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, Tanveer Naseer, Ken Downer, Mary Jo Asmus, Karin Hurt and David Dye.

From LaRae Quy: This Is The Reason Most People Get Stuck In Mediocrity

“The reason most people get stuck in mediocrity is because they refuse to fail. The reason people refuse to fail is because they associate failure with defeat. Their fear of defeat paralyzes them to the point that they won’t move forward.”

From Tanveer Naseer: A Surprising Example Of Why You Don’t Need A Title To Effectively Lead Others

“And yet, time and again, when I speak at conferences or corporate events, a number of employees talk to me about their desire to move into leadership roles, but struggle with how to demonstrate to those higher up on the corporate ladder that they have what it takes to lead others. And more often than not, what trips these employees up is their preoccupation with their current job title, as opposed to seeking out opportunities to actually lead others.”

From Ken Downer: Making Noise: 3 Tips for Better Leading in a Noisy World

“Are we making progress, or just making noise?”

From Mary Jo Asmus: Listening to yourself

“Funny thing is, I’ve never written anything about listening to yourself. Equally as huge and life changing as listening to others, being aware of your thoughts, emotions, and sensations in your body (yes, all that stuff below your chin) can also make a difference in your leadership.”

From Karin Hurt and David Dye: How to Prevent Training From Wasting Time and Money

“Your employees go to training. Hopefully, they come back fired up and excited about what they’ve learned and what they can do with it. Two weeks later though, they’re back to their old habits. Now, all those behaviors that worked well in the role-plays are a distant memory. What happened? Assuming you’ve picked the right training and avoided these big mistakes, if the learning doesn’t stick, you might need to work on your reinforcement strategy.”

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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