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 Julie Winkle Giulioni, Ken Downer, Scott Mabry, Doug Thorpe, and Art Petty.

From Julie Winkle Giulioni: The Magic of Making an Effort

“Just over a year ago I gave a keynote speech at a conference in Russia. I worked diligently to master a few key phrases. But, between having no natural capacity for foreign languages and not hearing much Russian in my day-to-day life, the result was dreadful. I actually might have insulted their mothers as I greeted the audience; but they smiled and clapped enthusiastically.”

From Ken Downer: The After Action Review: A Leader’s Guide

“The After Action Review (AAR) is a deceptively simple yet powerful way to stimulate the growth and performance of any group of people. As an organizational learning tool it has been used to transform small teams and entire armies into high performers. But as with anything, success comes in the doing, and not everyone does these well.”

From Scott Mabry: Your Org Chart is Not Your Organization

“Yet the org chart just won’t die. It’s still the most popular, simplistic, and common way of depicting our organizations. It provides a snapshot of people in little squares that represent function and span of control or at least that’s the intention.”

From Doug Thorpe: Leaders: Lead Like the Great Conductors

“When talking about leadership and management coaching, sports analogies are often added for greater effect. Stories of great coaches who have won championship titles fill the business and executive coaching landscape. While these parallels can be powerful, there are others to consider.”

From Art Petty: 10 Questions to Consider Before Making the Move to Manager

“If you are considering the move to manager, it pays to go in eyes-wide-open. Here are some questions you should ask and answer before making a move.”

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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