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 Art Petty, Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie, Jesse Lyn Stoner, Chris Edmonds, and Mary Jo Asmus.

From Art Petty: Are You Driving Your Team Bananas?

“What I really wanted to call this post was, ‘Quit Acting Like a Hyper-Rooster.'”

From Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie: The Most Dangerous Question a Leader Can Ever Ask

“‘Terry my boy, what do you think?’ There it was, finally, the question I was waiting for from my brilliant but mercurial multi-multi-millionaire boss.”

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: Shift the Flow of Energy and Propel Your Team To High Performance

“What is a high performance team? –> a team that produces outstanding results, where everyone works in synchronicity, appreciates each other’s contributions, and is proud to be a member of the team.”

From Chris Edmonds: You need a skunk works

“However, sometimes continuous improvement doesn’t lead to the significant shifts that your team – your business – requires. To make significant shifts might require a skunk works. A skunk works is a small team of talented, engaged people that work outside the normal business routines and processes to solve difficult problems with minimal supervision or constraints.”

From Mary Jo Asmus: 3 steps to avoiding slow death

“Robert E. Quinn introduced the concept of ‘slow death’ in his book Deep Change. This concept describes what happens when organizations and individuals don’t adapt to external changes, losing alignment and ultimately dying psychologically or otherwise. He convincingly makes the case that individual change (by leaders) is required to ensure organizational change.”

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 how company culture shapes employee motivation, the role of big data in medicine, the dark side of creativity, recruiting and retaining more women in technology organizations, and tomorrow’s working world.

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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