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, Mary Jo Asmus, David Greer, Art Petty, and Steve Roesler.

From Chris Edmonds: Work: Where the Human Spirit Goes to Die

“Is your work environment dull and frustrating or engaging and inspiring? Is employee productivity the only meaningful metric in your organization?”

From Mary Jo Asmus: Courage is a muscle

“It’s easy to deceive yourself that your ability to be courageous isn’t an issue for you. In your rational mind, you may avoid stepping into conflict, decisions, and speaking truth with (what you believe to be) logic. When self-deception happens, you can miss opportunities to make a difference in your organizations and those you lead.”

From David Greer: Trust From The Inside Out

“What does this have to do with you? Most of the time, we judge people by what we see on the outside. We look at the way they walk, talk, interact, appear to us, and a myriad of other ‘clues’ which we assume tell us what is going on for the other person.”

From Art Petty: 7 Lead-Off Mistakes to Avoid as a First Time Manager

“Establishing yourself as a credible and positive leader is important and challenging. Here are some all-too-common missteps of first-time (and even some hapless, experienced) managers. Avoid them in good health!”

From Steve Roesler: What Are You Paying Attention To?

“There’s an incongruity between time and money devoted to leadership development and the number of articles about bad bosses. Maybe its’ time to re-visit the definition of ‘bad.'”

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 and how to grow from your strengths, new ways for patients to get a second opinion, how to create an innovation company, three ways for women to think holistically about their careers, and what Amazon’s workplace controversy says about the future of work.

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.