How to Grow Your Career in Talent Development
As a speaker, consultant and facilitator, part of my job is staying up to date on the current research, trends and ideas about talent development by reading what’s out there in the dialogue and discourse on new trends, stories, and examples. This is where I’ve often drawn inspiration for my own podcast and newsletter, and the work I do to serve my clients.
While there’s never been more access to content and information, sorting through all of the noise to find the signals can be difficult. I’m not perfect by any means, but because I’ve tried my best to find the best content and ideas out there, I’ve developed some resources over the years to keep track of what I’ve found.
Note: While this is geared toward professionals who work in the talent development role, many of these resources are also relevant for those in the following roles:
- Learning and development
- Leadership development
- Talent management
- Career development
- Employee experience
These resources also can be helpful if you work in the following businesses or serve the following industries:
- Hiring
- Learning & Education
- Training & Leadership
Or if you serve the following functions and roles:
- Talent Leaders
- People Leaders
- Learning Leaders
The Top Resources for Talent Development Professionals
Podcasts
I find that listening to podcasts is great to explore topics more in depth. For example, going really deep on the topic of manager effectiveness by listening to different episodes on the topic. Or, going deep into a podcast host, and hearing all of their thoughts. I try to make time to listen while I am on walks where I have time to think and process.
- The Talent Development Hot Seat with Andy Storch – Andy is a personal friend but one of the most connected talent development practitioners that I know. Each week he interviews different talent development professionals on trends in the profession
- The Edge of Work – A shameless plug for my podcast but this is a podcast to help leaders navigate a changing world of work. I cover topics related to attracting and retaining talent, developing leaders, and career development.
- The Talent Economy – Hosted by Toptal’s CHRO Michelle Labbe, this podcast goes deep on all things related to talent.
- The L&D Career Club with Sarah Cannistra – Sarah is a former L&D Leader an Executive Coach who has helped many professionals transition and grow their career in the talent development space.
- The Learning and Development Podcast with David James – The name says it all. If you’re an L&D professional, this is a great podcast to learn about the L&D profession, and is hosted by David James, a Chief Learning Officer.
- Talent Experience with Rhonda Taylor – Rhonda interviews talent leaders about various topics related to developing and retaining talent within organizations with an emphasis on internal mobility and careers
- ATD Accidental Trainer with Alexandria Clapp – Alexandria interviews other trainers and facilitators about best practices, insights and career stories
- McKinsey Talks Talent – A podcast hosted by McKinsey’s Organizational and Talent Performance practice that shares research and insights related to talent and organizational development.
Analyst Research
The Analyst community is always looking out for what’s new and next with trends and technologies that impact talent and learning. I find that these are great to dig into to learn more about what are key priorities of talent leaders, or what priorities could be. While most have a paid membership to access the in-depth research, many offer free content, either on the blog or through other mediums that can be good to read and evaluate. Here are some examples of ones that cover talent and learning topics
- Josh Bersin Academy – The OG of HR research is Josh Bersin. While they cover all of HR, they have a lot of good research related to talent, learning and organizational development
- Red Thread Research – Stacia and Dani, two of the Co-Founders of Redthread are Bersin alum who now have their own analyst research firm. They recently have covered relevant topics to talent including manager effectiveness and employee experience
- 3sixty Insights – They cover a number of disciplines including human capital management, with some specific focus on career and internal mobility.
Talent Development Blogs and Publications
These are great to read to stay fresh on what’s happening in the industry, high level insights on topics that you are trying to brush up on, or when you also want to go deep on a specific topic and find the resources+knowledge you need on that topic. I often rely on these when I have to do presentations, or if I need to figure out a specific research model, framework, or idea that I am going to use.
- Association For Talent Development (TD) – The Association for Talent professionals, TD comes out with regular research and posts a lot of content related to topics that are relevant to talent practitioners.
- Harvard Business Review – One of the top management and leadership digital media publications. There are regularly shorter articles that have some research component. A lot around leadership, management, and some careers and learning
- Sloan Management Review – This tends to be a bit more “academic” than HBR
- McKinsey Talent’s Blog – A lot of great resources and insights on McKinsey’s research on talent and org development
- Mercer – The HR Consulting firm which regularly puts out research and ideas related to talent and organizations.
- I4CP – A research consortium of companies that regularly produces research on organizational performance and productivity. I find many of their topics are relevant for talent practitioners, especially with respect to change and learning.
Talent Newsletters
Having a consistent practice like a weekly or monthly newsletter is not for the faint of heart. However, I find that the people that produce these regularly have put so much thought and curation into what they share that it’s worth the read. I try to read newsletters either in the beginning of the day or in the evening, and as a way to stay informed, as well as to find content that I can save for any type of work that I need to produce where I need to cite something. These often help spur ideas for me for my own newsletter, or give me ideas for other topics that I can explore further as I learn more about talent development.
- Brian Heger – Brian is a talent management executive and puts out a weekly newsletter on research and articles related to talent and the future of work
- Charter – Charter writes a few editions of a newsletter each week that cover trends and topics related to what’s relevant in the workplace.
- Work in Progress – My own newsletter which covers research, insights and learnings related to talent, career, and leadership development.
- Offbeat Newsletter – A weekly curated newsletter of L&D resources and content. The Offbeat is run by Lavinia Mehedințu.
Talent Development People To Follow
In a podcast interview last year, Tim Sanders, VP at Upwork said to me, “at the end of the day, we are all just looking for answers.” It was an astute comment, as that is the core of what we do when we look for more knowledge. And a great place to find that is from experts. And that is where Linkedin comes into play.
LinkedIn is a great place not just to have a digital profile but to engage in conversation, engagement and learning with other peers. Think of this as a wide-open intranet where you can learn, facilitate dialogue and ask questions to other experts on topics that are relevant to your job or profession. Basically, a place where you can find answers to just about anything, or engage further with an expert, or set of people who also share your sentiment on a topic.
- Larry McAlister – Larry is a talent strategist and former talent leader at NetApp. He is a keynote speaker and one of the leaders in the topic of talent transformation
- Kevin Yates – Kevin is known as the L&D Detective, and regularly investigates the ROI of talent programs
- Christopher Lind – Christopher is a Chief Learning Officer at ChenMed and also runs a learning and development community for learning practitioners. He regularly posts and does LinkedIn Lives
- Jess Amilie – Jess is a former L&D leader turned L&D consultant who writes posts about strategic L&D leadership.
- Tonya Tucker – Tonya is the VP of Talent, Employee Experience and DEI at Twitch, and also has had leadership roles as a volunteer in ATD ((Association for Talent Development)
- Andy Storch – Andy is a former talent development consultant and now runs a community for talent development professionals. He shares regularly on trend and thoughts related to talent and career development
- Dr. Mechelle Roberthon – Dr. Mechelle is a VP of Talent development at Home Bank and regularly posts content on LinkedIn on talent development and DEI.
- Ryan McCrea – Ryan is the head of talent and leadership development, and posts regular topics on these issues.
- Matthew Daniel – Matthew is a Talent Strategist at Guild Education, and researches and shares regularly about talent and career development topics.
- Julie Winkle Giulioni – Julie is an author, speaker and expert in talent and career development inside organizations
- Taylor Blake – Taylor is a leader in the learning and skills space, and posts and shares frequently about different talent development topics.
- Cat Ward – Cat is a VP at Jobs For the Future, a leading workforce development non-profit, and regularly writes and posts about topics related to talent and career mobility.
Conclusion
So there you have it! A plethora of useful and helpful resources to help you learn, grow and work in as a talent development professional or someone exploring the field of talent development.
This by no means is an exhaustive list. I would welcome any feedback from other people or resources that I should add, and also, if you end up using these, please let me know which ones are most helpful and useful. Feel free to contact me on LinkedIn with any feedback!