You're expected to be very flexible in your daily managing efforts — flexible in dealing with your diverse employees and flexible in your planning, based on the multiple factors associated with the faster-than-fast business realities of the present that we've just discussed. Flexible in dealing with people? You'd better believe it.

We've confirmed time and again on these pages that employees laboring in today's corporate environs vote with their feet when their work wants and needs aren't addressed. That is, they leave their jobs for greener pastures and more fulfilling places to draw paychecks.

And courtesy of this swishing and swirling labor pool, the companies that offer the most stimulating work environments — with the greatest opportunities for career advancement and other appetizing carrots — will come out on top. The companies with coaches at the helm are best poised to survive and thrive by attracting the best and the brightest.