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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 employee-centered business practices and the bottom line, ways to build self-awareness, models for managing change, important distinctions between leadership and command, and real-world advice for front line leaders.

From Jim Morgan: Report Proves "Employees Matter" to Your Bottom Line
"Sometimes managers push back on my science-based approach to team building by saying, in effect, "academics don't know what goes on in the real world." How delightful, then, to download a free report with 150 pages of real-world evidence that employee-centered business practices raise profits exactly as the research literature says they would."

Wally's Comment : People are the only source of sustainable competitive advantage in today's business world. That's why people-centered practices make sense. Here's some knowledgeable discussion of how well they work.

From Mary Jo Asmus: The Value of Knowing Exactly Who You Are
"The list below includes some of my recommendations for areas that will help you to become more self aware, including some my own regularly used assessments and why I think they are important."

Wally's Comment: Mary Jo Asmus was an executive and now she's an executive coach. In this post she shares pointers to instruments that you can use to increase your self-awareness in five key areas. I love posts like this one, where an expert shares insights and pointers to tools. As it happens we have two of them this week.

From Dan McCarthy: Which Change Model Should You Pick?
"OD practitioners often find themselves in similar situations where their organizations are asking them to adopt one single change model. There’s a lot of merit to the “one model” approach. It’s a must for financial systems and marketing strategy, as well as softer things like values and leadership competencies. Using a common change model could help facilitate learning, consistency, and efficiency. On the other hand, I’ve seen the quest for a single model taken to the extreme. In a previous large, global organization, it actually turned into silly turf wars. A LOT of energy was expended debating over whose model should be “the one”, as well as the “policing” of stamping out rouge models. I don’t think that kind of nonsense was helping the managers we were supposed to be supporting."

Wally's Comment: Dan McCarthy does a fine job of sharing his vast knowledge and experience in helpful ways. In this post he describes eight change models so you can make a wise choice about which one to use.

From Jim Stroup: Looking for leadership
"This, like many such experiments, confuses leadership – particularly as described by the modern leadership movement (MLM) – with command. Taking charge of a situation – especially one like that posited in the exercise which shares characteristics with a crisis – is fundamentally different than expressing the visionary, charismatic, empowering, lofty sorts of leadership celebrated and promised by the MLM and obligingly sought by the rest of us."

Wally's Comment: This is Jim Stroup at his best, making the important distinction between "command" and "leadership." Once you read this post, you'll understand why I make it a point to read Jim's blog.

From Terry Starbucker: 6 Quick-Hitting One Line Lessons For Front Line Leaders
"I faced this challenge myself over my years in the executive suite, and came up with some quick-hitting, one line lessons I would constantly pass along to the front line leaders nearly every chance I got."

Wally's Comment: The headline says it all: "quick-hitting one line lessons for front line leaders." Good ones, too, and for leaders in places other than the front line.

Carnivals and Such

From HR Web Cafe: 20 Workplace Wellness & Productivity Cost Calculators

First Look: Leadership Books for August 2011from LeadershipNow

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 Frederick Winslow Taylor and his legacy, culture change, speeding up, engagement, and the "Social Wave."

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.