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 Scott Eblin, Gregg Vanourek, Karin Hurt, Art Petty, and Ed Batista.

From Scott Eblin: Are You Pulling the Thread Through?

“If that sounds at all familiar, one of your tasks as a leader is to pull the thread through. What I mean by that is pulling the thread of the story about why you and your team are doing what you’re doing through everything you do. When you do that, leadership becomes longitudinal, not episodic. You want your people to feel like they’re participants in a journey that matters instead of random planets in random orbits. “

From Gregg Vanourek: The Most Important Contributor to Happiness

“In our search for happiness and its close cousins, well-being and life satisfaction, we’ve seen that it’s complex. In a previous post, we noted 20 research-based practices that lead to happiness. Which are the most important? Which have the most influence on our enduring happiness?”

From Karin Hurt: Compassionate Conversation Starters: How to Help Your Team Connect More Deeply

“For most teams, having genuine caring conversations takes practice. It can feel easier to keep the conversations light, particularly if that’s your team culture. But at a time when people are longing for compassion and connection, taking the conversation a level deeper can make all the difference for your employees’ mental health, as well as for building deeper trust. These compassionate conversation starters are a great way to normalize going a level deeper, so it’s easier for anyone to start a conversation when they need it most.”

From Art Petty: When Your “Ask” Runs Into a Brick Wall— Find the Loose Brick

“It’s devastating when the person you are asking for support says “No,” and you’re left with your needs unfulfilled and a sense that “They just don’t get it.” I encounter individuals navigating these types of situations all of the time, and I empathize with anyone experiencing rejection of well-developed ideas and requests. However, before frustration boils over or you go into a deep funk and start thinking about getting a new job, think about what you missed in the process.”

From Ed Batista: Extending Your Personal Runway

“When a company isn’t yet profitable, leadership is always keenly aware of their runway. The amount of cash at their disposal net ongoing expenses will determine the length of time they can continue to operate before something has to change: achieving profitability, raising additional capital, major cost-cutting, or ceasing operations. A theme in my practice is the leader who’s assessing their “personal runway,” which isn’t quite as easy to calculate but has similar implications: There’s a limited amount of time that they can sustain the status quo before something has to change.”

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.

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