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 Scott Eblin, Suzi McAlpine, Art Petty, Julie Winkle Giulioni, and Steve Keating.

From Scott Eblin: Ten Things to Say Besides Yes

“Lots of folks are headed for a crash if they don’t master the art of answering the next request for their time and attention with something other than an unqualified, ‘yes.’ In the interest of preserving your health, sanity and well-being, I’m offering ten things you can say besides, ‘Yes,’ when someone asks you to attend their meeting, join their project or take on another commitment. Practicing these ten phrases and having them in your hip pocket to use when needed will enable you to collaborate with and support your colleagues without sinking yourself in the process.”

From Suzi McAlpine: The delicate dance of decision making

“When it comes to making decisions in a group, there are ways to do it well and many more ways you can stuff it up. As a leader, it’s worth knowing what’s what, as there’ll likely be plenty of times when you need to engage your team in a group decision making process. It might be around planning or operationalising a team strategy, solving a gnarly problem or even how you’re going to work together better. So, how do you ensure you land in the ‘doing it well’ camp?”

From Art Petty: Focus on What Matters

“Are You Feeding the Machine or the Mission? Your real battle as a leader is the one for your focus.”

From Julie Winkle Giulioni: The Gravitational Pull of Weaknesses

“In many organizations, the bulk of a leader’s performance management efforts focus on improvement opportunities (aka ‘weaknesses’.) And this parallels the tendencies that many of us have to place considerably greater emphasis on our weaknesses rather than our strengths. In response, some people advocate for focusing exclusively on talents and superpowers –  to balance out the equation. All of this is tricky – as noted in this excerpt from my book (co-authored with Beverly Kaye), Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go.”

From Steve Keating: The Best Stress Eliminator, EVER!

“Nothing eliminates stress and worry better than action. The most effective action you can take to eliminate stress from your life is to make decisions.”

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. And, at my blog for part-time business book authors, I share tools and insights to help you write and publish a book you’ll be proud of.

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