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 Mary Jo Asmus, Chris Edmonds, Suzi McAlpine, Julie Winkle Giulioni, and Art Petty.

From Mary Jo Asmus: Can you make an impact and still have a life?

“A successful leader was seeking new ideas for his career. His life in a respected Fortune company was stressful, and he’d been at it for a while. He posed a question he’d been thinking about for a long time: Can I have a career where I can make an impact and still have dinner with my family?”

From Chris Edmonds: Values Matter

“I’m always on the lookout for high performing, values-aligned companies. I’m inspired by leaders that choose to run their businesses with clear values expectations – and love sharing what I learn with you. These businesses are successful. The benefits of values alignment on employee engagement, customer service, and results and profits are well documented.”

From Suzi McAlpine: How To Prevent Fear From Stealing Your Leadership Mojo

“Did you know we are born with only two fears? The fear of falling and loud noises. Everything else is developed through our experiences. So, fear is an intrinsic part of our human make-up. And it sure does drive a WHOLE lotta behaviour.”

From Julie Winkle Giulioni: Small Steps Drive Significant Change

“Yet, given the distance this organization must travel and the importance of the initiative, they’re not calling in the brass band, turning their organizational chart on its head, or asking associates to ceremonially sign on to the new mission. Rather than taking big steps in the direction of their goals, they’re consciously and deliberately taking small steps.”

From Art Petty: The Quest to Sustain Success

“The business and management equivalent of The Quest of mythology and story is the pursuit of the secret ingredients…the behaviors, actions and approaches that if adopted, will allow one firm to outperform (measured by one or more of: growth, profitability, share price, innovation, market capitalization) a peer group for an extended period of time.”

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 what really matters in leadership, predictions for 2015, the myth of the tech whiz who quits college to start a company, lessons on women and power dressing, and counter-intuitive findings on the use of technology at work.

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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