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 Julie Winkle Giulioni, Anne Perschel, Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie, Kate Nasser, and Chris Edmonds.

From Julie Winkle Giulioni: Risky Business – Strategies to Encourage Risk Taking

“Failure is getting considerable attention in leadership and management circles these days. Articles, books, and keynote speeches preach the value of mistakes and learning from failure. The current dialogue begins once the mistake or failure occurs and addresses how to leverage it for maximum return. But before any of this is possible, the employee must first take a risk.”

From Anne Perschel: Be a Better Leader – Get Real Time Feedback

“Leadership spotters provide you with real time feedback, in the moment or immediately after, you did something related to a behavior you’re trying to change. Immediacy leads to powerful opportunities for reflection and progress towards you goal.”

From Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie: Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Leader? 15 Things To Think About Before You Step Up

“An open letter to all who are thinking about being a leader, are about to be a leader, or are already been given the responsibility of a leader and are trying to figure out how the heck it all works:”

From Kate Nasser: Getting Mentored: Astute Questions to Ask Experienced Colleagues

“Getting mentored is a huge boost to your career. It accelerates your starting point and prevents some of the gritty pain of learning. Yet many in the workforce overlook the simplest way of getting mentored — asking astute questions of more experienced colleagues.”

From Chris Edmonds: Attitude, Schmattitude.

“Attitude is, by definition, an internal state. If it’s an internal state, how can we accurately assess it? We can’t know what a person is thinking. We can’t know what a person is feeling. We can’t know their motivations, their rationale, or their goals.”

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 case for humble executives, as the online video world grows, content creators must cast a wide net, innovation’s New World Order, women and negotiation, and Xavier Unkovic on rethinking the ‘executive suite.’

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.