The Rainmaker 'Fab Five' Blog Picks of the Week

Happy Labor Day everyone!  For your holiday reading enjoyment here are our top five blog picks for the week of August 25th to August 31st.

Deb Owen, 8 Hours & a Lunch:  It's not About you (When Employee Engagement Meets Bad Management) - Deb returns to her role as HR Pro extraordinaire to share her thoughts on employee engagement, team building, and how bad management can destroy both. 

Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership : Coaching Self-Assessment for Leaders - Wondering if your coaching abilities are up to snuff and you are effectively coaching your employees to reach their potential?  Dan offers a quick and insightful coaching self-assessment test that is sure to get you thinking about your effectiveness as a coach.

Dan Bobinski, Workplace Excellence: The Cost of Replacing an Employee is not a Line Item in the Budget - Managers are typically trained to make decisions for their organization based on what provides the most desirable financial outcome.  However, Dan Bobinski reminds us that while decisions can look great on paper, they can easily have undesirable outcomes if they create unexpected and costly employee turnover. 

Bob Sutton, Work Matters: Do You Believe Your People Can Learn? - A while back I blogged on the powerful book, Mindset, by Carol Dweck.  Bob takes a look at Dweck's work and recent academic research and applies it to the practice of managing people. 

Michelle Malay Carter, Mission Minded Management: Boundaries are Liberating, Micromanagement is Not - Michelle points out the important distinction between setting boundaries and micromanaging your employees.  Boundaries foster creative problem solving while micromanagement destroys employee morale and engagement.