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 Lolly Daskal, LaRae Quy, Scott Eblin, Steve Keating, and Kevin Eikenberry.

From Lolly Daskal: Why The Best Leaders Crave Feedback

“If you want to position yourself for success, you need to understand your strengths and weaknesses—to know where you excel and where you’re average or even a bit below. The best way to gain that knowledge is from others—which means learning to ask for honest feedback and receive it graciously is an essential skill. Here are some pointers in obtaining useful feedback and getting the most of it.”

From LaRae Quy: The Most Important Thing No One Ever Taught You

“In today’s connected world, it’s become hard to carve out time for yourself to unwind and reboot. Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, this is your reaction: ‘I’m too busy to take time for myself.’ The reality is that you’ll benefit from time for yourself and away from others.”

From Scott Eblin: Are You Hearing or Listening?

“One of the things I’ve said for a long-time as an executive coach is that if you get colleague feedback that you need to be a better listener, take the feedback and start working on it. The positive leadership ripple effects from doing a better job of listening are enormous and wide-spread. Problem-solving, team-engagement, relationships and results all improve when leaders listen better.”

From Steve Keating: Leading, Actually Leading

“If everyone in a leadership position who wasn’t actually leading were fired there would be a ton of open leadership positions. The sad reality of leadership is that most people in leadership positions merely pose as leaders. They don’t do the hard work that truly leading requires.”

From Kevin Eikenberry: Setting Expectations – Making Sure They are Clear

“If you are a leader and are reading these words, you may be carrying a secret in your mind. You wish you could find a way to ‘fix’ that one team member. You may not say it that way, and it might be a secret because you don’t want to talk about it. But if you have one team member who just isn’t cutting it, you know what I mean. Today, I am giving you the most important first step you can take in these situations – setting clear expectations.”

That’s it for this week’s selections from independent business blogs. If you liked this piece you may enjoy my curation posts on this blog. On Fridays you can wrap up your week with “Weekend Leadership Reading” consisting of choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms.

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. And, at my blog for part-time business book authors, I share tools and insights to help you write and publish a book you’ll be proud of.

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