• Interdependency of technology and people
• Strategies supporting investment in technology over people
• Key drivers in favour of developing people
• Consequences of not developing staff and alternative strategies

Sheryl Sandberg is Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Facebook. Her book considers why women are rarely found in high-powered leadership roles. Writing from her view point, and drawing on examples of other high-profile women, she addresses women offering suggestions to help empower them to reach their potential.

• Translating job description accountabilities to personal characteristics
• Determining the changes in competencies and behaviours needed
• Identifying critical development to yield required future performance
• Discussing why some people are developable (and others not)

If you’re someone who believes that men and women are fundamentally different and that men are naturally better at some things while women are better at others, buckle up and get ready to have your assumptions and understanding challenged. Cordelia Fine does an excellent job in arguing that cognitive and behavioural differences between men and women are not innate but are socially constructed.

Using case studies, this book links action and in-action to performance and improvement. Matthew Syed explores how mistakes can lead to higher performance and new ways of working. But only if mistakes are embraced and used as a learning aid. Here we review the book and give you our thoughts on the message it intends to get across.

• Discussing the meaning of ‘talent’, who’s in the talent pool and who’s not
• Discussing the GE 9-box and CIPD 4-box talent matrixes
• Building a model for talent management using the CIPD 4-box matrix
• Illustrating talent management as a continuous process