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 Jesse Lyn Stoner, Suzi McAlpine, Joanie Rufo, Lolly Daskal, and Ed Batista.

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: The Gift of Humiliation

“Hurt and anger are a natural first response to humiliation. But if this is your only response, you will lose the opportunity that comes along with it.”

From Suzi McAlpine: Dear Boss: Here’s what you need to change in 2017

“It’s not just you who did some ‘reflection’ over the holiday period. Thinking about last year and considering your potential ‘work ons’, I’d like to suggest some ‘personal development’ goals to consider when it comes to leading the team this year.”

From Joanie Rufo: Your 2017 Goals Might Be Missing Something

“Once we have our goals, off we go. Culturally, we’re urged to keep the end in mind and to assume and expect success. While that approach may be admirable and even advisable, this outcome-orientation nudges us subtly into a mindset about control. What is the quickest, best and most efficient way to get to that goal? How can I minimize risks, surprises, and failures? The downside to that achievement mindset is that it can overlook something key as it relates to empowerment, motivation, learning and even fun: the idea of experimentation.”

From Lolly Daskal: How to Be a Real Leader And Great Manager

“From time to time through the years, I’ve written on the difference between leadership and management. I am revisiting the subject now because it’s not enough to understand that leadership and management are two different things. I believe that the two are complementary; to be truly effective, you need both.”

From Ed Batista: Learning to Yield (Navigating Tough Conversations)

“One of my clients is a co-CEO, and in a coaching session I remarked upon the strength of that partnership and how effectively the two of them collaborated in what is often seen as an unworkable arrangement. ‘We learned to yield,’ she said, and I was struck by what a valuable interpersonal skill that is–and how little training we get in it.”

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 three strategies from the 2016 CEO Digital Transformation Summit, CEOs rank culture as #1 priority for success, the most innovative companies of 2016, why we need to feel safe to be creative, the state of technology at the end of 2016, reinventing the workplace for greater gender diversity, IBM’s secret to building strong female leaders, and ten workplace trends you’ll see in 2017.

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.