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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 rewarding the wrong behavior, blocking and tackling, the importance of tracking your time, setting up your team to succeed, and the manager's role in self-motivation.

From Mike Haberman: Rewarding the Wrong Behavior is a Failure of Leadership
"The Atlanta Public School system has recently become an example of what can go wrong if you have a failure of leadership. The story is one of improper strategic goals, rewarding the wrong behavior, punishing the correct behavior, human resources setting the wrong example and “the leader” more interested in personal success than the success of the organization. In case you have not been paying attention to national news stories, national newspapers, TV, radio or late-night comedians let me tell you the story."

Wally's Comment: This is a case of self-aggrandizing leadership putting pressure on people in her organization to cheat. Mark Haberman describes the situation and adds some analysis. I will add one thing to everything Mike said. Cheating is not simply the wrong behavior to reward, it is wrong itself. It is unethical behavior whether rewarded or not.

From Terry Starbucker: The Joys Of Blocking and Tackling (and Running To Daylight)
"Doing the job. Answering the phone. Delivering on time. Generating the invoices. Paying the bills. Making payroll. Collecting receivables. Fixing what’s broke. Not fixing what isn’t broke. Blocking and Tackling."

Wally's Comment: Paying attention to the business basics will not make you a great company, but not paying attention to them can prevent you from becoming a great company.

From Skip Reardon: The Importance of Tracking Your Time
"In order to improve effectiveness and efficiency, you must understand how your time is being used."

Wally's Comment: In the mid-1960s, Peter Drucker titled chapter two of The Effective Executive , "Know Thy Time." It began with advice to "record your time use." This advice is as solid today as it was fifty years ago and just as important, maybe more.

From Jesse Lyn Stoner: Set Up Your Team for Success
"Do you have a new team or are you starting a new project? Most teams rush into the work of the team without getting clear agreements in the beginning about where they are going or how they want to get there. They wait until they hit a bump in the road, and then are forced to work out agreements in the midst of frustration and confusion. Much team conflict is due to confusion and lack of agreement on expectations. Clarifying your expectations upfront will set up your team for success."

Wally's Comment: In my experience, Americans in business want to "get right to it." We rush past problem definition and start solving the darn thing. After all, "everybody knows what the problem is."We also expect teams to function from the instant we create them. Alas, nature works against us there. Jesse Lyn Stoner's post is about taking the time to do it right do you don't have to do it over.

From Derek Irvine: The Manager’s Role in Self-Motivation
"People can only motivate themselves so far without clear understanding of the task and expectations before them."

Wally's Comment: I love this post. Despite what you may have heard, a person can be entirely engaged and achieving autonomy, mastery, and purpose but still not be productive. That's where management comes in.

Carnivals and Such

From Abhishek Mittal: The Carnival 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 business of summer camp, the relative importance of the leader and the system, making better decisions, neuroleadership, and the future of the news.

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.