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 Suzi McAlpine, Steve Keating, Rebecca Elvy, Kate Nasser, and Lolly Daskal.

From Suzi McAlpine: Tackle It Head On – Managing Underperformance So It Doesn’t Manage You

“A couple of weeks ago, my client Jim* was lamenting over the fact that one of his team members, Nigel*, had dropped the ball recently. The usually professional and ‘onto it’ Nigel was missing deadlines hand over fist, handing in sloppy work, and being as apathetic as my 12-year-old when he’s told to get ready for school in the morning. (And that’s Apathetic with a capital A).”

From Steve Keating: Are You Born to Win?

“Whenever I hear someone described as a born winner I always wonder what the person described as ‘the born winner’ thinks. They very well may have been born with some advantages, a ‘leg up’ if you will. Wealthy parents, a good environment, good role models in their life are some that come to mind but I believe this much is certain; they were not born winners. They worked, probably very hard, to become a winner. Even people born with advantages can ‘lazy’ the advantages away if they refuse to work to maximize them.”

Wally’s Comment: If it looks easy and natural, it usually took a lot of work.

From Rebecca Elvy: Urgent Versus Important: Playing Corporate Whack-a-Mole

“Both urgency and importance are subjective and relative. This means that something that’s ultra important to you might not be to someone else. And something that is important and urgent to your boss might seem trivial and irrelevant to you. This is the source of a phenomenal number of workplace tensions.”

From Kate Nasser: People Skills Firsts That Create Infinite Opportunity w/ People

“In business, career pursuits, and life in general, people skills firsts create infinite opportunities. The phrase, be first in order to be successful, does not apply solely to inventors. Be the first do to the following with others and you will create infinite opportunities for everyone.”

From Lolly Daskal: 12 Successful Leadership Principles That Never Grow Old

“In an age when everything is newer, better faster, it’s good sometimes to pause and remember some of the old wisdom that humanity has acquired through the ages.”

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. Every Tuesday, “Leaders and Strategies in Real Life” helps you learn about leadership by studying what real leaders do. One 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. 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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