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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 leadership qualities, fads, creating time to think, supertrends, and how you, too, can become a strategy consultant.

From the Practice of Leadership: What will be the most important leadership qualities over the next five years?
"The “2010 Global IBM CEO Study” was recently published, it’s one of the largest one-on-one CEO interview studies, surveying 1,541 CEOs, general managers and senior public sector leaders from 60 countries and across 33 industries. The four primary findings of this year’s survey are as follows:"

Wally's Comment: George Ambler does a good job of summarizing the results of the IBM survey. Here's a link to the results of the survey itself, in case you want to compare interpretations with George's post.

From Compensation Cafe: Now Hear This: Steer Carefully Around Fads & Fashions!
"Tell me... what's the hottest new trend in compensation today? OK, show of hands: How many (besides me) cringed in response to that question?  Yes?  Gold stars for all of you!"

Wally's Comment: Everything has its fads, even compensation. Ann Bares offers good advice about how you can tell if you should adopt a particular "hot new idea."

From Building Better Leaders: Boost Your Effectiveness at Work by Creating Time to Think
"As challenging as it sounds, it’s important for you to find 10-minutes in your workday to block out or step away from phones and e-mail and all of the other activities that keep your brain completely occupied, and just think."

Wally's Comment: "Quick, look busy!" is a distinctly American saying. We value doing and "getting on with it." Art Petty suggests that a bit of just thinking is a good thing and offers some ideas about how to get the time.

From HR Observations: Six Supertrends: What Does the Future Hold?
"Are you really strategic? What to do some "think-tank" type of thinking? Well here is your chance. Edward Cornish, in his book Futuring: The Exploration of the Future talks about Six Supertrends. I find this kind of reading fascinating and certainly deserving of some thought for the future of HR. So let's take a look."

Wally's Comment: Edward Cornish is a founder of the World Future Society. The book that Mike Haberman uses as his source is Cornish's first in about thirty years.

From Trust Matters: You Too Can Be a Strategy Consultant: Three Secret Tools Revealed
"The art of general management and strategic consulting lies in the mastery of a few simple tools. Now, despite the inevitable threats against my person made by parties who do not want to see the Truth revealed, I am about to share with you, Trust Matters readers, the Three Strategic Secret Sauces. Guard them carefully."

Wally's Comment: If you're going to take the time to think about fads and trends and supertrends, you might as well become a strategy consultant. No need for a specialized education or long apprenticeship, Charles Green reveals the three secret tools that you can use to guide your clients in pursuit of the perfect strategy. You may not be right, but at least you can be persuasively wrong. Shush. Don't tell anyone.

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" which features five choice articles from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms with pointers to related reading and resources. The last issue had pointers to articles about lifelong learning, the iPad and publishing, continuous improvement, CEO succession and compensation, and coping with complexity.

And be sure to check out Weekly Leader where I'll try to get you thinking about The Question of the Week.

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.