This week, Skye Learning® is spotlighting Bob Cargill, an award-winning copywriter, social media consultant, content marketer, creative director, teacher, public speaker, contractor, freelancer, and subject matter expert. He is also President of the American Marketing Association of Boston.

Formerly, Cargill has been an adjunct professor at Suffolk University, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and New England College of Business. He has also worked at various companies as Senior Copywriter, Director of Social Media, Creative Director, and more. Skye was thrilled to feature Bob Cargill in the online course Social Media Marketing.

While education, experience, and certification are important for scoring an interview, a new study by the HR software provider iCIMS finds that recruiters place a higher value on soft skills. From an ability to communicate well to being organized, these intangible qualities can be tough to measure, but they affect everything from productivity to collaboration.

People are recognized as leaders for different reasons, but to be a leader, other people must be willing to follow you. Some people find the power to be leaders from their history of successes or their expertise. Others rely more on their personalities. Some demonstrate strong values or an ability to empathize that makes others willing to follow them. The most common bases of leadership are charisma, expertise, authority, success, commitment, values, and empathy.

We are always making a choice, no matter what. Not only is every action you take a choice, but not doing something is also a choice. There is a great quote from Stephen Covey: "Leadership is a choice, not a position."

No matter your role—whether you're a CEO or an intern—you have the choice every day to be a leader. Especially if you're working in a startup, there are countless opportunities to step up and make a 10X impact.

This week, Skye Learning® is excited to spotlight Laurie LaBrie, who has been President of Integrated Human Resources for nearly 23 years. Her company functions as an outsourced human resources department, providing a full breadth of HR services to small and medium-sized organizations across the country.

Serious fans of rock and roll will probably know the answer to this trivia question: When they were just starting out, the Irish band now known as U2 went by what one-word name?

The answer, of course, is "Radio X U2 History", a reference to one of the few technical terms that the fledgling rockers knew back then. The name didn’t last long, but the band certainly did—and within a few short years millions of fans were enjoying the sound of “Feedback” under their new name.

Every bank insured by the FDIC, and every credit union insured by the NCUA, is required to have a written security plan for each of their offices (the institution's main office and any branches it operates). For banks under the FDIC, developing and administering this plan is the responsibility of the bank's security officer, who is designated by the board of directors. The NCUA does not specify who is responsible for developing security plans for credit unions, but the chairperson of the credit union's board of directors must certify compliance with security requirements annually.

Promoting employee well-being is good for business. Research shows that employees are more productive—and organizations are more profitable—when the well-being of employees is a priority. Though wellness programs can seem taxing and expensive to implement, the pay-off is enormous. Employees are the lifeblood of an organization, so it only makes sense that businesses flourish when workers are at their healthiest.

It is estimated that older Americans lose a staggering $2.9 billion a year to an ever-growing array of financial exploitation schemes and scams. They are being targeted by criminals who want to rob them of their hard-earned retirement savings. They are being exploited by strangers over the telephone, through the mail, and online. Worse yet, far too many seniors may also be targeted by family members or by other people in whom they trust.

Automation emerged as a way to complete repetitive, simple tasks using equipment (rather than human labor). By using automation, companies can (1) save money by hiring fewer employees and (2) utilize current workforces to carry out jobs that cannot be replaced by automation, e.g., entail critical thinking skills. Then came artificial intelligence (AI), which is a field of computer science aimed at performing jobs that do require skills like problem solving, planning, learning, and language processing. Examples include virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri.