1. Prepare your attitude. Instead of feeling stressed over unplanned time away from the office or fearful of interacting with strangers, embrace your invitation as a great opportunity to learn and grow. It’s an honor to be sponsored for this event, and the great news is that whatever you learn will be with you for a lifetime. As for the strangers you will be forced to work with, these individuals represent an important new extension to your professional network.

2. Arm yourself with meaningful input. Some programs call for an extensive 360-degree review to be completed ahead of the actual event. Work hard to identify respondents who see you from unique perspectives including: boss, peer, employee, service provider, and encourage them to be frank with their feedback. If the program doesn’t offer a 360-process, review your prior performance evaluations and reach out to colleagues for ideas on your strengths and gaps.

3. Model a beginner’s mind. Much like the “attitude” suggestion above, approach the subject matter and coursework not as an expert who’s heard it all before, but as a beginner, hungry to gain insights large and small. The participant who responded to my post-session inquiry with, “It wasn’t anything I’ve not heard before,” missed this important lesson and likely shortchanged himself on the learning opportunity.

4. Engage whole-heartedly. The safety of the training session affords you an incredible opportunity to tackle the tough topics related to leading, guiding and developing others. Engage, ask questions, offer ideas and listen to the challenges and approaches described by your colleagues.

5. Form relationships with your new colleagues. The opportunity to meet and work with individuals from different firms, industries and even countries, is priceless. You will forever share a powerful bonding experience with these new colleagues. Look for opportunities to extend the relationships beyond the actual event. One enterprising training participant organized a post-session LinkedIn Group, where they continued to share ideas and approaches.

6. Get over your fear of role-playing. The notion of acting out different scenarios is up there with fears of public speaking. Get over it. Every member of your group is in the same situation and you are in a safe environment. Role-playing is nothing more than practice, and practice is an important step in the learning process.

7. Don’t skip the socializing. During a multi-day training program, class is always in session, even during mealtime and evening recreation. Find the instructor, coach or colleagues and keep the discussion flowing. Some of the most valuable learning takes place in the more relaxed sessions where individuals freely share their own challenges and ideas.

8. Leverage the coaching. The best leadership training programs include a powerful coaching module as part of the curriculum. The coach and participant review feedback from the 360-degree reviews and focus on opportunities to strengthen superpowers and improve key weaknesses. If this coaching is available to you, soak it up. The coach is an objective outsider who is motivated only by the need to help you develop. Her frank input and thoughtful questions are rocket-fuel for performance improvement.

9. Plan the next steps before you head to the airport. The value of any training experience is a direct function of what you do with the new-found knowledge and ideas once the session has ended. Take the time while you are immersed in the program to identify a small number of important behavior changes and develop an action plan to strengthen your performance with these behaviors. Resist the urge to define a complete leadership makeover. Focus your efforts and define a plan to change, monitor and measure your performance.

10. Work your plan. The worst thing you can do is throw the binder of materials on the shelf, pin the certificate to your wall and then jump back into your work as if nothing happened. Something did happen. If you follow the guidelines above, you’re a different person and leader upon your return. Put the ideas and approaches to work. You’ll benefit for a lifetime and your current boss will smile and recognize that you were worth the investment.