The Gartner Talent Angle

Leader and manager development was CHROs’ top priority in 2025, according to the 2025 Gartner HR Priorities Survey. When employees are frustrated by the leadership at the organization, their engagement, performance and productivity suffer. Adam Galinsky, professor at Columbia Business School and author of "Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others,” joins the Talent Angle to share research on what makes leaders inspiring, rather than infuriating, and how organizations can adapt their leadership development strategies to nurture inspiration at scale.

For more Gartner content on leadership development, see 

Seven Hallmarks of Effective Leadership Development

About The Guest:

Adam Galinsky is a celebrated social psychologist at Columbia Business School known for his research on leadership, decision-making, teams, and ethics. His scientific research — consisting of more than 1,000 studies published in more than 200 scientific articles — has been cited more than 64,000 times. In Adam’s latest book, “Inspire The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others,” he weaves together his decades of research and global consulting experience to reveal the science of how to become more inspiring. His TED Talk, “How to Speak Up For Yourself,” has been viewed more than 7.5 million times, and his book “Friend & Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both” was an audible and eBook bestseller.

About The Host:

Caroline Walsh is a managing vice president in Gartner’s HR practice. Her teams help HR leaders build and execute talent, diversity, rewards, and learning strategies and programs. Caroline has also led Gartner research teams on commercial banking strategy and leadership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University.

Today’s CHROs face a dynamic business environment, and must make difficult, strategic decisions despite uncertainty. Justin “Hasard” Lee, former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and author of “The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot’s Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions,” joins the Talent Angle to share a decision making framework for leaders to use so assess the problems in front of them, choose the best course of action, and execute decisively.

For more Gartner content on decision making, see How Leaders Can Increase Employee Decision Speed and Autonomy.

About the Guest

Justin “Hasard” Lee is a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, bestselling author, and expert in high-stakes decision-making. He empowers HR leaders and organizations to build decisive cultures, boost agility, and optimize team performance, partnering with Meta, Microsoft, and other Fortune 500s. A decorated pilot, Justin flew more than 80 combat missions, led teams under pressure, and piloted the F-35. As Chief of Training Systems, he spearheaded AI initiatives to enhance decision-making. His book, “The Art of Clear Thinking,” a No. 2 Wall Street Journal Bestseller, offers HR professionals a practical framework for navigating complexity and driving innovation.

About the Host

Jessie Knight is a vice president of research in the Gartner HR practice. She leads research teams to identify best practices and new opportunities to address HR executives’ most urgent challenges. Her areas of focus include employee experience, organizational culture, change management and the future of work.

Disclaimer: Gartner is an impartial, independent analyst of the Information Technology industry. All content provided by other speakers is expressly the views of those speakers and their enterprises. The information should not be construed as a Gartner endorsement of said enterprise’s products or services.

With CHROs navigating new levels of change, they can find it difficult to determine which global and long-term trends matter for their talent and business strategies. Brent Cassell, VP in advisory at Gartner and member of Gartner’s Futures Lab, joins the Talent Angle Podcast to offer a framework to sense and respond to the macro trends CHROs need to be paying attention to today.

For more Gartner content on the trends impacting the future of work, see The Top Trends and Forces Impacting Strategic Planning: Tapestry 2024 and How to Prioritize Future of Work Trends for Action.

About the Guest

Brent Cassell is a vice president of advisory in Gartner’s HR practice, and he has spent the past 19 years in Gartner’s HR and CIO practices. His job is to help clients find the research they need, to help them understand that research, and to coach them through the implementation of those best practices in their own organizations. Brent is the contributing editor of the HR Leaders Monthly Journal. In 2022, he won Gartner’s award for Outstanding Thought Leadership for his work on Redesigning Work for the Hybrid World.

About the Host

Peter Aykens is the chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice. Aykens is responsible for building and leading research teams within the practice to address clients’ key initiatives. Before his current role, he spent over 25 years at Gartner leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product challenges. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in international politics from Aberystwyth University (formerly known as the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth), and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.

The workforce is increasingly exploring learning opportunities outside of the four-year college degree, such as vocational training and apprenticeships. However, organizations struggle to adapt their talent processes to a workforce with changing demographics and preferences. Kathleen deLaski, author of “Who Needs College Anymore? Imagining a Future Where Degrees Don’t Matter,” joins the Talent Angle to discuss how organizations can keep pace with an evolving workforce. By creating alignment between recruiting, training and education, organizations can build talent pipelines that strengthen their workforce and grow the economy.

