LUMINARY PERSPECTIVE
Talent Development Mindsets
If you’re thinking about a career in talent development, it would be natural to assume it’s all about education and skill sets. After all, you can earn a degree in instructional design, leadership development, organizational psychology, or adult learning. You can invest in L&D certifications to help you upskill and stay current on the profession’s various roles and responsibilities. And of course, you can access ATD’s Talent Development Capability Model for a list of the personal, professional, and organizational skills you will need to develop yourself and others within organizations. These include hard skills like business insight, technology application, and learning sciences; soft skills like servant mentality, persuasion, flexibility, and creativity; and what I call “Velcro skills,” which link the two types together, like lifelong learning, cultural awareness, and inclusivity.
So, while it’s undeniable that degrees, certificates, and skills are critical components of a TD career, what you bring to the profession is so much more than just your CV and skill set.
Aptitude and Attitude
You can earn a coaching certificate and make it part of your resume, but if you lack enthusiasm and positivity, if you don’t believe behavior can change, or if you lack the patience to provide personal mentorship to your team or others who ask, you should probably avoid a coaching path. Likewise, while your education can provide the methodology to identify a business problem and your experience might tell you what has worked and what hasn’t, if you don’t bring sufficient curiosity, vision, and commitment to the problem you probably won’t be a very successful business partner. Success in the talent development profession is about more than your aptitude. It’s also about your attitude.
Attitude is defined as a mindset or settled way of thinking or feeling about something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior. I believe certain mindsets are especially important for those in talent development and can make the difference between their ability to simply perform and the attitude necessary to excel and thrive. I’ve identified eight for you to consider. If you want to give yourself an action-producing exercise, rate yourself on each or ask others for their opinion.
The Inquirer
Inquirers are unusually curious, willing to ask questions, and able to evaluate the validity of the answers. If you are an inquirer, you:
• Are curious about your future, that of the business you represent, and the individuals you work with
• Don’t allow important questions to go unasked at strategic planning meetings and in other critical decision-making venues
• Believe there is always more to learn
• Quickly and willingly access your inner observer and from there gain useful information about what you are capable of, passionate about, and most satisfied by
• Want to know how you are perceived by others, are open to feedback, and are willing and able to examine the truth of it
• Pay attention to gaps between your self-image and the feedback you receive
• Will question the alignment between the intent of your behavior and its impact on others
The Envisioner
Envisioners can imagine things that don’t currently exist. If you are an envisioner, you:
• Don’t allow yourself to see only with your eyes and won’t be boxed into limited vistas
• Can visualize the changes you want for yourself and your organization
• Are able to picture yourself at work in the future talent development world
• Can imagine yourself in that future and picture how success looks, feels, sounds, and tastes
• Consider multiple possibilities before making a decision
• Delight in the challenge of seeing yourself in expanded, comprehensive frames, and are willing to stretch beyond what is currently comfortable to fit into them
• Can anticipate the inspiration, trust, and respect that will exist between yourself and your colleagues, which fuels your future ambitions
The Ambiguity Appreciator
Ambiguity appreciators can sit in uncertainty without trying to escape immediately. If you are an ambiguity appreciator, you:
• Have a higher tolerance for uncertainty than others and may even relish it because you know uncertainty is a close relative of change
• Are able to take a first step without knowing exactly where the next one lies
• Can see that the greater the distance between past and future scenarios, the more time you have to devise the best plan
The Pulse Checker
Pulse checkers are vigilant and alert to vital signs, trends, and threats. If you are a pulse checker, you:
• Feel your creative juices bubbling and flowing in concert with the beat of the business
• Are on the lookout for aha moments, and as they emerge, seize them with gusto and gratitude, and investigate them further
• Borrow perspectives from every Zoom call and article and check to see if it changes your “reading” of ideas or situations
• Check your own pulse for how engaged you still are
The Conscious Connector
Conscious connectors naturally identify and see alignment between seemingly disparate concepts and ideas. If you are a conscious connector, you:
• See potential relationships that others don’t
• Are always connecting with those who can provide feedback on your performance or open a new door for you
• Give your personal connections enough time to share their wisdom with you, and you always offer your own knowledge
• Sniff out talent trends and look for ways to turn them into an organizational advantage
The Bottom Liner
Bottom liners approach problems, decisions, and projects with a business case mentality. If you are a bottom liner, you:
• Calculate the ROI—return on investment—on an initiative or an innovation and apply this information to the decisions you make and the changes you propose
• Use business strategy and goals as a measure of success in your own role
• Operate as if you are an owner of the business, not just its employee
The Change Chaser
Change chasers both react to and instigate change. If you are a change chaser, you:
• Can see shifts in the business conditions driving your work and respond appropriately
• Pursue change when necessary to achieve business goals
• Understand that your reputation is not static, and you will pursue changes in your attitude and behavior to help maintain positive aspects of how others see you
The Network Finder and Minder
Network finders and minders identify and maintain relationships with those critical to their success and that of the organization. If you are a network finder and minder, you:
• Seek and nurture contacts that will facilitate involvement and innovation, as well as extend or influence your own point of view
• Invite colleagues to challenge your thinking
• Practice “quid pro quo” for all who help you
• Notice and make connections between:
Plans and the skills needed to implement them
Individual and team skills gaps and the best available learning content, methodology, and venues
Talent resource problems and the opportunities for addressing them
Final Thoughts
Success is not a skill. You might spend your talent development career attracting and retaining employees, identifying development gaps, creating strategies for closing them, or designing and implementing performance management, leadership development, or employee assessment programs. Whatever you choose, you can be confident that your degrees, certifications, and skills will enable you to demonstrate your aptitude, but without attitudes like those outlined here, your success cannot be ensured. If opportunity is an accident meeting a prepared mind, then talent development career success is a close collaboration between aptitude and attitude.
About the Author
Beverly Kaye is recognized internationally as one of the most knowledgeable and practical professionals in the areas of career development, employee engagement, and retention. Her contribution to the field includes the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Love `Em or Lose `Em: Getting Good People to Stay, now in its sixth edition. Her recent books include Up Is Not the Only Way and Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go, which helps managers blend career conversations into their everyday routine. In 2018, ATD honored Beverly with a Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing her contributions to the profession. The Association of Learning Professionals honored her with their 2018 Thought Leadership Award. In 2019, Beverly was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute for Management Studies.