Robots can do many things better. But they lack soft skills. Leadership skills, communication, collaboration and skills that are role specific are the most important ones to develop among the employees. That has to be where talent development professionals and people managers wish to focus. Leaders must make sure that they invest in strengthening the leadership development function in the organization. Their future competitiveness depends on how current and skilled this team is.In my experience as a consultant, I have often found the L&D teams missing on the skills that would make them relevant. Most L&D teams still ask the business to choose which training program they wish to attend. That model of customer orientation may work in a restaurant, but not for skill building. Building the relevant skills can move the L&D teams from being transactional to being strategic. The leaders must invest in making the L&D world class.

Governments, criminals, entrepreneurs, movie stars, singers and even the President of Ecuador are guilty of buying fake followers on social media accounts (YouTube, SoundCloud, Instagram etc). If you are a musician, your musical track could notch up millions of likes on Sound Cloud or get you a roaring set of followers on YouTube. And as a YouTube star you could earn a living. Because the difference between a million views and ten million views is a lot of money that you could make. That is what is driving people to buy followers.

I am always inspired by people who reinvent themselves. Those who chase their dreams. Those who are not afraid to face a temporary period of discomfort before they emerge in a new avatar. To reinvent oneself, one has to break the mould and step out of the zone of comfort and familiarity.