For more Gartner content on sourcing nontraditional talent, see 

Skills Overtake Degrees: Act Now to Prepare for the Future of Work

 and 

Recruiting Leader Resource Guide for Skills-Based Recruiting

Kathleen deLaski is an education and workforce designer, and futurist. She founded the Education Design Lab to help colleges reimagine higher education toward the future of work. Her nonprofit has helped 1,200 colleges, organizations and economic regions design new pathways for learners. She is a senior advisor to the Project on Workforce at Harvard University and teaches human-centered design and higher education reform as an adjunct professor in the Honors College at George Mason University. Previously, Kathleen worked as a journalist, including time as ABC News White House correspondent, and was a political appointment as the first female Pentagon spokesperson.

Dion Love is a vice president of research and advisory services at Gartner. Dion is a labor market expert, focusing on global labor market trends and what they mean for organizations’ talent and business strategies, as well as broader social and economic issues. In his work at Gartner, Dion advises clients on key aspects of talent acquisition, including talent acquisition function planning and management, talent needs definition and internal recruiting, employment branding and recruitment marketing, and talent sourcing and selection. He has co-authored more than 12 strategic research studies at Gartner. His work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review and industry publications, as well as Gartner HR Leaders Monthly and Smarter With Gartner.

Communication is a critical skill for leaders and managers, who run into problems when their teams feel unsupported or unheard. Charles Duhigg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of “Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection,” joins the Talent Angle Podcast to share his findings on communication. Charles identifies different archetypes of conversations and explains how to smoothly navigate them. By articulating the skills and behaviors that leaders must develop to become better communicators, Charles shows how communication can build trust and connection with their teams.

For more Gartner content on communicating effectively, see 

Case Study: Fail-Proof Vulnerable Leadership Support to Build Leader Confidence

 and 

Focus on Manager Habit Building, Not Just Skill Building

Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of “The Power of Habit,” which spent over three years on bestseller lists and has been translated into 40 languages, “Supercommunicators,” also a bestseller published in 2024, and “Smarter Faster Better,” a third bestseller. Charles writes for The New Yorker magazine and is a graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Business School. He previously wrote for The New York Times, and is a frequent contributor to CNBC, This American Life, NPR and Frontline. He was also, for one terrifying day in 1999, a bike messenger in San Francisco.

Jessie Knight is a vice president of research in the Gartner HR practice. She leads research teams to identify best practices and new opportunities to address HR executives’ most urgent challenges. Her areas of focus include employee experience, organizational culture, change management and the future of work.

Change agility — the ability to effectively manage and adapt to change — is a top leadership priority for organizations in 2025. As disruption becomes the norm, leaders must adapt and equip their teams to do the same. Red Hat CPO Jennifer Dudeck joins the Talent Angle Podcast to share her insights on how to lead through change and build a strong bench of future change-ready leaders.

For more Gartner research on change leadership, see 

Strategies to Build Readiness for Transformational Changes

 and 

Case Study: Change Readiness Forecast Framework (UNFI)

Jennifer Dudeck is Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer at Red Hat. In this role, she leads the team responsible for managing global human resources, administering payroll, and creating inspiring work environments supporting Red Hat’s award-winning culture. She has more than 25 years of human resources experience across all functions with a focus on helping the teams she led maximize alignment with, and impact on, the enterprise

Jennifer is passionate about improving the experience of being a Red Hatter. Throughout her time at Red Hat, she has driven increased focus on manager excellence, performance and development, and career mobility. Jennifer is also a thought leader on the opportunities and challenges created by the convergence of AI and human resources.

Jennifer has been a change leader across the enterprise, playing an active role in multiple major transformational initiatives in previous roles. Before joining Red Hat, Jennifer worked with Cisco Systems most recently as Vice President of the Transformation Office focused on enabling ongoing employee engagement, growth, and business impact. During her time with the company, she also held various leadership roles across the human resources function. Prior to that, Jennifer held several business-aligned human resources roles at Honeywell Corp.’s Aerospace and Performance Materials business units.

Peter Aykens is the chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice. Aykens is responsible for building and leading research teams within the practice to address clients’ key initiatives. Before his current role, he spent over 25 years at Gartner leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product challenges. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in international politics from Aberystwyth University (formerly known as the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth), and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.

Learning and development is a key lever for CHROs to deliver strategic impact, but it can be a challenge to keep pace with workforce needs. As technology innovation impacts both critical skills and learning delivery, CHROs must evaluate the effectiveness of their learning initiatives and foster an environment of learning.

Bala Sathyanarayanan, CHRO at Greif, joins the Talent Angle Podcast to share insights on how HR can build a learning culture. He explains why continuous learning is a necessity in today’s world of work, and shares how HR can drive business strategy by tapping into employees’ desire to grow.

