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These days many vocal business leaders are emphasizing that "the world is flat", that labor moves freely, and the lowest price wins, regardless of whether it's from Atlanta or Argentina. Million dollar purchasing orders are placed online, without so much as speaking to a live person, and when corporate communications have a face at all, it's increasingly that of a model or paid spokesperson.

At at time when posting a job opening online can easily fetch applications from around the world, are people skills even relevant anymore? The answer, as any good manager knows, is a resounding "yes!". In the end, it is still people who are designing the products, the web sites, and the marketing material.

That person deserves the best possible environment to perform his or her job, even if- especially if- that person comes from some other country; immigrants and guest workers are members of your company just like your other employees. They bring their own special strengths and weaknesses, and require close attention and mental coaching to maximize their productivity. Mental coaching is the best way to ensure that anyone from any background is truly part of your team, which is the most important part of human resource management today.

Although mental coaches, such as Dr. John F. Murray, who developed "Mental Performance Index" for American football (and proceeded to help Vincent Spadea overcome a losing streak that was one of the longest in the history of tennis), might be associated with professional sports, outdoor sales-people, or CEO's, the truth is that mental coaching is relevant from the highest to the lowest rung of the corporate ladder.

After all, if someone is worth spending tens of thousands of dollars to hire and train, doesn't it make sense allow the Human Resources department the freedom to bring out the most in him or her? If sports teams can hire mental coaches to increase their performance, so can corporate teams. Even if the labor they're coaching is fresh off the Internet.

So while the world may well be "flat", it is still populated with human beings, and human beings don't perform at their peak potential without training and smart management. Companies are made up of people -- something that is as true during the reign of Bill Gates as it was during that of Rockefeller, the Internet notwithstanding.