The Best Professional Development I Ever Did

People sometimes ask me what's been the most valuable professional development of my career. They expect me to name a course or a programme.

My answer is always the same. The conversations.

With a leader who was completely different from me. With a frontline worker who showed me something I couldn't see from where I was sitting. With a mentor who asked a question that took me three weeks to answer properly.

I've attended excellent programmes — Harvard Business School, Otago, HEC Paris. I've valued all of them. But the learning that has stayed with me longest didn't come from a classroom.

It came from paying attention. To what was working and what wasn't. To the patterns that repeated across different industries and organisations. To the moments when something I believed turned out to be wrong.

The best leaders I know are still doing this. Still curious. Still listening. Still willing to be surprised. That, more than any qualification, is what keeps you effective.