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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 your weekly business pulse, courageous questions, leadership and surrender, integrity and keeping it, and dealing with a problem boss.

From Terry "Starbucker" St. Marie: Leverage Your Business Pulse: The 5 Day Leadership Planner
"Every business has a natural “pulse” of activity that is designed to match the human rhythm of the calendar.  Savvy leaders know how to leverage this pulse to their best advantage by properly sequencing their analysis, interaction, thinking, discussing, deciding, and doing. For them, each day of the business week has an overarching theme, designed to maximize team effectiveness:"

Wally's Comment: This is a post I saw myself in and it felt pretty good. I've got a week plan that looks a lot like the natural rhythm that Terry suggests. If you don't have something like this outline for your week, even if it's just in your head, you'll make a great big improvement in your effectiveness by starting with Terry's model and working out your own solution. If you do have such a model, as I do, see if you can spot something in Terry's model that you can try to tweak your own, as I did.

From Mary Jo Asmus: Fearless Questioning
"In the climate of fear that exists in many organizations, we often hold back on asking the questions that need to be asked. We would rather be seen as having all the answers while we are afraid of losing our jobs, being stalled in our career, or simply looking ignorant."

Wally's Comment: Whoever said that there are no dumb questions hasn't sat through some of the meetings that I've endured. But whether you think there are dumb questions or not, there are certainly questions that it takes courage to ask. Here are Mary Jo's ideas about some of those questions and the reasons why you should ask them.

From Mike Myatt: Leadership and Surrender
"You’ll rarely encounter the words leadership and surrender used together in complementary fashion. Society has labeled surrender as a sign of leadership weakness, when in fact, it can be among the greatest of leadership strengths. Let me be clear, I’m not encouraging giving in or giving up – I am suggesting you learn the ever so subtle art of letting go. A leader simply operates at their best when they understand their ability to influence is much more fruitful than their ability to control. Here’s the thing – the purpose of leadership is not to shine the spotlight on yourself, but to unlock the potential of others so they can in turn shine the spotlight on countless more. Control is about power – not leadership. Surrender allows a leader to get out of their own way and focus on adding value to those whom they serve."

Wally's Comment: Speaking of courage, one of the most creative acts of a leader is letting go, surrendering control, as Mike Myatt suggests. The fact is that the only way you will coax the maximum from your team is if you surrender control.

From Chris Edmonds: Integrity Takes Intention & Dedication
"I’ve been engaged with an aspiring leader for a couple of months, providing coaching about effective leadership in three contexts: self, leading others, and leading teams. I love these coaching engagements with leaders because I learn as much as I guide!"
"As is often the case in my coaching conversations, our discussion centered upon integrity. I define integrity as “doing what you say you will do.” A person maintains their integrity when they make commitments intentionally, fully aware of what they are promising to deliver (quality level, within budget, by “X” date, etc.)."

Wally's Comment: This is another post where I saw myself, but this image of me wasn't very flattering. It took me far longer than it should to have to realize that reflexively taking on assignments without considering the impact on my workload and my team was destructive to my productivity and reputation. Scott Eblin's post, "Is being the “go-to person” holding you back? " is great companion reading.

From Gwyn Teatro: 5 Ways to Tackle The Problem of the Problem Boss
"To me, (especially if you are a boss yourself), using other people as a cushion or perhaps even a shield to avoid direct contact with your own boss is not the way to model good leadership behaviour."

Wally's Comment: Gwyn Teatro suggests five productive ways to deal with a problem boss. One of them is "Know your limits." I'm going to write that one hundred times.

Carnivals and Such

Leadership Development Carnival hosted by Mark Bennett at TalentedApps

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 luck, business case studies, the second generation in a family company, measuring the efficiency of the world's managers, and what to do after you decide.

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.

Also as a general rule, I do not select posts that are either a book review or a book report.

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. .

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.