Power Skills: The Supercharged Soft Skills That Elevate Your Effectiveness

The term 'Power Skills' is something I'm noticing popping up more and more in articles, posts and promoted conferences and events on LinkedIn.

And I am all for it because it's a term that I absolutely LOVE.

Power skills are what I describe as your supercharged 'soft' skills. I first started talking about in 2019 on my podcast Assist With Impact and in the speaking, training and coaching work I deliver for Administrative Professionals.

Having observed and studied what differentiated proactive and effective assistants from those who operated reactively and demonstrated less invitiative it became clear to me that there were a set of specific competencies and capabilities that propelled these Executive Assistants, Personal Assistants, Administrative Assistants and other administrators.

I released a series of podcast episodes at that time exploring some of the key Power Skills and sharing practical and tactical ways that assistants could add them to their toolkit.

As far as I'm aware I was the pioneer in this new territory.

Let me describe why they're anything but 'soft' skills (a term I despise by the way!).

Many of the assistants I've encountered struggle at times to speak up for themselves. This may be in the pursuit of completing a deliverable on behalf of their managers or the executive/s they support. It can also be in navigating interpersonal relationships when they are required to assert themselves.

To be successful and show up as what I term a Linchpin Assistant they need to hone the Power Skill I call 'Mastering Confident Communication'. It requires confidence and competence in a host of individual (anything but) soft skills. Let me list them:

•Verbal communication

•Non-verbal communication

•Active listening

•Assertiveness

•Questioning

•Persuasion

•Emotional Intelligence

•Adaptability

•Creativity

•Curiosity

•Situational awareness

•Mental strength

•Problem-solving

You might have others you'd like to add. Feel free to tell me in the comments.

The bottom line is that this Power Skill packs quite the proverbial punch and immediately elevates the effectiveness and impact of assistants when they focus on building strength in it.

The transformative results I see speak for themself. Possessing these Power Skills enables assistants to thrive, not just survive in their role and delivers a tangible result for their organisation as well.

As I said earlier, I am so delighted to see this term gaining traction. But I'm also delighted that I pioneered this concept for administrative professionals and have built a reputation as the go-to trainer in this area of expertise.

I approach to Power Skills is unique because I look at these competencies through the lens of you as an assistant. How you apply these skills is different because of the nature of your role. As someone that's been an Executive Assistant and is now a certified coach and trainer I'm uniquely qualified to meet you where you are!

If you'd like to learn more about what I do and how I do it in terms of Power Skill training for you, your team or the admin cohort in your company, I'd love to hear from you.