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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 on iron boats and bosses, managing generations (or not), the real leadership crisis, learning from 2009, and whether the "job" is still a relevant concept. This may be the best midweek collection ever.

From Effective CIO: What’s Your Iron Boat?
"In planning for his great trek across the United States, Meriwether Lewis had a brilliant idea: a portable boat made from a collapsible iron frame and covered in animal skins.  After leaving the Mississippi, his group would carry this boat until they reached the river rumored to extend to the Pacific, whereupon they would assemble the boat and sail away.  It was cutting edge technology for 1803 and Lewis absolutely loved the whole idea."

Wally's Comment: This is a great read and an important lesson. Meriwether Lewis was an American hero, but not all his ideas were good ones. And he was a very persistent fellow, but that wasn't always a good thing. How do you compare?

From Jason Seiden: This Is Bullsh**t: Managing Generations
"The generations we speak of are a function of a graph showing ups and downs in birth rates. Nothing more, nothing less. When you go on a hunt for cultural differences across people of different ages, you can find them, but cultural shifts don’t line up with the peaks and valleys of birth rates. We keep using fertility rates to gauge the generations, when what we’re really after is something really quite different."

Wally's Comment: In his own inimitable style, Jason Seiden takes aim at the absurdity of managing a generation. This will save you lots of money on "generational management" workshops.

From Great Leadership: A Leadership Crisis or a Branding Issue?
"I hate to say it, but I’m almost getting numb to the whole “leadership crisis” thing. It’s getting tired. However, there was another finding from the DDI survey that I found even more troubling: Sixty-two percent of the individual contributors surveyed have no aspiration to assume a management role."

Wally's Comment: Dan McCarthy, like many of us, is a bit weary of the commentary on a crisis in leadership, especially when it always seems to be about the shortcomings of current leaders and especially when there's a real leadership crisis that no one seems to want to talk about. So Dan waxes eloquent on what that crisis is and why it's really important.

From Art Petty: Leadership 2009 Style-What We Learned
"Mix one part global economic crisis with ample quantities of uncertainty and ambiguity.  Stir in two-parts ever-changing global competition and a dash of geopolitical instability and you’ll end up with something that looks and feels a lot like the world of today, complete with the mild aftertaste of fear. You’ll also end up with a remarkable living leadership laboratory, where the best leaders are rediscovering the importance of leadership blocking and tackling while simultaneously developing the new skills and approaches required in this complex environment."

Wally's Comment: What have you learned from the Whitewater Economy of 2009? Art Petty suggests several things to think about.

From Compensation Force: The Job: Still Relevant?
"Today, the notion of a job serves as the cornerstone of most HR programs and practices - from compensation to recruiting. But will the job remain relevant going into the future or will it go the way of the dinosaur, replaced by programs and practices that emphasize the person, rather than the role they fill?"

Wally's Comment: 2009 seemed to me like the year we started talking seriously about options for changing and improving the workplace. Ann's post is part of that discussion. She asks if we really want to continue organizing our workplaces around jobs and whether it might make sense to start organizing around people.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.