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 Kevin Eikenberry, Lolly Daskal, Art Petty, LaRae Quy, and Ken Downer.

From Kevin Eikenberry: A Mindset a New Leader Needs

“The role of a leader is complex, and many skills are needed to lead successfully. Any new leader knows that or quickly becomes aware of that fact. Yet skills aren’t the only thing new leaders must master. And as important as those skills are, having the right leadership mindset is even more important – and less obvious. What is the leadership mindset that a new leader needs?”

From Lolly Daskal: How Great Leaders Control Their Ego

“Knowing how to manage your ego is important. Here are some of the approaches top leaders use:”

From Art Petty: Seven Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Coaching Experience

“The opportunity to work with a coach in support of your development can be a game-changer for you in your career. Or not. The outcome, in large part, is up to you. Here are seven things you can do to optimize your experience and results with your coach.”

From LaRae Quy: How To Have POWERFUL Conversations That Will INFLUENCE People

“Whether you’re a member of a small team, the CEO of a large company, or the short end of the stick that sits next to a boring cousin at Thanksgiving dinner, the way you present yourself through conversation sends an important message and leaves a memorable presence. This is how to have powerful conversations that will influence people:”

From Ken Downer: Saying No: 9 Ways to Say ‘No’ Without Making Everybody Angry

“‘No.’ It’s one of the shortest words in the English language, and possibly one of the most powerful. It’s also one of the hardest for many of us to say. Why is that? Today let’s dig a little deeper behind this short word to understand why saying ‘no’ is so hard, why we might need more of it in our lives, and nine ways to make it easier to use it when we need to.”

That’s it for this week’s selections from independent business blogs. If you liked this piece you may enjoy my curation posts 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.

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