just about what management says; it’s also about how employees listen.”

From the post: “Leadership is ultimately a reciprocal process. While managers are the initiators of change initiatives, employees must follow through. Not only is this implied in an employment relationship, it is how managers and employees work together. Employees who willfully tune out because they do not like something are not fulfilling their part of the bargain.”

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OK, that’s it for the week. Thanks to the authors above for sharing their wisdom. I’ll be back next week with another cup of Leadership Caffeine. Don’t forget to check out my new Management Excellence Toolkit Series. We’re currently focused on sharing ideas for improving individual and group decision-making skills.

And of course, I’m always interested in working with you to support your development and the development of great leadership and management practices in your organization. Contact me to discuss your needs for coaching, speaking or training.