Being part of the learning and development community is both rewarding and insightful. One great way to develop skills is to practice. Countless hours of content creation, and training exercises add more to your repertoire. Whether you are an aspiring Chief Learning Officer or new to training, lifetime learning is key. We’ve compiled a list of 8 books every learning and development professional should read.
Employee Experience: Develop a Happy, Productive, and Supported Workforce for Exceptional Individual and Business Performance by Ben Whitter
Employee Experience is a practical guide to developing and maintaining a thoughtful and productive employee experience. In order for organizations to maintain a competitive advantage, their frontline workforce needs to be performing at their best. This book is an expansive list of tools and tips to guide learning and development professionals to motivate and support their staff. This book explains how focusing on employee experience improves productivity, performance, and profits at any sized organization. Although made for HR professionals, this book can be applied to any person in leadership.
Get the book here.
Bet on Talent: How to Create a Remarkable Culture That Wins the Hearts of Customers by Dee Ann Turner (author) and Patrick Lencioni (foreword)
Dee Ann Turner provides a guideline on how to attract and retain the best talent and build a compelling organizational culture. This book provides insightful knowledge and good practices on keeping your frontline happy and increasing the customer experience.
Get the book here.
Hidden Talents: Practical Tools and Inspirational Stories to Unleash Higher Levels of Leadership Performance by Maryanne DiMarzo, Amy Acker, and Rodica Ceslov
Considered to be a thought-provoking and inspiring read, Hidden Talents shares some knowledge on how L&D professionals can unlock their frontline's hidden skills. This book can help you boost your employee's performance and cultivate leadership skills.
Get the book here.
The Art and Science of Training by Elaine Biech
Elaine Biech is known as the Stephen King of the training industry. With over 50 books written and edited, and 30+ years of training and consulting experience, Elaine is a name to have on your shelves. In this work, Elaine dives deep into the challenges that trainers face Through the lens of science, this book explains how we learn and how to make training creative.
Get the book here.
How to Hire, Train & Keep the Best Employees by Dianna Podmoroff
Many managers are running into a huge concern; how do we find good talent? This concern is costing businesses thousands of dollars, due to employee turnover. Hiring costs, training and loss of productivity contribute to these profits loss. In this work, you’ll learn the foundation of how to hire, identify high-performing candidates and keep them. This book will also lay out the fundamentals of creating a workplace that encourages self-motivation and invites purpose-driven employees.
Get the book here.
Directing Actors by Judith Weston
Although written for the entertainment industry, directing Coach Judith Weston’s work, Directing Actors, shares insight into what constitutes good performance. This book can easily be translated into the manager/frontline worker relationship, as it dives into what the actor (employee) wants from a director (manager), and where the manager goes wrong.
Get the book here.
Design Thinking for Training and Development by Sharon Boller and Laura Fletcher
Laura Fletcher’s work is all about human-centered problem-solving. This workbook helps managers and L&D pros improve their process from initial mapping, implementation, and evaluation.
Get the book here.
Employee Training & Development by Raymond Noe
Employee Training & Development is one of the most widely-used training textbooks. Raymond Noe’s work teaches managers and training directors how to create and administer effective training programs. With this manual, you will be able to optimize the training process, increase employee performance and gain a competitive edge.
Get the book here.
