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 on the questions your team members are afraid to ask, leading with a noble heart, killing collaboration, team identity, and creating a powerful company culture.

From Karin Hurt: 10 Questions Your Team Is Afraid to Ask

“Your team has questions they’re afraid to ask. They’ve got limited information, but they figure if you wanted to tell them you would. They worry that raising the issue will look like insubordination, or somehow make them look less in your eyes. Maybe you can share, maybe you can’t. But that doesn’t make the questions go away. There is value in anticipating the questions that may be on people’s minds and to start the conversation. I’ve been asking around for input into one simple question ‘What question would you most like to ask your leadership (but are afraid to).’I’ve also been asking a similar question of the leaderhip consultants and coaches I hang around, ‘What questions do you think employees are most afraid to ask their leaders?’ Here are the top 10. Please add yours.”

From Lolly Daskal: Make A Difference: Lead With A Noble Heart

“A leader with a noble heart can give us what we all search for—a sense of purpose, meaning, and nobility. Here are some of the ways they do it:”

From Kate Nasser: Teamwork Collaboration: Leadership Beliefs That Kill It

“Business owners and leaders hold a competitive spirit in high regard. They often have it and hire for it. They say, ‘without a competitive spirit how would a business succeed, right?’ Not necessarily.”

From S. Chris Edmonds: Identity Crisis

“What is your team’s identity? It has one – it just may not be the one you want it to have.”

From Derek Irvine: 2 Tips to Powerful Company Cultures

“Culture is the culmination of how employees behave every day and the environment those behaviors create.”

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 how not to make the same mistakes as leaders at GM, VA or Xerox, how online brands are showing their stuff offline, team up to reap the rewards of innovation, the future of women and the workplace, and decluttering your company.

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.