The Rainmaker 'Fab Five' Blog Posts of the Week

With all the great posts hitting the Blogosphere this past week on the topics of leadership, talent management, and human resource management, I would like to point you to five posts that I consider to be the best of the best for the week of January 5th to January 11th, 2009.

Paul Herbert, Fistful of Talent: Crime and Company Culture - Broken Windows and Broken Companies - Paul takes a look at improving organizational culture and reminds us of the importance of focusing on the "small stuff" when it comes to creating a workplace that attracts and retains the best talent.

Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?  Open Your Eyes, They're All Around us!  To say that leadership has taken it on the chin in 2008 is a bit of an understatement.  However, Dan reminds us that despite all the media headlines and flaming blog posts on the topic, there are still great leaders out there... we just have to open our eyes to see them!

Carmine Coyote, Slow Leadership: Bad Times Lead to Bad Rules- Carmine Coyote discusses the danger of making snap judgments in troubling times and suggests that the key to keeping rushed decisions from having unintended consequences is to foster doubt throughout the decision making process.  

Steve Roesler, All Things Workplace: How Important is Optimism? - In the gloom and doom of today's media headlines, optimism can be a hard thing to come by.  Steve takes a look at the importance of optimism in the workplace and offers five suggestions for overcoming "learned helplessness." 

Vanessa Davis, Cheezhead Blog: Job Searchers Going to Great Lengths to Get the Job - Cheating on Tests, Befriending Strangers -  Vanessa reports on an upswing of cheating and other unscrupulous activities that job seekers are engaging in to get hired.  A must read for anyone that is in the market to hire new employees.