February 3, 2017: Friday news roundup

If it’s Friday, it’s must be news time. Let’s do this.

Let’s stop calling them ‘soft skills’
It’s no secret we’re big Seth Godin fans here and love having him as an instructor in the Udemy marketplace (and he was a great keynote at our first Udemy LIVE last year). We completely agree with what he lays out in this Medium article and have said it before ourselves: calling them “soft” skills does a disservice to these highly crucial areas of competency. Seth suggests it makes more sense to call them “real skills.” Read on for Seth’s “encyclopedia of real skills.”

It’s gonna get a whole lot worse, a whole lot faster. Unless…
Laszlo Bock, Google’s former SVP of People Operations and author of “Work Rules,” is another influencer we follow around here. This is his take on what the future holds as automation and technology continue to transform the world of work while, at the same time, our education system stagnates.

Ten simple habits that will get you promoted
Really great tips in this column, which responds to a reader who just started a job with “a true career path” and asks what he should be doing now to set himself up for advancement later. Even if you’re not gunning for a promotion, you’d be smart to heed columnist Liz Ryan’s advice.

Millennials don’t need special treatment at work
Udemy’s VP of People, Lisa Haugh, weighs in on the issue plaguing many company leaders: what to do about those confounding millennials??? They’re so entitled; they’re so impatient! Lisa dismisses this hand-wringing as so much misdirected energy. Instead, she extols the virtues of building a culture where everyone feels like they belong and has equal opportunities to learn and succeed.

Authentic relationships as the new management paradigm
We’ll wrap it up with the latest from the Udemy for Business blog, where Claudia Fry, VP of People at FiveStar, on how her company identifies those with leadership potential and equips its new generation of managers to be effective in their roles.