If you want to invest in your education a little more formally is to take a look at the extended education programs at local colleges and universities. Most of the time you with an extended education program you're not going to be able to use that toward a degree but degrees only one reason to go to a college class. There's so many wonderful programs out there and extended ed programs that provide you with great resources and tools. They're usually pretty inexpensive, almost always less than seven hundred dollars to take a class.
This week's topic is how to spend $700 on your professional development.
Frances, one of our listeners, contacted me this week to say that she has $700 in a "use it or lose it" budget within the next week and wanted some advice on what to do. Since many of these resources would be helpful to all of us, it's the topic for this week's show.
To reach me with questions, comments, feedback:
CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback
Two overarching rules to keep in mind before you do anything:
Talk to people who are doing the stuff you want to do
Have your own professional development plan (I use Michael Hyatt's life plan that I've discussed on prior shows)
Books
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner
How to Win Friends and Influence People (and the new version for the digital age) both by Dale Carnegie
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time (link for the printed version)
Amazon Prime - $79 a year (2 day shipping, streaming of movies, borrow one book a month for free)
Publications
The Wall Street Journal ($103 a year for the digital version)
Chronicle of Higher Education ($72.50 a year for the digital version)
Harvard Business Review ($79 a year)
For help using an RSS reader see TechCouple episode #5
Professional Associations
What you get? Local chapter and networking and social learning
These are great for resources too - workshops, classes, book lists, seminars
Many are $100-$200 annually
Professional Journals
Leader to Leader Journal ($200/year)
Extended Education programs at local universities
UCI Education is great for people in Southern California - find a great program near you!
Software education
Lynda.com ($25 a month or $250 annually)
Here's a link for a free 7-day trial on Lynda.com
iTunes U
I mentioned the Justice series by Michael Sandel at Harvard
Massive Open Online Courses
Here's an example of one coming up from Stanford: Technology Entrepreneurship
Academic Earth is a great clearinghouse for these courses
The Great Courses is great for lectures and classes from top professors as well, as long as you're OK getting lots of catalogs from them
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I'd love your feedback on this show as well as any questions or topics you'd like me to address in future shows:
Visit CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback to submit comments, questions, or feedback
See you in a week for the next episode!
