What has been the most useful skill in your working life?

[Bigfatfuckingfailure]

What innate talents or acquired skill really stands out for you?

Bags of energy? Team player knack? Great networker? PRINCE2? Excel?

Lakielady it's still very useful although they don't teach it is schools anymore. I'm able to get reports and case notes etc finished far more quickly than my younger colleagues.

Being able to read body language.

Being able to read and manipulate people and situations.

This. 100%

Being able to drive. I have never lived near my workplace (who wants to live in a trading estate?), or within easy public transport reach of work.

Being able to be part of a team, being able to learn how to use new software quickly, being able to talk on the phone to complete strangers with confidence.

I had none of the above skills when I first started work, but I learned them over the years.

I wish I could touch type though. When I was at school only the less academic girls did typing classes (on manual typewriters)

And say Yes to everything and then google the shit out of it!

^

Yes yes.

Not everyone knows this trick though, thank god!

Just wait tho, the millenials are coming....

Your secret is safe. If I had a pound for every time an exec interrupts my train of thought to ask a question and my response is “have you googled it?” I wouldn’t be a millionaire but I’d go on much fancier holidays 😜

Listening (even if the speaker is saying a load of old cobblers).
Knowing that you too, actually speaks a load of old cobblers sometimes.
Being able to learn from your mistakes.
Being able to say 'I don't know, but I'll find out for you'.
Keeping your promises to those that rely on you.
Realising that you are actually, dispensable (and therefore planning for the alternatives).
Trying not to commit awful heinous crimes in the office against those who feck you over and take your hard worked projects on as though they've done them.

Actually, haven't managed the last one quite yet.

Being able to admit that you are wrong sometimes.

@serbska

Agreed! Shit but trying really hard, given loads of support and still not improving is the worst. I always feel awful for them but do find they largely ignore feedback and instructions.

I am dealing with one right now and I really feel for them - their frustration is palpable but they are not delivering on basic stuff and my boss is losing patience (frankly so am I).

Another thing I do which has helped me be relatively successful in my field is ask myself “what’s in it for me?” Instead I’d blindly “being helpful”
This advice came from a man and has meant my contributions are more visible and/or I get tangible benefits (be it pay,bonus,flexible working,extra hols,public praise etc)

I need to learn touch typing!! For me, its listening, observing, being positive and being able to hate people but theyd never know...

Being good with people - not being “nice” but professional, confident and able to speak my mind. Being nice gets you nowhere. You have to be able to actually demonstrate some spine.

Being able to be assertive without being a bully or aggressive.

My skill is being able to look completely calm and in control when actually my mind is running at a million miles an hour - like a duck floating along a pond but their little legs going like mad under the surface.

And the other day one of my team told me she would love to have my leadership style of assertiveness and taking no shit but the team still feeling like I genuinely like them and support them, recognising their weaknesses and using their strengths. But that to me is easy - because I do love my team, but know we need to get stuff done!

It was such a lovely thing to say and made my day.

You sound like my boss Liketeaagain. She is fab.

I've become a lot more resilient and much better at dealing with difficult situations. Also (according to my boss) calm authority and developing a good relationship with other colleagues!

This thread should be given out in maternity wards as a 'how to raise kids' bible. All the great softer skills that are needed to survive

LakieLady re touch typing: I go to a lot of meetings that are not minuted and have to take a lot of meeting notes for my own purposes to refer to later. I type so fast that I can participate fully in a meeting and engage with the attendees and maintain eye contact whilst tapping away very quietly on a laptop, and at the end of a meeting I have almost a transcript. It's incredibly useful.

I also write a lot of reports and papers and if I know what I want to say I can bash them out quite quickly.

The ability to get on with most people.

Communication skills, namely giving critical feedback or voicing your disappointment in an effective, inoffensive manner. Basically how not to be a jerk who'd starts screaming, or making sarcastic, passive-aggressive comments instead. Helped a lot in private life as well.
I certainly think a huge amount of people would benefit immensely from that too.

Learning how to admit I don’t know something, and ask questions.

Definitely this (HCP so could potentially be disastrous if I tried to bullshit).

Also, appearing confident. I am naturally a shy and quiet person, but my colleagues would not believe this. It has stood me well in emergency situations where I have needed to take charge. It has also got me into a management level postI still have imposter syndrome though.

Been a SAHP for years now, but prior to that my biggest skill was that I interview really well. I mean really well. If I got an interview, I got the job

It's a pity that my on-the-job skills never quite lived up to that initial promise. I mean, I was fine. But I don't think I was ever as good at any job as first impressions led employees to believe I would be

This is me too. I don't think I have got every single job I ever went for, but probably 80% of the time. And I don't think I've ever been really good at a job. Although I think the sector I work in is particularly picky and awkward and less than perfectness just isn't allowed.

I also think Excel is a really good skill, one I don't have. I can sort of use it but I find it really annoying!

I would be interested in the opposite question too, what skill do you lack that is the biggest handicap to your career

I think it's the ability to work and work and work at something until I get it. I am efficient and good at doing things quickly, but I am no good at longer term projects. I was good at exams at school, and less good at coursework - so you can see where it comes from. So eg I am better at writing the first draft of something and getting someone else to finesse it, rather than the other way round.

I get bored easily and if eg I suggest an improvement to a process and someone says no, I just think "oh well" and go back to the day job. Whereas a previous boss I worked for (the same one who said Excel was crucial) is like a little terrier, she will keep on at something until the process is changed. I admire that, although another colleague said it borders on bullying at times.

Touch typing learnt between graduating and law school. I bought a book and sat at the old typewriter in my dad's office for 3 days straight. Best thing I ever did.

Patience!

"Communication skills, namely giving critical feedback or voicing your disappointment in an effective, inoffensive manner."

I agree that this is really useful outside of work as well. I have read so many threads on MN from posters who say they get shitty service from shop assistants, health professionals and other people in public life.

This just doesn't happen to me. I don't lead a charmed life, but I know how to be polite and assertive, and how to humour people. I am not in the least bit confrontational, but I can get my point across if it differs from someone elses just by not being rude.

And having a sense of humour helps