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 Ed Batista, LaRae Quy, Ken Downer, Art Petty, and Suzi McAlpine.

From Ed Batista: Playing with Matches (On Feeling Needed as a Leader)

“Most of my conversations with clients involve problems, difficulties, and things going wrong. That’s the nature of coaching, but it’s also the nature of senior leadership. And yet at regular intervals my clients find themselves in periods of unexpected calm, when there are no major problems or difficulties and everything’s going well. This can actually be a very risky moment for a leader.”

From LaRae Quy: This Is How Adversity Can Improve The Way You Think

“Adversity improves the way you think because the perspective you gain is an honestly earned wisdom, something produced from deep within your soul. You give yourself permission to explore all the .givens. in your life. You can take a step back to see yourself with more clarity.”

From Ken Downer: Rocks in a Jar: 11 Things They Didn’t Tell You

“It’s visually compelling, but like any metaphor, there are aspects to it that are over-simplified or carry deeper significance.  Here are eleven things in the rocks in a jar demonstration that they didn’t talk about that we should keep in mind when we try to manage our time.”

From Art Petty: Winning the Inner Game of Leading With Positive Self-Talk

“Every person who has held this role knows about the pitched battle that rages in their minds as they strive to navigate ambiguity and uncertainty with and through others. They know their effectiveness as a leader is won in that space between their ears via the narrative that plays in their minds constantly.”

From Suzi McAlpine: 3 Common Leadership Myths About Burnout

“Although the word ‘burnout’ is a term everyone has heard of, it’s still largely misunderstood. It has become part of our workplace vernacular, although the way we refer to it often adds to the misunderstanding of what it actually is.”

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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