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 Art Petty, Jesse Lyn Stoner, Kevin Eikenberry, Steve Keating, and Suzi McAlpine.

From Art Petty: 5 Leadership Lessons Learned from a Failed Expedition

“While the business survived this giant managerial and leadership lesson of mine without missing targets, it wasn’t pretty. In particular, the sense of opportunity-not-realized (mountains not climbed and markets not conquered) offers the sharp, cutting edge for this painful story. Here are five leadership lessons learned the hard way.”

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: Are You a First-Time Manager? 6 Tips to Start Off Right

“Research reveals that nearly 60 percent of first-time managers underperform and often end up leaving the company. Here are six tips to start off right and avoid finding yourself alone on a precipice.”

From Kevin Eikenberry: Convincing Senior Management That Change Is Needed

“In a request for questions that I made on an episode of Remarkable TV, Frank asked me, ‘What are the best ways for middle managers and human resources to convince upper managers/ owners (if a smaller business) of needed change?’”

From Steve Keating: Perfect Leaders

“Every leader I’ve ever met and every leader I’ll ever meet in the future all suffer from the identical weakness. They are human.”

From Suzi McAlpine: Baby Oil Bruhaha and Burnt Thighs – Why You Should Be Wary of the Latest Management Fad

“When I was 15, it was the ‘in thing’ to slather Johnson’s baby oil all over our legs, line up along the school tennis court and bake ourselves to death during the school lunch break. This bizarre ritual was an indication of our fetish for tanned-brown legs. Brown legs pretty much meant instant access to the uber cool club that I was uber desperate to join. So desperate, in fact, that I’d blindingly endure blisters on my flank just to become one of its members. Of course, we all know now that this pastime was inadvertently turning our adolescent legs into skillets hot enough to fry an egg on, but there you go. People do stupid things when it’s de rigueur.”

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 the decline of the baronial C.E.O., restoring a founder’s mentality, Mary Meeker’s internet trends, five steps to embed cutting-edge innovation, the role of consumers in responsible innovation, successful leadership depends on embracing diversity, the future of robots, why more of your employees should be working remotely, and making measurement work for you.

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.

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