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 Alli Polin, LaRae Quy, Kate Nasser, Lolly Daskal, and Scott Eblin.

From Alli Polin: What One Word Do You Need to Embrace in the Year Ahead?

“It’s a big thing on the internet, picking one word to guide your life and leadership in the year ahead. For me, one word is a lot more do-able than a laundry list of resolutions that fade within weeks. Resolutions are pressure. Words? More specifically one word for the year ahead? That feels more like a lighthouse in the dark.”

From LaRae Quy: This Is How You Build Trust In Your Relationships

“Since it’s inevitable that we’ll bump into people who can’t be trusted and will act poorly, how do we move forward? Shameful behavior is a part of life, by others, and even ourselves on occasion—even though we’d rather not admit it.”

From Kate Nasser: Valuable Leadership Trust: Leaders Are You Spending Yours Wisely?

“Leaders, you commonly read about what builds valuable leadership trust. In today’s world it includes courage, competence, vision, integrity, emotional intelligence, and treating others with respect and dignity. However, you read less about how you spend the valuable leadership trust you earn. Despite this fact, it is critical to think about it. How are you spending the valuable leadership trust you earn?”

From Lolly Daskal: How Successful Leaders Build Trust with their People

“As a leader, you earn trust the same way anyone else does: by making a conscious effort to walk your talk, keeping your promises and aligning your own behavior with your expectations of others. When you keep up that core, you’re constantly growing your team’s trust. The most trusted leaders add on to the basics with an additional set of trust-inducing behaviors. Here are the most important:”

From Scott Eblin: How the Best Leaders Encourage Open and Honest Dialogue

“How do the best leaders do it? Here are three best practice action steps they follow that you can use to create an environment in which everyone is comfortable engaging in open and honest dialogue.”

That’s it for this week’s selections from independent business blogs. If you liked this piece you may enjoy my other curation post 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 Wally Bock’s Writing Edge, I share tools and insights to help you write better.

The 347 tips in my ebook can help you Become a Better Boss One Tip at a Time.

Just promoted from individual contributor? Check out my ebook, Now You’re the Boss: Making the Most of the Most Important Transition in Business.