Growing Your Career on Both Sides of the Fence

In the talent development profession, you can no longer just be an internal trainer or external consultant. Many more skills are needed to be effective today, including knowing the business and developing your business acumen, staying on top of and using the latest technology tools, and being a skilled consultant. Here are some of the skills needed on each side today. 

Internal: Become more of an internal consultant and shared services partner.

• Knowing your organization’s business and developing a strong network 

• Gaining credibility with your business leaders by learning about, understanding, and finding ways to solve their biggest needs 

• Choosing and working with external vendors that are a fit for your organization and culture 

• Marketing and selling corporate initiatives and programs 

• Managing projects to keep everything on track 

• Realizing how programs will affect the unit, department, and organization in the short and long-term 

• Reinforcement, application, and measurement 

External: Expertise plus business development skills and quick adaptation.

• Developing and offering expertise in a specific area and having a keen understanding of The ATD Competency Model 

• Understanding underlying business needs 

• Learning organizational culture to ensure that your solution is a fit for the organization 

• Networking externally and with your clients so you know who the key players are and can recommend other resources  

• Adapting to different organizational cultures and styles  

• Measuring and evaluating your work to show your clients the impact that it has 

• Supporting your clients and pointing them to other resources that they may need 

In Denver this May, hear from a distinguished panel of internal, external, and international talent development leaders as they share what they’ve learned on each side of the fence, where they see careers going in the future, and how you can best prepare your career journey.