An organization's talent development function exists, among other reasons, to develop employees so that they're able to contribute to achieving organizational goals. But if employees likely won't remain with one company throughout their entire careers, and given the evolving work dynamics in place, it's to employees' advantage to take professional development into their own hands, to achieve their personal goals. Right?

The executive talent officers job is to attract, develop, and retain highly skilled, productive, and engaged employees. All that, plus implementing robust learning and development opportunities to leverage the potential of all employees.

A pervasive, organization-wide approach to developing and retaining high-potential women can be challenging to get off the ground, but it is a path that has been successful for hundreds of leading organizations and thousands of women. Let's look at this proven organization-wide approach from two inter-twining perspectives: corporate culture and the women themselves. Together they hit on all the major problems and possibilities circling around gender parity.

Spacing out during a meeting. Accidentally sending a personal email to the entire company. Walking out of the office bathroom with toilet paper stuck to your shoe. Posting the CEO's name with a typo on the company blog. At some point in your career you're likely to make a mistake or do something unprofessional. When these slip-ups happen, instinct and emotion kick in. We feel anxious, embarrassed, and sometimes even ashamed.

Here are five ways to help you leverage the power of your personal brand to stand out and attract the right opportunities for your career and your firm.

Just because you've reached the C-suite doesn't mean you no longer can benefit from networking.

Don't let fear of failure hold you back.

Leveraging learning technologies is not an L&D strength, two independent studies conclude.

Randstad has developed career-readiness programs for underserved women and teens.

Jacque Burandt discusses the most important trends in talent development: the skills gap and accountability performance.

Decision making doesn’t always require an immediate reply.

Developing talent today with an eye on tomorrow.

In this Q&A, Chief Learning Officer Rahul Varma provides an inside look at the talent development function at Accenture. How does Accenture define talent development? It's the end-to-end experience each employee needs to grow their career and reach their full potential. Talent development encompasses...

After registering a very high 68.0 for both the second and third quarters of 2015, the Learning Executive Confidence Index (LXCI) for the fourth quarter of 2015 dropped nearly four points to 64.3, suggesting that learning leaders' short-term expectations for the health of the learning function are down.

As the chief talent development officer, you often are required to explain abstract and complicated workforce issues to the rest of the C-suite. Maybe you need to connect the myriad puzzle pieces of a new performance improvement strategy or clarify context so you can accurately depict the real problems plaguing your company's culture. Whether you're talking about employee engagement, performance management, corporate culture, change management, or organizational development, your authority will rise quickly if you can make these core talent development topics...

Over the course of my career, I've had the pleasure of working for many fine firms and a collection of powerful leaders. Many of those experiences were in new settings—mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, new lines of business, and ultimately new employers. Looking back on all my professional moves into new situations, there was a consistent pattern of newcomer advice—encouraging me to take advantage of being the new player on the team. The coaching included phrases such as: "It's OK to be ignorant," "Ask any and all questions," "Challenge the status quo," "Leverage...