As a parent, I am always happy – relieved, even – when September rolls around and it’s time for the kids to return to school. As a professional, why hasn’t a similar annual reminder to think about my education been firmly ingrained into my brain? Now is the time for that to happen: taking learning and development into your own hands has become crucial to continued professional success in today’s economy.

LinkedIn cofounder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman, spurred by the recent publication of his book “The Start-up of You”(Crown Business), states in a March 2012 interview by Reader’s Digest: “It’s no longer: I do my job, and The Man promotes me. You must develop your own capabilities, your own assets, your own opportunities.…The real question is how you invest in yourself every week and every month, just like businesses do–because businesses that don’t invest in themselves are terminal businesses.”

Developing your skills and knowledge is one of the primary aspects of investing in yourself. What is your next self-development move?

For further advice on proactively managing your professional success, see “Working Women and Self-Managing Your Career”, where life-long learning is one of the top 5 proactive moves implemented by real-life women of Milan.

Autorevolezza e assertività al femminile: Affermare la propria leadership

Designed to empower women to assert themselves as leaders both professionally and personally, this program is comprised of three interactive half-day modules and an individual coaching session. Participants will develop assertive communication and self-management skills, increase self-assurance, and become more aware of what it means to personally be a leader.

28 Oct., 12 & 26 Nov. 2013
9:00-13:00
CIS Valmadrera (LC)
€390 + IVA (incl. coaching session and lunches). Held in Italian. Visit here for more information.

Throughout this excruciating process of creating a new web site focusing on women’s career development and leadership, I have been asked repeatedly: Why? Don’t you like working with men?

Well, I do. That’s not it at all. It’s just that after facing the challenges firsthand that so many women meet as we try to lead fulfilling professional lives and at the same time have decent private lives, I realize that this experience can be especially helpful to other women. Whether it’s the external challenges, such as working long hours and foregoing friends and family or not understanding the importance of networking and company politics until it’s almost too late, or the internal conflicts, including being uncomfortable with self-promotion or battling to overcome those insidious inner voices on subjects such as inadequacy, rejection, and guilt, I have faced my share and then some. It’s this understanding and empathy that has led me to focus on women and diversity issues.

I have also been asked on numerous other occasions: When? When are you finally going to publish your new site? And, considering that I could have had another child in the time it took me to finish this project (hence the word “excruciating” above), I’ll leave that question for another time.