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?

Adapting to others rather than making them adapt to you.

I'm a PA, people don't like change, so you 'learn them' appear to be doing things their way, all the time making little improvements here & there without them even noticing!

I have loads of official qualifications and proper professional stuff but it the "skills"above which have proved most useful :)

Observation

Being friendly and chatty. I've had to work on this as it doesn't come naturally to me, but apparently I'm good at it!
Baking. A cake or a home-made pie is always a bonus/ice breaker/gets your colleagues on board!

In my old job, I took pride in the fact that my team acknowledged that I pushed them towards their own goals, not ones that would benefit me. Although on the whole their goals benefited me in the long run. But I wanted them to succeed more than anything.

Being able to speak to people from any walk of life. And treating everybody with respect.

Under promising and over delivering.

Managing realistic expectations.

Mastering sage!

Typing 90 wpm.

Not being precious- of something needs to be done, I’ll happily do it. I’m very senior, manage a large team, and happily get stuck in.

I speak up if I don’t know what acronyms stand for. I work on a huge organisation and people will spend an entire meeting nodding along about the state of the WENUS without anyone actually asking what the fuck that means.

I’m a good negotiator, and can maintain relationships throughout. I’ll walk away from difficult situations, still able to have a coffee with the person I’ve been up against.

Being resourceful and efficient

I haven't read the whole thread apologies if I'm repeating what people have already said...

• 'can do attitude' is ideal, doesn't matter if you can't do it, the enthusiasm or willingness to do more gets you further

• willing to acknowledge those above you have reason to be there, ok sometimes they won't but the reason most organisations work is people accepting the structure. You'll appreciate it when you move up.

-adaptability

-networking. Start small, just making friends at work is part of networking, but you build on that.

• be NICE. All people want is to be treated nicely.

• and loads and loads and loads of hard work.

Just giving a shit. Wanting to do a good job and putting in the effort. It's amazing what a difference that actually makes.

Interpersonal skills. Being able to communicate effectively and work collaboratively with others. Even when I can't stand someone, nobody would ever know.

Ability to see the bigger picture and understand the detail. So many people can only do one or the other. I'm a quick learner, too, and can easily get my head around new ideas.

Being adaptable, and seeing the opportunities that come with change.

Basic respect for other people - colleagues, customers, suppliers etc. Just remembering that everyone is human and treating them as I would want to be treated. That goes a long way.

Another touch typist - I used to test at around 110wpm in my long ago PA days. I’m still fast.

Speed reading

Having a good short term memory

Being nice to everyone

And yes, Excel. I love Excel. Sometimes I dream about pivot tables.

I’m loving this thread!

Mine is be generous as possible with your ideas but try not to react when you spot your ideas being recycled back to you as their ideas.

Polite and easy breezy no problem attitude wherever possible. Bosses just want you to make them look good and not to have to worry about what you are doing. If you can crack that you’re golden.

Fast learner

Knowing that if you say anything with enough authority, others will normally do what you suggest

Fast and concise decision making- I can generally run through pros and cons quickly in my head, and will reach a decision. Once you've gone with a decision, don't second guess it, just crack on and do it. It might be the wrong decision, but it's generally better than doing nothing through indecision.

Ask for your worth, plus a bit more. You may get it, and you'll probably be respected for it.

Being able to keep a straight face when talking to management.

Speed reading!

Working as a chef taught me real discipline for myself which I struggled with. The whole 'just get it done and don't complain' now really supports me in all aspects of life, work, house work, horrible jobs like sticking my head into bins to clean properly taught me lots of good behaviors and not to be a drama queen

Having the confidence to ask for help and to say if I don’t understand something. It was something I struggled with when I was younger, but as I have grown in confident I realise that it doesn’t diminish me to admit that I sometimes don’t know something. It is also amazing how many other people admit that they don’t understand something when you make it acceptable to ask!

Touch typing since the demise of typing support

Being able to doggedly get to the bottom of a technical problem. (sometimes with the help of a spreadsheet)

Technical drawing, so many engineers cannot sketch any more.

Confidence
Quick learner
Reliable
Decisive
Ability to get people to warm to me quickly

Now I work in a call centre. Great short term memory. Really fast at typing and good at using computers.

Being able to understand things very quickly, and then being able to extrapolate that into plans of action.

Persistence, confidence, and not being scared of taking a risk or two to achieve something big.

I am known at work for being very cool and level headed. Actually it's because I secretly don't give a fuck so never get stressed.

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....

Oh god nigel with the brie, you're me!

I just don't care that much. Luckily it's perceived as cool, calm collectedness.

Learning to listen.