Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: Leadership Training

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Cynical Girl: Leadership Training

Posted: 23 Apr 2013 03:45 AM PDT

Someone just asked me if I could recommend a good leadership course. I wanted to say, “No! The best training is life!”

But that’s not true.

Life can suck. Life can throw you a curve ball. And even if you’re a good person, you can make mistakes when you respond to opportunities and tough times. How many times have you blown a moment that should have been easy? How many times have you done or said the wrong thing at the worst possible time?

Ugh. Count me among the guilty.

The best way to be prepared for something is to train, but I can’t recommend any general leadership training programs related to the business world because I’m so far out of that loop. There are a million places to find training resources — many of them bad and dull. We used to send people to the Center for Creative Leadership. There’s always Disney. And a school like UNC offers short courses.

Hit the google, yo.

I know some old school people out there who think that life offers good leadership training. So do books, right? And there are HR nerds out there who want to send you to a course to avoid making mistakes at all cost.

I think there’s a happy medium for those of you who want a more effective way to develop good leadership (and listening) skills. I just don’t know what to tell you.

Maybe someone in my audience has a recommendation!