Compare your learning options
Potential pathways for professional development
Go to a professional conference
What you hope happens:
Meet new people in the field
Participate in current conversations
See sights in the host city
Present your project to attendees
What usually happens:
Meet only a few new people
Spend $$$ on registration and travel
Stay in a generic conference hotel
Pump up your CV (but have limited impact)
Verdict
The conference circuit is a significant investment. Registration, flights, ground transportation, accommodation, meals, and miscellaneous expenses can add up. Meaningful networking can be challenging with jam-packed conference programs.
If you want to find applicable learning, choose your sessions wisely.
Register for a Webinar
What you hope happens:
Hear from an expert on a relevant topic
Save money on travel and registration
Learn something you can apply
What usually happens:
Limited interaction among participants
Interrupted and distracted while in the office
Attempt to multi-task during the talk
Verdict
Webinars almost always underdeliver. It’s not the speakers. It’s the format. Webinars are usually inexpensive (even free!), but the passive learning experience makes them easy to ignore. With limited interaction among attendees, webinars can be all content and no conversation.
If you want to connect, you need another strategy.
Take an Internal Workshop
What you hope happens:
Meet others in your organization
Learn about your organizational context
Access local trainers from Human Resources
What usually happens:
Meet people from unrelated departments
Discover the “how-we-do-things-here” approach
Learn from trainers who do not know your context
Verdict
If your organization is large enough, you likely have access to internal management training. These programs are excellent for orientation. Unfortunately, they tend to adopt a generic approach which discourages creative approaches and leads to status quo thinking.
If you want to workshop new ideas, you need a different workshop.
Attend an Intensive “Institute”
What you hope happens:
Engage with a small cohort of leaders
Dive deep into art and science of management
Discuss real scenarios and cases
Boost your CV (and get calls from headhunters)
What usually happens:
Feel overloaded with content
Limited time to apply learning
Contacted for jobs that do not fit
Gain limited transferrable knowledge
Verdict
The investment required to attend one of these full-service institutes is truly astonishing. The quality of the learning experience is impressive, but the quantity of content is overwhelming. Given the high cost, opportunities like this are usually reserved for well-established leaders on the executive track.
If that’s not you, you need to find another solution.
Find a mentor
What you hope happens:
Find a mentor who knows the culture
Grab advice from someone with more experience
Establish a safe space for difficult questions
What usually happens:
Hesitate to ask real questions
Lean too heavily on one person’s perspective
End up socializing over coffee
Verdict
Mentoring requires relatively low investment and can lead to high return. Success depends entirely on the quality of your mentor and their ability to coach. When trust is present, knowledge transfers easily. When trust is absent, mentoring devolves into a series of awkward coffee dates.
So, do you want coaching or coffee?
Read Leadership Books
What you hope happens:
Study current trends in management
Find tools and techniques to apply
Dive deep into specific areas (e.g., conflict)
What usually happens:
Discover contradictory strategies from “experts”
Get overwhelmed by the number of titles
Process new learning on your own
Verdict
Reading is always a reliable approach. It’s free if you use your library (wink, wink). Reading widely will give you new ideas, but it won’t move them from your head to your hands.
Unless you form a book club, you are on your own for this one.