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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 achieving goals, attitude, managing prima donnas, leading in the moment, and making the transition to leadership.

From Shawn Murphy: Obsession to Achieve Goals is Useless
"As a new CEO/President, the odds are stacked against me to succeed. Fellow leadership blogger and all around great guy Dan Rockwell, aka Leadership Freak, recently cited a sobering statistic on this topic: 40% will “crash and burn within the first 18 months.” Ouch! A natural response to overcome such odds is to hunker down and focus on getting things done, to set and achieve goals, to remind people of the goals by constantly reviewing spreadsheets, dashboards.  It’s not a short trip to turn such laser-sharp focus into an obsession."

Wally's Comment: If you're ever found yourself efforting up to achieve goals, you'll recognize the issues that Shawn Murphy raises in this post.

From Mike Myatt: Attitude Reflects Leadership
"My question for you today is a simple one: ”How’s Your Attitude?” Show me a CEO with a bad attitude and I’ll show you a poor leader. While this sounds simple enough at face value, I have consistently found that one of the most often overlooked leadership attributes is that of a positive attitude. As a CEO, how can you expect to inspire, motivate, engender confidence, and to lead with a lousy attitude? The simple answer is that you can’t…it just won’t work. CEOs with bad attitudes will not only fail to engage their workforce, but they will quickly find themselves shown the door as their attitude’s impact on performance becomes visible to the board. In today’s post I’ll examine the importance of CEOs having a positive attitude."

Wally's Comment: Remember this. If you're the boss, no matter what attitude you have, it's highly contagious.

From Scott Eblin: Three Tips for Managing an Olbermann
"It was probably inevitable that Keith Olbermann and his managers at MSNBC would have a stressful parting of the ways. The career history of the talented, iconoclastic, maddening, entertaining (even if he’s the guy you love to hate) Olbermann has been one of resigning from or getting fired by every network he’s worked for. "

Wally's Comment: So what do you do with that superstar who does some great things you want and many things that you don't want?

From Laura Hunter: Leading in the Moment
"When people come to my arena to work with my horses invariably the first question they ask is, “How do I get my horse to go?" I explain to them that they can't really “get” their horse to go.  But if they want to engage their horse to move forward with them, then they need to understand the nature of their horse and what motivates it."

Wally's Comment: I love the title of this blog: "Alpha Mare." And I love this post about how you can increase the odds that horses and people do the things you want them to do.

From Gwyn Teatro: Making A Transition to Leadership
"When people first take up the reins of leadership in their organizations, a number of changes take place.  Among them is a change in how the leader relates to those who report to him or her.  I call this the Relationship Shift…not very original but there it is."

Wally's Comment: The transition from individual contributor to boss is one of the toughest in business and in life. Gwyn Teatro offers insight on how the transition affects relationships and suggestions on how to make the transition easier and more effective.

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 CEOs getting fired (or not), asking yourself hard questions, being the boss, industry resets, and the state of organizational training.

Here, on Three Star Leadership, I post things that will help a boss at any level do better and live a better life. At Results vs Activities, I join other bloggers with posts on talent development. My blog at the Toolbox for HR is People and the Changing Workplace .

If you're a boss, you should check out my Working Supervisor's Support Kit.

And be sure to stop by at Weekly Leader where I'll offer you my Challenge 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.