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 Chris Edmonds, Karin Hurt, Steve Roesler, Jesse Lyn Stoner, and Mary Jo Asmus.

From Chris Edmonds: What’s Your Story?

“We have a lot of stuff on our plates. We have many items on our to-do lists. We want to keep our commitments. That’s good – but I suggest that we’re not contributing like we can. We’re not serving like we can.”

From Karin Hurt: 5 Big Rules For Productive Conference Calls

“It’s easy to fool ourselves into the illusion that ‘just having a conference call,’ instead of a face-to-face meeting or one-on-one, will save time. In fact, it’s that kind of thinking that leaves many managers moving from call to call with little time to connect with their team.”

From Steve Roesler: Three Persuasive Ideas

“We never outgrow our need to be persuasive. Managers have to persuade employees to ‘get on board’ with a new idea or change; salespeople get paid to persuade customers to buy; and potential customers persuade salespeople that a change in the ‘deal’ just might make them a paying customer.”

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: Manage Your Polarities or They Will Manage You

“We all have tapes running in the background that guide our actions. If you pay attention, you might notice you’re often listening to sayings you learned as a child. Many of these sayings contradict each other, lying at opposite ends of a pole. The pole you listen to depends on the family and cultural values you learned and the temperament you were born with.”

From Mary Jo Asmus: A message of freedom from Dr. Seuss

“Every year when Independence Day is upon us, it can be the beginning of thinking not only about the freedom we enjoy in our country, but the freedom that is possible in our workplaces. Freedom is something we all desire, and when it’s present in our workplaces, it opens up all kinds of creativity and joy that can lead to real bottom line results. As a leader, you can set the tone for workplace freedom.”

That’s it for this week’s selections from independent business blogs. If you liked this piece you may enjoy my regular post on “Leadership Reading to Start Your Week” points you to choice articles from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms about strategy, innovation, women and the workplace, and work now and in the future. Highlights from the last issue include why you should reward your best teams, not just star players, the Top 100 Retailers 2015, unlocking the potential of the Internet of Things, overcoming the confidence gap for women, and McJobs and UberJobs.

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.

If you’re a boss, you should check out my Working Supervisor’s Support Kit.