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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 whether you can be friends with people who work for you, unintentional values, giving clear directions, creating a "tenacious" culture, and a bit of self-assessment.

From Dan McCarthy: I’m Your Boss, Not Your Friend; 10 Reasons Why Your Boss Shouldn’t be Your Friend
"Is it ever OK for a manager to be friends with their employees? Believe me, this isn’t just a question brand new managers struggle with (and most of them do). It’s an issue a lot of experienced managers are questioned about as well, and many of them don’t think it’s a problem at all."

Wally's Comment: In my experience, an awful lot of bosses assume they're an exception to the "Don't be friends with people who work for you" rule. In my experience they're wrong. Dan McCarthy shares a more sophisticated analysis.

From Chris Edmonds: Unintentional Values in Your Workplace
"Because of my experience with refining cultures, it is impossible for me to go into an organization without subconsciously (maybe consciously) assessing the culture of their work environment. I observe and listen for how people are expected to behave, to perform, to treat each other and customers. I often hear about practices and norms that exist which will NOT support the skills we’re teaching in the leadership or team session. It is not always appropriate for me to raise that issue with the client; if they are committed to a training solution, learning about culture issues is a complication they may not be able to do anything about."

Wally's Comment: I think every consultant who's plied the trade for a while has experienced this, but most of us haven't written about it so well.

From Steve Roesler: Management Direction: Does 'Don't' Mean 'Do'?
"I just came back from an office building where a sign on a doorway clearly stated, "This is not an entrance." Hmm. Did that mean that I was to use the door next to it or go outside and enter through some other place?"

Wally's Comment: We often fail to communicate what we want because we don't take the time and spend the attention to be clear about what we want.

From Art Petty: 5 Ideas for Creating a Tenacious Culture
"Tenacity is one of those common attributes of most successful people. It’s often one of the key missing ingredients of chronic underachievers."

Wally's Comment: Here's the deal. You have to finish in order to win. There are people out there, maybe some you work with, who don't finish. Art Petty has some ideas on how to deal with that situation.

From Scott Eblin: Do You Get It or Not? Does It Matter?
"One of the most e-mailed articles on the New York Times website for the past several days has been one titled, “Don’t Call Me, I Won’t Call You.”  My guess is a lot of grown up kids are sending it to their parents to prove that they’re not the only ones who don’t always answer the phone or respond to voice mail messages. The article describes how phone habits have changed over the past five years as people shift to text messaging, email and Facebook to communicate with their friends, families and colleagues. Nielsen Research notes that spending on cellular voice traffic is trending downward and that text traffic spending will exceed voice in the next three years."

Wally's Comment: If you are over forty, promise me you'll read this post all the way through. It's important.

Carnivals and Such

Fm John Hunter: Management Improvement Carnival #126

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 supply chains, becoming a competitive manufacturer, Victoria's Secret and Campbell's Soup, data and workforce planning, and developing influence.

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.