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, Karin Hurt and David Dye, Kate Nasser, Lolly Daskal, and Susan Mazza.

From LaRae Quy: What Resilient People Know About How To Follow Their Passion

“Like all bad advice, follow your passion rears its ugly head regularly—most notably at the Oscars when movie stars spew out the inevitable cliche. I learned the hard way that just because I was passionate about something didn’t mean I wouldn’t suck at it.”

From Karin Hurt and David Dye: 7 Ways to Encourage Creative Thinking in Your Team

“When we talk with leaders who wish their team were more creative, we often find that they unintentionally stifle creativity. With a few shifts in how you lead, you can cultivate a more creative environment and encourage creative thinking in your team.”

From Kate Nasser: Leading Virtually: Leadership Communication Essentials

“More than ever before you are leading virtually with people dispersed throughout the country or globe. Make sure you replace the image of managing remote employees with one of engaging virtual teams. How you communicate creates the image and impacts the outcome — good or bad.”

From Lolly Daskal: How Great Leadership is Generated in Significant Crisis

“For years I have studied and observed great leadership, teaching and coaching leaders and organizations around the world on the qualities that make leaders effective. One thing I’ve learned through that experience: when crisis hits, the best leaders are ready to act courageously and boldly. Their leadership grows and deepens even through dark times because they hold close to the core principles of leadership:”

From Susan Mazza: Leadership Accountability is Key to Leading Effectively

“Accountability is an essential leadership skill if you want to be a highly effective leader. We often talk about accountability in the context of managing others. However, accountability as a leadership skill requires that you to take the skill of accountability beyond just getting the work done. Accountability as an act of leadership requires that you empower others to not only own tasks, but to also own the results with you.”

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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