3 great books about talent development

The average leader only reads one book each year, which is why he's the average leader...

The complex and ever-changing nature of today’s—and tomorrow’s—workforce demands that all involved in talent management rethink how to attract, engage, and grow future talent. This forward-looking handbook captures talent management’s evolution from a series of transactions to a fluid process that includes talent development.   
With 20-plus chapters written by more than 30 contributors, the ATD Talent Management Handbook challenges you to think about the talent model of the future through the lens of different workforce models. It offers progressive thoughts on the current state of talent management and on how the function needs to adapt. Leaders, practitioners, and consultants alike will find useful insights and answers to relevant talent management challenges.   

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​Great leaders drive the bottom line, which is why organizations pour money into leadership development. But most companies have no real way to gauge whether their endeavors are paying off—much less where they are falling short. Talent Leadership shows how to set up a world-class leadership-development program—and have the metrics to prove it! Packed with research findings, best practices, case studies, proprietary assessments, and more, this innovative book explains how to: - Employ assessments to benchmark current and future executive talent - Use the resulting data to identify leaders with potential based on their capabilities, commitment, and alignment with organizational goals - Leverage analysis to target training and coaching where they will have the greatest impact on individual performance and overall operating success By measuring, calibrating, and recalibrating the leading indicators that directly predict organizational health and the ability of leaders to meet those needs, HR and OD professionals will bring a much-needed numbers focus to their crucial talent development efforts. This book is for leaders of HR, Talent Management, OD/MD professionals, and the vast population of operating managers who are charged with identifying, managing and developing high-potential and emerging leaders.

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In his sixth fable, bestselling author Patrick Lencioni takes on a topic that almost everyone can relate to: job misery. Millions of workers, even those who have carefully chosen careers based on true passions and interests, dread going to work, suffering each day as they trudge to jobs that make them cynical, weary, and frustrated. It is a simple fact of business life that any job, from investment banker to dishwasher, can become miserable. Through the story of a CEO turned pizzeria manager, Lencioni reveals the three elements that make work miserable -- irrelevance, immeasurability, and anonymity -- and gives managers and their employees the keys to make any job more engaging.

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