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 Tanmay Vora, Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie, Mary Jo Asmus, Susan Mazza, and Jesse Lyn Stoner.

From Tanmay Vora: Nobody Rises To Low Expectations

“If you are dealing with a mediocre team or average performance from people, check what you are expecting from them. People respond to expectations (implicit and explicit) and raising the bar of expectations is a great way to enable growth and potential in people.”

From Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie: The Must-Dos: My 10 Most Enduring Leadership Lessons

“Through all this I’ve walked away with many, many lessons about what makes a great leader, and I’ve written about them on this site for over 10 years (!) and 1,028 posts. But 10 of them have been, and remain, my favorite leadership lessons – the ones that have ‘stuck’ with me and are now a part of my daily practice. The ones that I consider to be critical to day-to-day excellence in leadership.”

From Mary Jo Asmus: If you want to change the world, work on being happy

“You can become happy when you’re intentional about working at it. It matters to your leadership because what’s inside impacts how you show up; how you show up impacts those you lead; and those you lead will perform better and achieve greater results for your organization if you’re a happy leader. Your organization, through greater results, has the potential to change the world. And who wouldn’t want that?”

From Susan Mazza: 3 Keys to Ensuring You Make a Difference In Speaking Up

“Communication can be messy and unpredictable — which is why speaking up about things that really matter to you often takes courage. Unfortunately, just because you speak up doesn’t mean you will be heard.”

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: Criticism, Boundaries and Useful Feedback

“Larry didn’t understand that telling Carl off is not ‘giving feedback.’ It’s simply criticism. Setting boundaries around what Carl can borrow is a reasonable thing to do. But that’s not ‘feedback’ either.”

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 the barriers big companies face when they try to act like lean startups, three questions humble leaders ask, how to lead from the front, the top ten emerging technologies of 2016, why Fox’s apology to Gretchen Carlson is so stunning, a conversation with Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Grant, and why psychological safety matters and what to do about it.

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.