No matter who you talk to or what you read, at the heart of every major issue lies the same problem. As the prison warden in Cool Hand Luke said so well, " What we've got here is ... failure to communicate."

The modern marketplace demands that people possess a wide range of skills. But what core qualities are truly essential to career advancement, regardless of industry or job?

It's simple, influence matters. It matters in your job and your private life. In fact, influence is part of every human interaction. Just think of parents influencing their children, political or religious leaders influencing their followers, CEOs influencing employees, sales people influencing...

One American military leader, already having lost most of his many battles, persisted in driving his troops to attack in situations that everyone else regarded as lost causes. A leader destined to go down in history as a failure? Hardly. It was George Washington.

I was speechless. Untypically so.

During a continuing ed course when I was an equity analyst at Merrill Lynch, the instructor observed, “You’re really good at math.”

MOOCs, massive open online courses, have gained tremendous popularity in the last year and it looks like they are on track to continue along that path for the foreseeable future. These types of courses can be a great way for job seekers to enhance existing skills or learn new skills during the job...