One of the most important things you can do to advance in your career is to learn new skills. I learned this while serving as president at Stagebill in 1990 as the advertising industry went into a slump. I had to maintain the company's profit level, despite advertisers' buying fewer ads in the program guides, so I needed to find something new to generate funds. I just knew how to sell ads; I clearly needed a new set of skills.At that time, Carnegie Hall, about to celebrate its 1991 Centennial, asked us to publish a commemorative magazine. Working closely with their marketing team, we created a new kind of publication and asked all of our advertisers to sponsor it. Carnegie Hall didn't pay a penny for the beautiful publication, and we kept the profits from the program. I had invented a new business for Stagebill that generated $2 million every year for our company.I was now more than an advertising specialist, an expert at creating, selling, and integrating many types of marketing programs. And I learned I could make companies profitable as circumstances changed. This new skill transformed my professional identity and put me on the path to becoming CEO of my own company. The great thing about skill-building is that it doesn't have to cost you anything. Often you can learn on the job, and companies are eager to train employees in new skills. Among our 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers, 96 percent offer tuition reimbursement for classes and training. If your company offers it, consider taking it, or you're passing up free money?and help in reaching your ambitions. True, we can hardly squeeze in a shower some days, but companies are making it easier by offering on-site college and graduate courses.That's how Kathy Fabyan of Allstate finished her MBA while working and raising her son. "I started my MBA program and a year later, my son was born. I was certain my advanced learning would have to wait," she told us. But Allstate offers an on-site MBA program with classes at the Northbrook, Illinois, office where Kathy worked, so she was able to complete her master's degree—while networking with other Allstate employees in her classes. If your company doesn't offer on-site classes and training, carve out time to build the skills you think most important. Online courses are one solution, though lacking the networking of classes. Leaders Are Trained, Not BornOne day, when I was working at the Chief Executive Group, career coach Mary Lynn Heldmann called me from out of the blue to ask if I needed consulting on how to be a better leader? just as I was wondering how to move to the next level. I told her about my deep desire to be more than I was, to accomplish more, and to create more. She advised me not to be satisfied with incremental steps, but to look for big leaps forward—just the advice I needed. Since then I have regular sessions with Mary Lynn and her son and business partner, Mark Cunningham, receiving advice on both the large overarching issues of leadership and the smaller details of managing my business. Mary Lynn does double duty as my leadership trainer and my mentor. That I pay her for her services allows me to access her as much as I need to—or can afford.Leadership training, whether it's one-on-one or group coaching, can be an important step for ambitious women. Inspiring our teams to produce results is an important skill. If you're already a manager, don't assume you won't benefit. The highest level leaders regularly engage in skill-building. Like Susan Trainer, CEO of Trainer Communications in Danville, California, who found her life transformed after a leadership seminar with Rayona Sharpnack, founder of the Institute for Women's Leadership in Redwood City, California.  "For seven years, I went to work around 8:30 and didn't stop until 6:30; I'd come home and spend several hours with my kids, and after they went to bed, I'd work until 2," said Trainer. Sharpnack helped her see that even after seven years as CEO, she was constantly proving herself, and that the strategy that grew the business wouldn't work going forward with her so hands-on. Trainer stopped leading every client meeting and new pitch and started delegating. At home, she got more sleep, took up tennis, and spent more time with her husband and kids.Making it work Leadership training isn't just for CEOs. Any woman in a management position—or who hopes to move into management—can benefit.The best leadership seminars help you know yourself better as a person and a manager and how to make it all work together. Many of NAFE's Top 30 Companies for Executive Women and our 100 Best Companies for Working Women offer leadership workshops, seminars, online instruction, and leadership retreats—some tailored to women. For Diane Fox, vice president of specialty realty and general merchandise manager for Liz Claiborne, a women-only leadership retreat made a major difference. Between work pressures and guilt about not helping her first-grade son with homework, she felt out of balance. "I felt like I couldn't do both work and life well," Fox said, "and if something had to give, it wouldn't be my personal life." Then as a perk, her boss sent her to a leadership seminar at the Center for Creative Leadership in North Carolina. "Because it was all women, we all had similar issues; men don't have the same challenges," she said. The four-day course focused on self-evaluation. Diane and her 25 classmates took personality tests and received feedback from a survey of supervisors, peers, and direct reports about their management styles. And in a one-on-one with a career coach, Diane discussed concerns about her son's homework. The coach suggested that now and then she stop home in the late afternoon, help him with homework, then visit stores open late in her territory. "She made me realize if I strategically plan it out, I can do both," said Diane. Her boss agreed, and soon her son was sailing through assignments without her help. "Having the option to be there if he starts struggling lowers my stress level," she said, "but the lesson was bigger: it's that no one else will plan your work for you. Your boss won't say, 'Go home from 5 to 6 and be with your son.' But if you come up with a strategy and a game plan, you might not have a problem. It's a matter of stopping and thinking what you really want that makes the difference." If your company doesn't offer leadership training for women, try seeking it on your own with a career coach, as I did. Or encourage your company to do what I did for employees of Working Mother Media. I hired Mary Lynn and her company, Future First, to work with anyone at Working Mother who needed a coach or leadership development, and it has made the difference between success and failure for key employees.