3 Practical Steps to Improve Talent Development in 2026
The three steps to improve talent development are (1) the leader models Total Person Development by being transparent about their own growth, (2) the leader builds a leadership development plan for each direct report focused on their top 1-3 priorities, and (3) each of those direct reports repeats the process for their own team, scaling development through the whole organization. Once you know which employees need this most, the fastest way to prioritize is a quick behavioral audit — more on that below.
Why “Total Person Development” Beats Skills-Only Training
Based on 25+ years in talent development, at least one of the top growth areas holding someone back at work isn’t a work issue at all—it’s a personal one they bring to the office every day. That’s why Total Person Development (TPD) matters: you don’t just hire the work person, you hire the total person, and optimizing performance means developing the whole person, not just their technical skills.
For years, most companies only invested in hard skills and hoped employees would sort out their personal challenges on their own. That approach falls short because personal problems bleed directly into work performance — no amount of hard-skill training fixes that. This is the same distinction covered in the golden rule of talent development: know what’s actually developable before you invest in it.
Not sure whether people’s issue is a fit problem or a development gap? A free 2-minute audit gives you the clarity to act.
Start My DIY Talent AuditStep 1: The Leader Goes First
Implementing TPD into your business—like most strategic shifts—requires leading by example. If the leader hasn’t bought into developing both the professional and personal sides of their people, HR and OD face a much steeper climb getting the concept to stick.
Making the mental shift starts with the leader being vulnerable and transparent about the challenges they face, both professionally and personally. You don’t need to post it on social media—but your team does need to hear it from you directly, including what you’re doing about it. You can’t expect openness you’re not willing to model.
Step 2: Build a Focused Employee Development Plan for Each Direct Report
The leader creates an employee development plan for each direct report, centered on the top 1-3 development priorities that will move the needle most—professionally and personally.
Example: If a direct report is dealing with significant relationship issues, the plan doesn’t need to solve the issue—it needs to connect them with the right resources and put a plan around it. Every development plan should include concrete action items with due dates. Building the right plan starts with an honest conversation—see breakthrough leadership development conversations for how to structure that discussion using behavioral science instead of guesswork.
Step 3: Cascade the Practice Through Every Layer of Leadership
This is where TPD scales. Each leader who has their own development plan starts building development plans for their direct reports too.
Example of the compounding effect:
- A leader has 8 people on their leadership team, each with their own development plan covering professional and personal priorities.
- Each of those 8 leaders has 4 direct reports and builds development priorities for each of them.
- Result: 40 additional people — plus the original leader — now embracing Total Person Development, well beyond what any single leader could reach alone.
As TPD cascades, people-related issues start declining while performance and satisfaction climb, because the organization shifts from reactive to proactive on talent. At that scale, tracking dozens of development plans by hand stops working — 1:1 meeting software is what keeps every leader’s plans visible and on schedule. Those Who Plan—Profit!
Download the Talent Planning eBook for the full TPD framework.
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Lead by example and model your own growth, build a focused 1-3 priority development plan for each direct report, then have each of those leaders repeat the process for their own teams.
TPD is the practice of developing an employee’s whole self — professional and personal — rather than only their job-related hard skills, because personal challenges directly affect work performance.
Focus each plan on the top 1 to 3 priorities that will have the greatest impact, both professionally and personally, rather than trying to address everything at once.
No. The compounding example above uses 8 leaders and 40 total reports, but the same leader-develops-leader structure works at any size — it just scales further the more leadership layers you have.