Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Nick Craig is the author of Leading from Purpose: Clarity and the Confidence to Act When It Matters Most, published in June 2018. Since 2006, Nick’s firm, Core Leadership Institute, has helped more than 10,000 leaders discover and lead from purpose. In this episode, Nick shares his perspective on: What purpose is How to discover your purpose The benefits of leading from purpose While his firm primarily leads private workshops within organizations, they do have two workshops coming up that are open to the public: Boston from October 18-19, 2018 London from December 4-5, 2018 Learn more on their website at coreleader.com

Certain evolutions on a submarine require the Commanding Officer's approval. This short episode is what I learned from asking permission. The same principles can be applied in any corporate environment.

The day I reported to my submarine, I was given a stack of qual cards, one of the best training technologies ever. Do you want new hires to get up to speed quickly? Then consider giving them a qual card so they can take charge of their own learning.

As a young ensign newly reported to my submarine, I handed the Engineer Officer a draft that didn't meet his standards. This short episode is the story of when I learned about the concept of completed staff work.

Every independent professional needs to determine his or her internal billing rate, that is, what is your time worth to you, in dollars. Most independent professionals I've met have not thought this through, and this leads them to spend time on low-value activities that should be outsourced.

I recently received an email with the subject line: BS Questions. Hmm - not very professional, I thought. This short episode provides some thoughts on abbreviations, and one thing I do with abbreviations at the beginning of every study.

I’ve been working on eliminating decisions from my life wherever possible and replacing decisions with habits and routines. One area in particular that I’ve focused on for the past few years is my morning routine. I’ve tried adding and removing elements to see what works best for me.  In this episode, I share the current version of my morning routine, which helps me win the day. I don't suggest you adopt my routine, but I do encourage you to find a routine that works for you. A book on the topic I recommend is My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired, by Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander.

Yify Zhang, a McKinsey alum, is also a singer - songwriter - violinist. In this episode, Yify shares how she combines her music with a career as an independent consultant.  Do visit Yify's website, where you can stream all her songs, watch her music videos, and find out the dates of her upcoming live performances: http://www.yifyzhang.com/  

McKinsey taught me this framework - the four conditions that are required to drive behavior change: 1) Understanding and commitment 2) Skills 3) Role modeling 4) Formal mechanisms This short episode gives an overview with an example of how to apply the framework.

This is a story about the actual wedding photographer who took the pictures at my wedding, Drew, and his fictional doppelgänger, Drew Prime.