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 Jesse Lyn Stoner, Karin Hurt, Chris Edmonds, Mary Jo Asmus, Steve Roesler, and Tanveer Naseer. Usually there are five posts in this selection. This week I just couldn’t decide on the final cut, so there are six.

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: What is Vision?

“Vision is knowing who you are, where you’re going and what will guide your journey.”

From Karin Hurt: How to Inspire Behavior Change

“You’ve tried everything, and the bad behavior continues. You don’t want to say ‘You need to change this behavior or else,’ but the truth is–there will be consequences. Keep that ‘feedback-is-a-gift-and-I-care-about-you’ loving feeling in mind, while having a direct conversation about specifically what must change. Don’t linger. Don’t sandwich. Do document.”

From Chris Edmonds: Bad Bosses Erode Performance and Engagement

“Great leaders – those who inspire top performance AND genuine team member engagement – pay attention to both productivity and employee engagement, every day.”

Wally’s Comment: Yes! This is one of the things that makes great boss’s great.

From Mary Jo Asmus: When your team is silent

“You’re leading team meetings regularly and you’re frustrated. Even though you consider yourself a collaborative leader, you’ve noticed that when you invite your team to participate in discussions you’re often met with silence. They stare back at you. Not much is coming out of their mouths’ that’s helpful to the issues you want their input on.”

From Steve Roesler: Learn How To Develop Others

“‘Developing Others’ ranks dead last on just about every organizational skill level survey with which I’ve been involved or have read. It’s not because people lack awareness of its importance; quite the contrary. It’s because development takes time. It involves getting to know people and their capabilities at more than a surface level. To develop people, you have to follow a few fundamental steps.”

From Tanveer Naseer: What Jazz Taught Me About Leadership

“When you grow up in Montreal, it’s almost a given that you become a fan of Jazz music. For those you might not know this, every summer Montreal hosts the world’s largest Jazz Festival in the world (I kid you not – we even hold the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest Jazz festival). It’s an annual event that’s been held here for over 35 years and one that I’ve been attending annually since I was in high school.”

Wally’s Comment: This struck a personal note. When my grandfather lost his business in the Great Depression, his children suddenly had to fend for themselves. My uncle made a living for years as a drummer in a jazz band. Until the day he died there was always a practice pad nearby and he would tell stories of what he learned during that time in his life. He would have loved Tanveer’s post.

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 include how to beat the transformation odds, Silicon Valley marks 50 years of Moore’s Law, the imagination gap, how women will now lead two of the country’s biggest accounting firms, and what Harvard Business School has learned about online collaboration from HBX.

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.