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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 civility in the work place, intestinal fortitude, getting your new idea accepted, experimenting at work, and the leadership journey.

From Dorothy Dalton: Cleaning up workplace language
"I am no stranger to the odd expletive. I was recently defrauded by a client and I have to confess that my vocabulary was related to the legitimacy of his parentage, rather than "dash and oh dear." Generally bad language is not an integral part of my descriptive daily vocabulary, although it would seem, if the media are anything go by, it’s on the increase everywhere, even in the workplace. But what is the impact of that trend?"

Wally's Comment: This is an excellent and thoughtful post about the use of profanity in the work place. I think this is a critical issue because I believe that the rise in the acceptable use of profanity at work is linked to the increasing incivility at work. Don't stop when you've finished the post. Read the comments, too.

From Management Excellence: Gut Check on Your Intestinal Fortitude
"Aside from the issues that we all face as humans, including health challenges, personal loss and heartache, leading others rates a difficulty factor on par with brain surgery, rocket science and throwing a no-hitter in baseball. And while I suspect that the brain surgeons, rocket scientists and professional pitchers are either cancelling their RSS feeds or burning up the keyboards writing rebuttals that start out, “Dear Idiot,” consider the case for the extreme difficulty of leading and the need for intestinal fortitude."

Wally's Comment: Got guts? If not, you'll be in trouble as a leader. You'll have to confront people about their behavior and performance. You'll have to make decisions based on what's right even when what's right is not popular. And you may need to take positions or actions that put your job at risk. They're all part of leadership.

From All Things Workplace: Six Steps To Getting Your New Idea Accepted
"When you introduce a "new thing," you are at the end of your thought process (which may have begun months ago).  Everyone else is at the beginning. They can't get where you are without you sharing your full process including your own apprehensions."

Wally's Comment: You may have the most incredible idea in the world, but that doesn't mean that others will accept it. Here are some suggestions from Steve Roesler that will help you increase the odds.

From Terry Starbucker: Experimenting In Your Leadership Laboratory (No Bunsen Burners Necessary)
"Leading a group of people is a lot like conducting a grand experiment, where the “scientist” (the leader) fills a laboratory (the business) with test subjects (the team), and then sets up parameters, calibrates goals, and eventually makes a hypothesis on each one of them. Then, every day, those hypothesis get tested"

Wally's Comment: Terry Starbucker applies the rudiments of scientific method to leadership. You create a hypothesis about what you think will happen when you do something. You do it. Then you note what happened, form a new hypothesis, and test it.

From Bret Simmons: Leadership Is a Journey
"I’m teaching a course in International Organizational Behavior in London this summer to some of our students from UNR. It is supposed to be our standard OB course with an international flare, so I had to use a different text book entitled “International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior” by Nancy Adler. I taught the chapter on leading globally the other day and was struck by this passage at the beginning of the text:"

Wally's Comment: This is a fine post to reflect on during the somewhat-slowed-down days of summer. Read it a couple of times. Ponder it.

Bonus: Dan McCarthy has recently posted this month's edition of the Leadership Development Carnival. Thirty-six first rate posts are all in one place waiting for you.

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. The last issue had pointers to articles about complexity and failure, Amazon, and the line between exaggeration and lying.

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.