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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 women and business networking, agile leadership, helping your team make better decisions, the fallacy of "No," and trust and culture.

From Dorothy Dalton: Women and networking: strategic or simply social?
"Women network all day, every day, in all their roles, whether professionally, as parents, as neighbours, as partners or socially. Do we really think that their failure to have a corner board room office is because of their reluctance to sip warm bubbly, nibble inferior canapés and exchange card?  If it was so simple, wouldn’t women be sending in their RSVPs to the nearest cocktail party quicker than the preparation of an “amuse bouche”?  You would have thought so – but seemingly they don’t. Why is that?"

Wally's Comment: Dorothy helps you zero in on an often untested assumption. The assumption is that because women seem to be natural networkers, it follows that they are excellent business networkers. The sound you hear is that untested assumption vaporizing.

From Productivity Blog: Agile Leaders Generate Greater Corporate Performance
"In an environment of rapid technological advances, economic turmoil and changing consumer behaviors, most companies recognize that to be successful, they have to be adaptable. And yet, fewer than half of companies say they are good at making changes, according to a new research report on leadership agility by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp)."

Wally's Comment: Agile thinking is gradually making its way from manufacturing to the rest of business. Here's a survey, with interpretation, of where companies appear to be today.

From N2Growth: The Fallacy of No
"There seems to be a popular movement afoot that believes the word “no” is the super antidote to the far inferior word “yes.” There are many popular axioms espousing the benefits of learning to use the word no with greater frequency. In fact, there are some very bright people that believe you cannot become a good leader without developing a mastery for using the word no as evidenced by the following quote from Tony Blair: “The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes.” I couldn’t disagree more…In today’s post I’ll share my thoughts on what I refer to as the fallacy of no."

Wally's Comment: Mike Myatt shares the insight that most of us don't feel so good about being told "No." But that's just his starting point.

From Management Excellence: Teach Your Team to Make Better Decisions
"If you were to embark upon a rugged and lonely journey to the top of the mountain to ask for enlightenment from the Oracle of Management, I suspect that you would be left with the words “decision-making” to ponder on your long walk back to civilization."

Wally's Comment: We talk a lot about delegation, but what we should talk more about is "decision rights." Unless your team members can make good decisions, you can't delegate much. And, since it's your job as a boss to help your people grow and develop, you should set to work developing the decision-making skills of your team. This post is a great place to start.

For a lucid discussion of "decision rights," I recommend chapter 6 of one of my highest-rated management books, Charles Koch's The Science of Success.

Don't let the title put you off. This is not a motivational book by someone who's never managed anything. The author is the CEO of Koch Industries which is the largest privately held company in the US.

From Trusted Advisor: Too Big to Trust? Or Too Untrustworthy to Scale?
"So how do these clowns get so much power? Amid all the defeatist models that posit human beings as innately susceptible to money, that assume selfish motives are immutable and can only be beaten by more rules and rewards, I still think there is a valid role to be played by culture and character."

Wally's Comment: Ever wonder why attempts to reform Wall Street never seem to work? Ever wonder why CEOs like Dick Fuld or John Thain were surprised that most people saw their actions as rampant greed in an obtuse package? You won't be wondering when you finish this post.

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.