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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 metaphors for your organization, the look of leadership, a vote against Maslow, measuring engagement, and "evidence-based" leadership.

From Reading About Leading: Metaphors for your organization
"When people describe their organizations, they default to three primary metaphors: the family, the team, and the nation at war. Each of these gives and takes away."

Wally's Comment: This is the first of several very thoughtful posts this week. It's not very long, but set aside some time for it anyway. Rob Tucker challenges you to examine how you think about your organization, what baggage comes with the image, and how it all connects to values.

From Random Acts of Leadership: What Does Leadership Look Like?
"One of the most effective ways I have found to help people expand their own leadership capability, as well as to cultivate leadership in others is to develop their ability to observe leadership in the simple everyday actions of the people around them."

Wally's Comment: This is another "imagine" post. Imagine what leadership looks like. What do you imagine leaders doing? How do you imagine them acting? What you imagine will be what you try to live up to.

From Incentive Intelligence: Is the Anti-Maslow Movement Gaining Strength?
"Loyal readers know I have an unnatural attraction to Abraham Maslow and his theory of motivation. Not the positive attraction that is pretty common on the web in posts about motivation written by those selling a product and not really worried about motivation.  It’s a pretty negative attraction."

Wally's Comment: If you ever took a business psych course or motivational psych seminar, someone trotted out Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and probably used it as the basis for a theory of motivation. Paul Hebert spends his days thinking about motivation and incentives, that's his business. Paul thinks that the advice you get based on Maslow is often wrong. I agree. I just don't know if Paul and I agree on which things. Read his post and make up your own mind.

From Bret Simmons: Engagement: Cause Or Effect?
"When you measure one thing and call it something else, it’s impossible to meaningfully interpret your results. Poor research design does not produce actionable knowledge."

Wally's Comment: "Engagement" is the management fad of the moment. It is the icon to which all must bow. So here comes iconoclast Bret Simmons to point out that whilst the Emperor may not be entirely naked, he sure is dressed funny. I resonate a lot with this post and Bret's earlier post on the topic. See my post. "Engagement May be the Best Management Voodoo Ever ."

From Evidence Soup: Is "evidence-based" meaningless?
"Today we're looking at three books on "evidence-based ____" , each concerning management in the public or private sector. Together, they demonstrate the wide range of possibilities for evidence-based action. But they also illustrate why it's difficult for people to point to something and say "Now I see what this is all about!" "

Wally's Comment: I'm a big fan of the evidence-based movements in medicine and management. So is Tracy Allison Altman. But neither of us thinks that merely slapping the "evidence-based" label on something will turn it into something magical. With Evidence Based Management, as with anything else, it pays to remain critical and a bit skeptical.

For additional reading, you may enjoy my post: "Evidence Based Management has Issues ."

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 adjusting strategies, social networking and collaboration, Apple's "mea copout," mining your attic for innovation, and Barnes & Noble .

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

Check out my latest book, Ruthless Focus, at Amazon.

Posts about Ruthless Focus

The Story of the Book
Annotated Table of Contents
Keep it Simple, Strategist
Strategy: Staying with What Works