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 on exceptional team leaders, avoiding knee-jerk reactions, the first hours of your day, trust, and how others see you.

From Karin Hurt: 7 Roles of an Exceptional Team Leader

“Your strategy is only as strong as the ability to execute at the frontline. You can have all the great plans, six sigma workouts, and brilliant competitive positioning in the universe, but if the human beings doing the real work lack the competence, confidence, and creativity to pull it off, you’re back to muddling through.”

From Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie: 3 Ways Leaders Can Avoid A Knee-Jerk Reaction (And An Awful Lot Of Trouble)

“Leaders are constantly processing information, and are often called upon to make decisions based on that information. Or not make them.”

From Les Hayman: The First Critical Hour In The Day Of A Manager

“Most business people whom I know spend the time taken to travel from home to the office either making phone calls from their car, or checking their emails if they are not actually driving. One of my golden rules of self-management is to NOT look at emails as a first priority (see ‘Fifth secret of time management’ posted November 11, 2010), and I have also long believed that people who feel obliged to call me from their car on their way to work are either doing it to impress me with how busy they are, or are just making a ‘boredom call’ while stuck in heavy traffic.”

From Kevin Eikenberry: Four Leadership Trust Busters

“Trust. Your ability to lead is severely hampered without it, and the more of it you have, the easier leadership becomes. Plus, with greater trust comes greater speed of implementation, clearer communication and much more.”

From Mary Jo Asmus: What your humanity looks like to others

“Sara picked up a used set of golf clubs determined to play golf with her friends; so she just started playing. Although she enjoyed it, a year or so into golfing she recognized that she needed to some instruction on the finer points of her swing so she hired a golf pro to assist. David had been a successful CEO for several years. He was beginning to feel stale in his ability to lead. He also noticed that he had returned to some behaviors that he had worked hard to eliminate. He’d relaxed his vigilance about how he showed up as a leader, which resulted in a resurgence of those earlier less-than flattering behaviors. He knew he needed some guidance.”

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 why smart people struggle with strategy, why U.S. firms are moving factories home, a defense of routine innovation, women as negotiators, and how unblinking eyes track employees.

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 360 Degree Feedback blog The , I join other bloggers with posts on leadership development.

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