From the Independent Business Blogs: 6/27/18

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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 Art Petty, Mary Jo Asmus, Rebecca Elvy, Ed Batista, and Kevin Eikenberry.

From Art Petty: 8 Ideas to Help Your Challenging Conversations and Difficult Decisions

“The road to a difficult decision is paved with one or more challenging conversations. The two—difficult decisions and challenging conversations—are inextricably linked. Effective leaders and high performing teams work hard to develop skills and conventions for navigating challenging conversations in pursuit of hard decisions surrounding strategy, investment, structure, and talent. For too many others, however, difficult decisions languish, and challenging conversations are something to be avoided to keep things collegial.”

From Mary Jo Asmus: What an open dialog requires of you

“There are times when a you as a leader will need to have an open dialog with an individual, group or team. This might be so that you can get others’ input, thoughts or opinions. It isn’t about pushing your ideas on others, it’s about drawing theirs out. These kinds of dialogues are grounded in trust and safety and a slower pace so others can speak what they think and feel.”

From Rebecca Elvy: First Impressions: Why You Must Switch Off the Autopilot

“You want to make a good first impression, right? You care about what this person thinks about you. Your home. We see our homes as an extension of ourselves. We express ourselves in our choice of furniture. In our choice of décor. In our choices about the things we buy – how many or how few. And whether things are tidy or not. Both inside and outside.”

From Ed Batista: Leadership and Authenticity

“While the expression of an authentic self is necessary for great leadership, the concept of authenticity is often misunderstood, not least by leaders themselves. They often assume that authenticity is an innate quality–that a person is either authentic or not. In fact, authenticity is a quality that others must attribute to you. No leader can look into a mirror and say, ‘I am authentic.’ A person cannot be authentic on his or her own. Authenticity is largely defined by what other people see in you and, as such, can to a great extent be controlled by you. If authenticity were purely an innate quality, there would be little you could do to manage it and, therefore, little you could do to make yourself more effective as a leader.”

From Kevin Eikenberry: The Question That Can Make Your To-Do List More Manageable

“Some people are ‘list people,’ while others aren’t. Even if it isn’t your general inclination, you have made a to-do list at some point – likely on a day when you had lots to do. There is a question that might change everything for you. If you can’t live without your to-do list this will make them more valuable. And if you hate to-do lists, this question might change your opinion.”

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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