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 Karin Hurt, Mary Jo Asmus, Lolly Daskal, Becky Robinson, and Art Petty.

From Karin Hurt: 10 Ways to Be Easy to Follow

“Are you easy to follow? Before you say ‘Of course!’ please know that every where I go these days, I ask this question. ‘Is your boss easy to follow?’ The #1 response is just a belly ache laugh. The #2 usually contains some expletive. I’ve also heard some great metaphors, like how understanding what their boss thinks is like putting together Ikea furniture. It looks easy when you leave the store (meeting), but when you get back there a lot more screws than you need and the directions are in another language. Most leaders make following harder than necessary.”

From Mary Jo Asmus: Having difficult conversations with heart

“Susan, a manager of managers, had been thinking about the conversation she should have with Jackie for some time now. Jackie’s micromanaging, overly-direct behavior with her employees and peers was becoming a problem. The thoughts about the situation circled in Susan’s brain while her fears kept her from actually initiating the tough conversation.”

From Lolly Daskal: To Trust Means To Be Careless

“There are numerous resources stating what trust is and what trust isn’t. There are countless articles, illustrations and books with all kinds of defintions. So I decided to embark on my own search for the meaning of the word trust. While doing so, I found that in Hebrew, the word for trust is batach. It means (1) to attach oneself, (2) to confide in, (3) to feel safe, (4) to be careless.”

From Becky Robinson: What Really Matters

“Amy, a long-time Weaving Influence team member, lost her mother, Carolyn, last week. In the week or so before her mother’s death, she took off some time to plan music and gather photos for her mother’s memorial service. She said, wisely, ‘I don’t get a do-over on this.'”

From Art Petty: Six Ideas to Help You Have Better Days at Work

“Everyone has difficult days, however, when every day feels like a slow, painful, stressful march up a rock-strewn path toward certain calamity, it’s time for you to take action. Here are a few ideas to help you re-frame your daily activities and reset your attitude.”

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 Apple’s big lesson for business leaders, Danny Meyer’s strategy for growing Shake Shack, brewing goliaths struggle to fit in at craft beer party, transforming the business through social tools, fostering women leaders, the global workplace of 2030, and real-time metrics for improved business operations and agility.

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.