12 Essential Skills - Top 3 ?

Hi Dave Hendricken,
I was looking at the contents. I think normally people pursuing a technical career only give importance to technical skills and ignore the rest. So, its great to see that the book has concentrated on the others and you have come out with the complete list of non-technical skills as well that are required. I hop your experiences included as advices in this book should help lots of folks.
And regarding the question, can you suggest the top 3 or 5 most important/essential skills from the list ? I understand that if only 3 or 5 are required, your book would have discussed only those. But, just in case, if you want to sort the list in order, can you let us know which ones you would rate high?

Thanks,

My selection for the top 3 skills is based on those who wish to become architects is (these are typically things that hold people back):
#1 Gracious Behavior: focus on being gracious in all circumstances (even when you really do not want to be, or sometimes the comments we think are funny - really aren't that funny to the person at the other end)
#2 Communication/Context Switching:
- knowing the audience you are speaking to,
- knowing the level of details they need in the areas the need (their context, not yours)
- having a sense of what the real question is and the background that may be underneath the surface of the question is
#3 Leadership:
- learning how to establish trust
- learning how to influence
- knowing when to rescue

I really wanted to give more than 3.

I believe in general these are the first areas to focus on.

Although, it tends to be more about where each person is individually.

Thank you for the question!

I like the "knowing the audience you are speaking to".

Also, from my experience, I have seen very technically talented people are let go of or overlooked for potential promotion due to lack of the 3 skills you had pointed out.

Good technical skills are of no use if they are not complemented with good soft skills. The soft skills take a lot longer to really master.

Hi Dave, thanks for the response with the top 3 of your choice.