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, Lolly Daskal, Art Petty, Steve Keating, and Ken Downer.

From Karin Hurt: How to Support Your Team During an Unexpected Layoff

“No one saw this coming. Performance has nothing to do with it. The humans you are laying off are in the midst of one of the most stressful times in their lives. So are you. Each person’s story is heart-wrenching.”

From Lolly Daskal: How to Lead in Times of Crisis

“Most leaders believe they’re prepared to lead through a crisis. But after working with hundreds of executives as a leadership coach, I’ve found that many of them don’t fully understand what crisis leadership entails. Faced with an actual crisis playing out in real time, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by uncertainty. Here are some touchstones to help you remember the things you need to do to maintain success—not only for yourself but also for those who are counting on you.”

From Art Petty: Hard-Decisions, Soft-Touch

“We burn a lot of cycles writing about what makes a great leader. In nightmarish situations such as the one we are experiencing now, the answer in my mind comes down to a few key behaviors.”

From Steve Keating: Forward to Normal

“sure have heard from lots of people who are waiting and hoping for things to get back to normal. While I understand that sentiment there are two mistakes being made when we express it.”

From Ken Downer: How to Lead with Certainty in Uncertain Times

“not everyone who acts certain really knows what they are doing, and misplaced confidence could lead us deeper into trouble. How can we tell who we should follow? More importantly, how can we lead with certainty when facing the unknown?”

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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