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 Kate Nasser, Susan Mazza, Marcella Bremer, Julie Winkle Giulioni, and Mary Jo Asmus.

From Kate Nasser: The Weakness of Extreme Strength

“Can you think of someone who would not want to be called the best? Most everyone would beam at this honor. Being the best means you have an extreme strength. It emerges from a natural talent or intense study, practice and development. Yet there is a weakness to every extreme strength.”

From Susan Mazza: How to Overcome the Tyranny of Your To Do List

“Do you sometimes feel like your to do list is managing you rather than the other way around?”

From Marcella Bremer: Why work with Culture and Positive Leadership during Organizational Change?

“Does your organization need to change? The answer might be yes. In my opinion, many organizations need to upgrade to the 21st century and become positive organizations where people and performance thrive.”

From Julie Winkle Giulioni: Log On to Listen

“As we increase our reliance on technology to share information, what are the implications for listening? As we’ve adapted our expression to leverage the range of electronic methods at our disposal, we must also adapt our reception. The act previously known as reading must evolve to a new competency: online listening.”

From Mary Jo Asmus: The gift of knowing your blind spots

“It’s important for you to look for and acknowledge surprises in your 360 results – generally these are things you don’t see in yourself, but others see in you. These are your blind spots. They can be positive behaviors (strengths) or those that need improvement (weaknesses).”

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 include leading by values, five surprising strategies of the best performing US firms, how to make better decisions with less data, why some technologies just never seem to die, why corporate gender equality could take 100 years, why the problem with learning is unlearning, and redefining work-life balance.

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.

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