Yesterday, I attended a Coaching and Teambuilding for Managers seminar conducted by Skillpath with a colleague from work.

I must be getting jaded from all these seminars but I found this particular one to be a big waste of time. It was actually a never-ending sales pitch for their books and CD-roms camouflaged in a lot of hooey talk about leadership and silly pointless exercises. Since my company paid good money for it, I still wholeheartedly participated and contributed to the discussions. I was even a sucker since I ended up buying one of the books, The Leadership Challenge, but only because it was written by Barry Posner, the Dean of the Leavey School of Business in Santa Clara University where I got my MBA. Barry is the type of dean who was friends with everyone, engaging in chit-chat down the corridors and even having lunch with students every now and then. I was curious to see his writing style, which I haven't been an audience to beyond his newletters.

There is this one seminar (actually a six-month or year-long series of seminars) that I truly learned a lot from and has definitely influenced me. It's the Women Unlimited, a truly unique program that molds and mentors women managers into confident, self-assured and mature executives. If your company supports these types of programs I highly encourage you to pursue this opportunity, it will be a very positive experience in both your professional and personal life. A plus is the vast network of women I gained from the experience, whom I am still in touch with to this day.

In any case, I will avoid any seminar from Skillpath from now on. The one cool thing about yesterday - the hotel had a whiz-bang vending machine that had all kinds of cool stuff - including an iPod! So I purchased a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies with my credit card, fervently hoping that the electronic arm will mistakenly grab the iPod instead.

It's pretty sad when the highlight of your seminar is the venue's vending machine.

Vangie Fuhrman got cold on 9.14.2005 4:12 PM. |