Bala V. Sathyanarayanan serves as the executive vice president and chief human resources officer at Greif. Before Greif, Bala held global leadership roles at Xerox, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Coca-Cola and United Technologies. Bala earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics engineering and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Madras in Chennai, India. He also holds a master’s in human resources management from Rutgers University and graduated from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Peter Aykens is the chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice. Aykens is responsible for building and leading research teams within the practice to address clients’ key initiatives. Before his current role, he spent over 25 years at Gartner leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product challenges. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in international politics from Aberystwyth University (formerly known as the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth), and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.

Burnout can impact employees at all levels, including the very managers and leaders tasked with spotting it on their teams. Daisy Auger-Domínguez, author of “Burnt Out to Lit Up: How to Reignite the Joy of Leading People,” joins the Talent Angle Podcast to discuss how she managed her own burnout while leading a global team through the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on her experience as a chief people officer (CPO), Daisy identifies warning signs of burnout that leaders should watch out for and provides strategies for organizations to mitigate the risks of burnout.

For more Gartner content on addressing burnout, see 

Reduce Employee Fatigue by Promoting Psychological Safety

 and 

Tool: Manager Guide to Identifying and Mitigating Burnout

Daisy Auger-Domínguez is an award-winning global leader, speaker and author who guides organizations to meet the moment and tackle the pressing question: “Is there a better way to work?” With decades of experience driving transformations at the leading edge of people and culture at Disney, Google and Vice Media, Daisy specializes in bridging divides and aligning people, culture, structures and practices to deliver lasting impact. Through her advisory firm, Daisy provides fractional CPO engagements, and speaks and advises startups on sustainable, people-centered solutions. Her books, “Inclusion Revolution: The Essential Guide to Dismantling Racial Inequity in the Workplace” and “Burnt Out to Lit Up: How to Reignite the Joy of Leading People” offer practical strategies for inclusion and leadership. A sought-after speaker, Daisy’s work has been featured in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Inc., MSNBC and TEDx.

Jessie Knight is a vice president of research in the Gartner HR practice. She leads research teams to identify best practices and new opportunities to address HR executives’ most urgent challenges. Her areas of focus include employee experience, organizational culture, change management and the future of work.

Entering 2025, organizations face a host of environmental shifts, such as economic uncertainty, changing workforce demographics and continued AI innovation. As CHROs set their strategies for 2025, they must help their organizations navigate unforeseen challenges by considering the newest developments in the world of work. In this episode of the Talent Angle, Gartner’s Peter Aykens and Emily Rose McRae share nine future of work trends that will shape HR in 2025.

To access the full future of work trends research, see 

9 Future of Work Trends for 2025

Peter Aykens is the chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice. Aykens is responsible for building and leading research teams within the practice to address clients’ key initiatives. Before his current role, he spent over 25 years at Gartner leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product challenges. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in international politics from Aberystwyth University (formerly known as the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth), and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.

Emily Rose McRae advises CHROs and other C-suite executives on the future of work and workforce transformation. Emily Rose’s core focus areas include emerging technologies (such as GenAI) and their impact on work and the workforce, new employment models, evolving employee expectations, flexibility for frontline workers, and the aging workforce. She also helps executives with workforce planning to anticipate and prepare for these changes, creating an enterprisewide future of work strategy, and creating and iterating on hybrid work strategies and the role of the office.

Caroline Walsh is a managing vice president in Gartner’s HR practice. Her teams help HR leaders build and execute talent, diversity, rewards, and learning strategies and programs. Caroline has also led Gartner research teams on commercial banking strategy and leadership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University.

Employees and leaders frequently grapple with the challenge of insufficient time. This scarcity often serves as a legitimate rationale for incomplete tasks and unmet objectives at work, prompting employees to explore various time management strategies and tools.

Oliver Burkeman, acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller "Four Thousand Weeks" and "Meditation for Mortals," offers a contrarian viewpoint on the Talent Angle podcast. Oliver suggests that time management is inherently flawed, and introduces the concept of the "efficiency trap," where increased efficiency paradoxically leads to heightened busyness, undermining the very goal of effective time management. He points out that in recognizing this paradox employees and leaders can be liberated and enabled to more effectively prioritize tasks.

Oliver Burkeman is the New York Times and UK Sunday Times bestselling author of “Four Thousand Weeks,” about embracing limitation and finally getting round to what counts, and of the newly released “Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations” and “Make Time for What Counts.” His other books are “The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking” and “Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done”.