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 Olympic stories, appetite for leadership, fostering humility, the power of gradual, and the trouble with servant leadership.

From Tanveer Naseer: 3 Olympic Stories That Inspire Us To Become Better Leaders

“With the end of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games on Sunday, many of us are now returning to our regular work routines and viewing habits, having a deeper appreciation for the world of sports and the power of the human spirit. In many ways, that’s probably the most interesting aspect about the Olympics – of how it not only draws us in on sporting events we otherwise wouldn’t follow, but how it also binds us together through that sense of camaraderie and kinship.”

From Lolly Daskal: Appetite for Leadership

“So many times in life and leadership we want to take the easy road. We feel entitled; we believe that good things should come our way whether or not we earn them.”

From Mary Jo Asmus: Fostering humility

“Humility is an important trait for leaders because it opens their hearts to learning new things and lessens a natural tendency to judge others harshly. I believe that leaders who are humble open-hearted learners to are most likely to be successful in their leadership.”

From Tanmay Vora: Change: The Power of Gradual

“In a fast paced environment, we notice things that are urgent, immediate and abrupt in nature. We forget to notice the gradual.”

From Karin Hurt: The Trouble With Servant Leader

“I know that feeling.  Seeing such potential, investing everything you have to help, and then watching the backwards slide.  The truth is humans are complex.  Most of the time we can help a great deal, and sometimes what we have to give is just not enough.  You bring in reinforcements, and they still struggle.  When they fail you feel like you’ve failed.  It’s hard to let it go.”

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 evolvable enterprise, five  disruptions that come with 3-D printing, Intel’s sharp-eyed social scientist, women as bosses still face bias, and the myth of the bell curve.

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 better and live a better life. At Results vs
Activities, I join other bloggers with posts on talent development.

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