August Professional Development Updates

As we head into a new academic year and the summer winds down, it's the perfect time to reflect on what matters most in your work and life. This month, Learning, Development & Engagement (LDE) invites you to consider how you can bring more purpose to your professional journey.

Purpose isn’t just a feel-good concept; it’s a powerful driver of engagement, persistence, and satisfaction. When your work aligns with your values, you're more likely to stay focused, manage stress, and make an impact that feels personally meaningful.

In this digest, you’ll find opportunities to explore what motivates you, evaluate whether your current path reflects your core values, and take intentional steps toward greater alignment. Whether you’re seeking clarity, a deeper sense of direction, or reconnection with your work life you’ll find supportive tools to help you move forward.

Engage with the content of August’s digest below and visit the LDE website for more professional enrichment.

Upcoming Training Opportunities

Working Together to Increase and Spread Empathy (Virtual)
Friday, August 22, 2025 | 9:00 – 11:00 AM
Explore how empathy strengthens collaboration and learn actionable ways to cultivate it across your teams and interactions.

Speaking Up Effectively (Virtual)
Thursday, August 28, 2025 | 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Develop skills to communicate with confidence, navigate difficult conversations, and advocate for yourself respectfully and effectively.

Navigating Change and Transition (In Person)
Monday, August 11, 2025 | 9:00 - 12:00 PM
Develop skills to communicate with confidence, navigate difficult conversations, and advocate for yourself respectfully and effectively.

Working Together to Increase and Spread Empathy (In Person)
Monday, August 18, 2025 | 9:00 – 12:00 AM
Explore how empathy strengthens collaboration and learn actionable ways to cultivate it across your teams and interactions.

Emotional Intelligence: Connecting Through Understanding (In Person)
Thursday, August 21, 2025 | 9:00 - 12:00 PM
Build awareness of your emotions and those of others to strengthen workplace relationships and foster deeper collaboration.

Navigating Change and Transition (In Person)
Wednesday, August 27, 2025 | 9:00 - 12:00 PM
Develop skills to communicate with confidence, navigate difficult conversations, and advocate for yourself respectfully and effectively.

LDE Book Club

This month’s featured LDE Book Club title focuses on how to cultivate success in teams, which includes establishing and maintaining a sense of purpose:

LDE Book Club: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups - In this course, you’ll learn the three key principles behind every great culture—safety, vulnerability, and purpose—from Daniel Coyle, author of The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. You’ll also hear real-life examples for each tip you gain, and learn how to identify the type of culture that’s right for you.

LDE invites you to use our self-paced Workday Learning course and discussion templates to start your own book club. Iff you resonate with the course content, borrow the full book through the LDE Lending Library for further learning!

LinkedIn Learning Courses

We offer Linkedin Learning for all employees! Engage with the journey of exploring your purpose in August with these self-paced courses:

Finding Your Leadership Purpose with Doug Conant: Today’s leaders need to lead in a more intentional, proactive way. They need to craft their leadership intentions into a purpose. In this course, Doug Conant shares his specific framework and approach, garnered through years as a top executive, CEO, and leadership teacher who has led hundreds through this process.
Rediscovering Your Joy, Energy, and Purpose: Ever wondered how to get back that special spark? That feeling of joy, energy, and real purpose? If you've ever felt disconnected, exhausted, or unmotivated, you’re not alone—it’s more common than you think. In this course, instructors Sam Bennett and Amy Ahlers, who have both experienced incredible career success while also struggling to support their well-being, show you how to rediscover your joy, energy, and purpose, starting now, from exactly where you’re at.
Finding Your Purpose at Work: A lot of times, people think purpose is reserved for those who found their noble calling when they were five, and always wanted to be a teacher or a nurse, and the rest of us are left to slug it out in corporate America. That belief is wrong. Join experts Lisa Earle McLeod and Elizabeth McLeod to learn how to find more purpose, happiness, and fulfillment in the job you already have.

To access more LinkedIn Learning courses, go to Workday Learning, select “Search for Available Learning,” and filter by “LinkedIn Learning” under “Content Type.”

Essential Reads from the LDE Lending Library

Discover fresh perspectives on what drives us at work and in life with this curated selection on purpose and motivation:

“Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink: Pink explores how autonomy, mastery, and purpose—not external rewards—fuel lasting motivation. This book is a foundational read for anyone looking to cultivate deeper internal drivers and inspire those around them.
“Making Peace with Your Office Life: End the Battles, Shake the Blues, Get Organized, and Be Happier at Work” by Cindy Glovinsky: Whether you dread coming to work every day or you're just looking for a new way to deal with office issues, this book offers a fresh, liberating view of the office world and practical ways to cope with its day-to-day challenges.
“We Are All Self-Employed: The New Social Contract for Working in a Changed World” by Cliff Hakim: "We are all self-employed" is an empowering belief that you can steer your own direction and influence the quality of your life. You're the boss--a self-leader-- whether you work inside or outside of an organization. You are the decision-maker and ultimately, the onus is on you to imagine, plan, explore, and create the work life that you want.

Visit the virtual LDE Lending Library to check out these books and others!

Explore LDE Next Level

Try out LDE Next Level courses in Workday Learning! These self-paced courses aim to help you unlock your highest potential with guidance on skills, mindset, and career trajectory, and more. For August, we suggest checking courses like:

LDE Next Level: Take Control of Your Future - Career Development: In this course, you’ll learn how to map your career development plan, track progress with your manager, and add value to your role.

Explore all of our other offerings here.

LDE’s Quick Tip of the Month

Purpose doesn’t have to be grand to be meaningful. Try this reflection exercise to bring more intention into your day-to-day:

What impact do I want to have today?
Which of my values will guide that impact?
What’s one small way I can act in alignment with those values?

Even a few minutes of purpose-setting can shift how you move through your day. Let August be a time to realign, recommit, and move forward with clarity.