Summer school is a valuable leadership tool
When the academic year ends, most kids don’t want to be sent off to summer school. As CEO of CUES, however, I have a completely different perspective on the opportunity this season affords.
While I’ll definitely take in a few White Sox games over the next few months, I’m also planning to leverage my summer business travel for learning. I expect, for example, to have some uninterrupted hours to read and reflect in July on my flights to and from the World Council of Credit Unions meeting in Belfast, Ireland. My reading list includes Crucial Conversations, a book about fostering open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics—at all levels of your organization.
Once I arrive in Ireland, this trip—like others I have planned in the next few months—will be a great opportunity for networking, and thinking about our industry and CUES’ role in it.
If you’re as committed to continuous learning as I am, how will you deliver on it this summer? What’s on your reading list? What TED Talks have you been putting off watching?
If you’re not like the kids and you think summer is a great time to be in class—around the corner from a great vacation spot—CUES has some good choices for you.
For example, CUES’ Execu/Net will be held near Yosemite National Park, Aug. 28-31, at Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite, Fish Camp, Calif. There you can spend mornings attending high-level educational sessions and afternoons fly fishing!
If you prefer to tie in urban vacations with your learning, choose from several lending and marketing schools the week of July 18 in Seattle; Strategic Innovation Institute I in late September at MIT near Boston; and Strategic Innovation Institute II starting July 31 at Stanford University near San Francisco.
I hope you’ll let me know how you leverage this summer’s fun to also foster opportunities for professional development.
