Independent business blogs are blogs that aren’t supported by an organization like a magazine, newspaper, company, or business school. Those people provide lots of great content, but they don’t need any additional exposure. In this post, every week, I bring you posts of quality from excellent bloggers that don’t get as much publicity.

This week, I’m pointing you to posts by Suzi McAlpine, Julie Winkle Giulioni, Lolly Daskal, Mary Jo Asmus, and Jesse Lyn Stoner.

From Suzi McAlpine: Failures, Missteps and Discovery: Why Leaders Should Embrace Mistakes

“If you want to succeed as a leader, get comfortable with failing. This concept is a whole lot easier said than done. Platitudes abound in organisations about the learning arising from failure. And yet, when push comes to shove, many organisational cultures demonstrate a serious preoccupation with success. Add the short term (often myopic) focus on bottom line results and it’s no wonder failing gets a hard rap in most companies.”

From Julie Winkle Giulioni: Symbolic leadership: What do you stand for … or where do you sit?

“Sandra described the past week of headaches associated with a systems conversion that took place in the call center in which she works as a customer service representative. She outlined the many hiccups and problems they encountered, the way data dropped out of fields and calls that were habitually misdirected. She described the 14-hour days that would likely go on for another week or so, the intensity of the customers’ expectations and management’s scrutiny. When I responded empathetically about how miserable it must have been, Sandra surprised me with her response: ‘No, it was awesome!’ And she went on to explain why.”

From Lolly Daskal: 12 Powerful Lessons I’ve Learned Being a Leadership Coach

“In my career as a leadership coach, I’ve been fortunate to work with amazing people. Some have been small-business owners or department heads of medium-sized organizations. Some have been senior executives of multinational corporations and government leaders. From each person, I have learned some powerful lessons. I hope they will be useful in your leadership:”

From Mary Jo Asmus: Step out of your comfort zone to develop trusting work relationships

“We need leaders who are smart, get things done, AND connect and relate to the people who support them. Yet I often find that many leaders feel uncomfortable in relating to others in a way that moves their organization forward. So the mission(s) don’t get accomplished while these leaders stay within their comfort zone- in their offices, managing people without connecting with them except to become overly involved in their daily work. Employees aren’t trusted, resulting in lost potential and frustration.”

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: The Planning Doing Cycle

“Instead of planning and then doing, try approaching it as an iterative process, as a planning doing cycle. Think of it as building the vehicle while you are driving.”

That’s it for this week’s selections from independent business blogs. If you liked this piece you may enjoy my regular post on “Leadership Reading to Start Your Week” points you to choice articles from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms about strategy, innovation, women and the workplace, and work now and in the future. Highlights from the last issue include five reasons why leaders fail, not-so-big oil, how blockchains could change the world, your gender matters at work — and that’s a good thing, and managing tomorrow’s workforce today.

How I Select Posts for this Midweek Review

The five posts I select to share in my Midweek Review of the Independent Business Blogs are picked from a regular review of about sixty blogs I check daily and an additional twenty-five or so that I check occasionally. Here’s how I select the posts you see in this review.

They must be published within the previous week.

They must support the purpose of the blog: to help leaders at all levels do a better job and lead a better life.

They must be from an independent business blog.

As a general rule, I only select posts that stand on their own, no selections from a series.

Also as a general rule, I do not select posts that are either a book review or a book report.

I reserve the right to make exceptions to the above.

Here, on Three Star Leadership, I post things that will help a boss at any level do a better job and live a better life. At the The 360 Degree Feedback blog, I join other bloggers with posts on leadership development. And, at Wally Bock’s Writing Edge, I share tools and insights to help you write better.

If you’re a boss, you should check out my Working Supervisor’s Support Kit.