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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 engagement, managing mistakes, a non-negotiable demand every leader should make, why mission statements don't work, and coaching new leaders.

From Paul Hebert: Where Do You Fit on the Engagement Adoption Curve?
"In 1962 Everett Rogers came out with a book called Diffusion of Innovations.  In that book he outlined the process he thought governed how new ideas are adopted by a population – specifically consumers.  He also categorized people based on their “adoption” timing.  Geoffrey Moore built on this concept and applied it to businesses in his books Crossing the Chasm and Dealing with Darwin (and others - highly recommend them all!)"

Wally's Comment: In this brilliant post, Paul Hebert uses research on innovation adoption to take a look at the way companies support engagement. If you are concerned about the state of engagement, this post is a must-read. Paul lays out the current state of things and asks some powerful questions.

From Tanveer Naseer: 5 Questions To Figure Out How Well You Manage Mistakes
"A few days ago, my oldest daughter came home from school with a bit of a dilemma. She got back her latest math assignment and noticed that one of the problems she had solved correctly was marked as incorrect because her answer wasn’t rounded up to the second decimal point. As it wasn’t stated in the problem’s instructions that the correct answer needed to be rounded up to a given decimal point, my daughter was confused as to why her response was marked wrong and asked me if I could look it over to help her figure it out. Looking over her assignment, I saw that my daughter not only solved the problem correctly, but she was right that the problem didn’t ask students to round up their answer."

Wally's Comment: OK, you're the boss and you've made a mistake. You don't realize it until one of your team members calls it to your attention. What do you do? How do you handle the situation well? Tanveer Naseer uses a situation with his daughter and a teacher's error to share some important pointers and a great example of how to do things right.

From Terry Starbucker: The Non-Negotiable Demand Every Leader Must Make – And Get
"It seems so elemental - a team can only be great in an atmosphere of truth and transparency."

Wally's Comment: The "non-negotiable demand" is for candor. You may want to read this post while you've got Tanveer Naseer's post just above open in another window. These two posts are each excellent, but they're better together.

From John Bell: Why Mission Statements Suck.
"I’m not arguing against a clear definition of where a company is going and what sets it apart. My beef is with the way the particular corporation’s guiding principle is expressed; it is generally verbose, convoluted and incapable of resonating with employees or inspiring them. I’m not the first person to say this. Yet, companies large and small from start-ups to blue chippers continue to err in crafting compelling, single-minded mantras."

Wally's Comment: Call me cynical, but I think that the only people who usually benefit from a mission statement are the ones sent to a luxury offsite to develop the statement and the printers who make money from producing those cards and posters. I used to do an exercise with clients where we passed out a half dozen mission statements from different companies in different industries and asked participants to identify the companies. Every now and then a person got one right. The fact is that most mission statements are generic and don't drive action.

If you want to things right, start by reading this post where John Bell shares his analysis of mission statements that work and mission statements that don’t.

From Art Petty: Lend a Coaching Hand to Your First-Time Leaders
"Putting all of those experiences and maxims aside, the only right thing to do is to support your first-time leaders by paying attention and offering frequent feedback. I’m not suggesting that you provide the answers and I’m certainly not suggesting you micro-manage. I am however, encouraging you to take on the coaching role that is so often not a part of the confusing universe of our newest supervisors."

Wally's Comment: Most new bosses receive very little, if any, training in how to master their new role. Most of them don't receive effective support on the job, either. Art Petty suggests that if you're a good and experienced boss, you may not be able to change the training issue, but you can be the solution to the support issue by coaching new bosses. Print this post and share it with your good and experienced bosses. Challenge them to step up to the plate and do some coaching of new folks.

Carnivals and Such

Carnival or HR hosted by Women of HR

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 the Korn/Ferry Leadership Confidence in Leadership Index, checking candidates against your culture, a history of information innovation, reasons to flatten your organization's pyramid, and why leaders lose their way.

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.