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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 coachability, getting better feedback, sharing your vision with the team, your credibility as a leader, and teaching your team to succeed.

From Steve Roesler: Is Everyone Coachable?
"when it comes to leadership and professional development, the question doesn't go away. I continue to be approached by executives and entrepreneurs who insist they want to be coached. The reasons vary, but usually boil down to wanting to be more effective at building their business--or their piece of it. There was a time when I took such people at their word."

Wally's Comment : There is a school of thought that everyone is coachable. Then there's Steve and me and maybe you after you read this post. But there's good news. Steve gives you a format for separating the coachable from the rest.

From Dan McCarthy: 10 Ways to Get More Candid Feedback (and 5 ways if you really can’t handle the truth)
"We all know how important feedback is, right? It’s the breakfast of champions and all that. However, it’s awful darn hard to get. People generally aren’t good at giving it. It’s hard to do; people often get defensive, and we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. However – if you really want feedback, there are ways to get it. Just make sure you can handle the truth."

Wally's Comment: Feedback is the breakfast of champions. Feedback is the way to turbocharge your growth and development, but you need good (which sometimes means hard-to-take) feedback. Dan McCarthy shows you how to get that feedback.

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: 7 Tips For Sharing Your Vision With Your Team
"She knew it was a good idea, so why was she waiting to discuss it with her team? Like many leaders, she thought she was supposed to have all the answers first."

Wally's Comment: Having a vision is important, but if you're the only one who has it, there's precious little good that it does your team. Jesse Lyn Stoner gives you some tips about how to share visions, dreams, and ideas with your team and, as a bonus, improve them in the process.

From Terry Starbucker: A Leader’s Biggest Credibility Killer (And Hardest Lesson)
"You’ve worked hard to build the right team. You’ve put in a lot of hours process-building, training, goal-setting, and motivating. But the wheels still aren’t turning. Productivity is lagging. Something’s wrong."

Wally's Comment: Guess what? We all have blind spots. Here's how to spot some important ones.

From Art Petty: It’s Time to Start Teaching Your Teams to Succeed
"If you’ve ever been part of a truly effective team…a high performance team, you know the experience is memorable and potentially career altering."

Wally's Comment: If you've ever been part of a dysfunctional team, you know it's a bit like going to work to have pins stuck in your eyes (experience A). On the other hand, being part of a great team is a magical and almost mystical experience (experience . Here's solid advice on how to have more of experience B and less of experience A.

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 leadership and serendipity, the future of leadership, neuroscience and leadership development, the state of leadership development, and the 2010 Booz Allen study of CEO succession and turnover.

How I Select Posts for this Midweek Review

The five posts I select to share in my Midweek Review of the Independent Business Blogs are picked from a regular review of about sixty blogs I check daily and an additional twenty-five or so that I check occasionally. Here's how I select the posts you see in this review.

They must be published within the previous week.

They must support the purpose of the blog: to help leaders at all levels do a better job and lead a better life.

They must be from an independent business blog.

As a general rule, I only select posts that stand on their own, no selections from a series.

I reserve the right to make exceptions to the above.

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.

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.