So I put my first official blog out there, and as soon as I hit publish, I felt a bit of a gnawing sensation.  I still hold that what makes anyone special and unique in the lives of others (professional or otherwise) is defined by the relationship they share.

I think in making that point, I may have down-played the importance of personal qualities and skills.  I gave them credence by saying that good ones are cost of entry.  But I do think there are skills and qualities that make some people better than others at what they do.

How one thinks, is a critical one. How far do you push your thinking and the thinking of those around you? What is your original-thought to party-line ratio? How good are you at connecting dots, and seeing patterns others may not see? How good are you at spotting the simple answers that are sometimes right in front of you? How precise are you at framing issues? How clear are you in articulating your thoughts and synthesizing the thinking around you? How willing are you to ask hard questions, and call people out? There are few out there that do these things exceptionally well; resulting in issues addressed in powerful and transformative ways. This is in fact unique and that can demonstrate a significant difference vis-a-vis others.

The best way to discover when someone possesses these skills is to see it in action. The best way to advertise these skills is to continue to demonstrate them brilliantly and let word of mouth and endorsements do the rest.

I suppose one could “give examples”.  But my hope is that when you speak to someone who possesses these skills, you are smart enough to recognize them.

Going back to the original post, “Why Me?”, what I would stress is, what draws us to a particular person is their unique set of skills and qualities, combined with their approach to life and thought processes.  And while that may be the impetus for the choice, what makes them special in the end still lies in the relationships that are formed.