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 making time to think, predicting your future, overcoming the fear of greatness, why team leaders tolerate poor performance, and stepping aside to watch others lead.

From Art Petty: Prosper by Making Time Every Day to Just Think

“If your typical day resembles the one that most of us experience in the corporate environment, it’s a series of meetings interspersed with a series of transactional exchanges that might be better described as interruptions.”

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: The Best Way to Predict Your Future

“The real meaning behind this statement is that we need to assume responsibility for our lives and the future we want to impact. It starts with focusing on the reality you create right now. And your reality is shaped by what you focus your attention on and the images you hold in your mind.”

From Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie: How To Overcome The Fear Of Greatness

“To put in the terms of my old stats class in college (I knew I’d find some use for it eventually), I  (not) affectionately called it ‘regression to the mean’. That is, the mean in a business case is ‘OK, but not great’. Therefore, most outcomes, points of view, and interpretations of success are tilted back towards that mean. It takes intestinal fortitude to push past that, because there are several important risks involved with taking it on.”

From Karin Hurt: 5 Sad Reasons Team Leaders Tolerate Poor Performance

“Letting slackers slide reduces your credibility, causes your best performers to bolt, and leaves the rest of the team wondering why they bother. No one wants to mire in their own mediocrity. And high-performers hate nothing more than watching their poor-performing teammates drag down results. Tolerating poor performance creates a morale death spiral that takes Herculean force to reverse.”

From Lolly Daskal: Step Aside And Watch Others Take The Lead

“In leadership, when you have a great mission, great purpose, and a great team, all you have to do is step aside and then watch others take the lead.”

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 Trouble with Leadership Theories, High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again, 25 Years of Personal Technology, New study finds women leaders just effective as men — just not in their own minds, and Create a Work Environment That Fosters Flow.

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.