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 LaRae Quy, Mary Jo Asmus, Ken Downer, Art Petty, and Jesse Lyn Stoner.
From LaRae Quy: 5 Reasons You Need To Dump Your Loser Friends
“Pick the people you spend time with care—they create the environment in which you will either thrive or wilt. While we need different types of personalities in our life to bring out the best in us, only share your dreams and goals only with those who value them as much as you do. Here are 5 Reasons you need to dump your loser friends so you can:”
From Mary Jo Asmus: When you need to stop leading and start following
“All leaders are also followers. Nobody is autonomous and without the need to follow others. Sometimes the ‘others’ can be your board, manager, employees, peers, or even your significant other. Your need to follow will be depend on the circumstances. It requires different behaviors from you. Its not easy if you are natural leader, but will be necessary at times.”
From Ken Downer: The Dangers of Taking the Easy Way
“Sometimes the answer to our problem seems easy. But the easy solution may not always be the right one. Today in ‘Lines for Leaders’ I’ll share what one famous person said about the dangers of taking the ‘easy way,’ along with some thoughts about how we can make sure that even if we can’t do what’s easiest, we can always do what’s best.”
From Art Petty: The Secret to Leadership and Career Success is Hiding in Plain Sight
“I’ve long suspected the entire leadership training industrial complex (OK, that’s a stretch label, but you get the point) would be rendered obsolete if someone would highlight the one big secret behavior hiding in plain sight and free for all of us to use. This secret behavior is the common thread that binds the over 70,000 books that appear in a search on ‘leadership’ at Amazon. t’s the reason behind the need for billions of dollars annually in training. And, the absence of this behavior is the root cause of many (read: most) workplace problems, countless disciplinary issues, chronic disengagement, and a solid percentage point of annual global growth. (I made that last fact up …it’s fake news, but the rest holds.)”
From Jesse Lyn Stoner: Why Men Don’t Have Friends and Why Women Should Care
“My professor, advisor and mentor, Don Carew, handed out this article at the beginning of each course while I was a grad student in Organization Behavior at University of Mass, Amherst in the mid 1980’s. What does this have to do with leadership? Why is this important for both men and women? I think the answers will be obvious as you read the article.”
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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Art Petty is right that respect is what binds us together. At my company, we recite our values at every meeting of three or more. And the first one is showing respect for all people. We do this by
-Treating others as we would like to be treated.
-Listening with the intent to understand what is being said and acknowledging that what is said is important to the speaker.
-Responding in a timely fashion.
-Speaking Calmly and respectfully, without profanity or sarcasm.
-Acknowledging everyone as right from their own perspective.
I’m not always good at following them (especially the sarcasm part). But it does bind us together. Keeping the idea of respect front and center at every meeting really creates a good culture. Thanks for the snippets that you put together each week. I’m learning from you.