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 Lolly Daskal, Jesse Lyn Stoner, Terri Klass, Julie Winkle Giulioni, and Ken Downer.

From Lolly Daskal: 7 Important Reasons Leaders Crash and Burn

“Generally, leaders want to do their best and maintain high standards of excellence. They push themselves for the benefit of their team and put their own interests at the bottom of the list. Those attitudes are part of what makes people leaders, but it also puts them at higher than average risk of burnout. Here are seven serious ways leaders set themselves up to crash and burn”

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: The New Face of Competition: The Role of Competition in Today’s World

“It’s time to rethink the role of competition. The idea that ‘it’s a dog-eat-dog world’ no longer holds true, and cut-throat competition doesn’t benefit anyone, including yourself.”

From Terri Klass: Six Reasons Why Leaders Need Feedback

“Are we sometimes fearful of hearing feedback from certain people? Sure. But maybe instead of looking at those comments and insights as personal attacks, we can see them as steps to lead more effectively. We can look at the behaviors we can adjust and actions we can take to transform our leadership to a higher level.”

From Julie Winkle Giulioni: Whoa! What are Today’s Most Common Leadership Mistakes?

“Some leaders err by commission—actively undertaking acts that undermine team or organizational success. Others err by omission—failing to do something that’s necessary. But there’s another group of leaders who, with the best of intentions, may do the most damage of all. These are the leaders who err by whoa-mission. (‘Whoa,’ as in the command riders use to pull a horse back, slow it down, or make it stop.)”

From Ken Downer: How to be a Great Boss: 9 Ways to Get a 5-Star Rating From Your Team

“I was fortunate to work for many great bosses, but there were nine things that one of those great bosses did that really made him stand out. If we do our best to follow his lead, we have a chance to be great bosses, too.”

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. Every Tuesday, “Leaders and Strategies in Real Life” helps you learn about leadership by studying what real leaders do. 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. 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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