Vanessa Van Edwards argues that soft skills like reading facial cues, delivering bad news, and commanding a stage are just as powerful as technical expertise. She challenges you to pick one communication skill relevant to your role and deliberately develop it.
This is the most overlooked way to have expert power. People Power One aspect of being an expert is being a master communicator. Expert power can come from knowledge of a skill or a talent or a software. But expert power can also come with soft skills. If you're incredibly good at engaging people, really good at delivering bad news, really good at calming conflicts, really good at speed reading clients faces, really good at closing, really good at sales, really good at negotiations, really good at presenting and pitching, really good on stage, really good at trade shows, those are all soft skills that are highly valuable. So think about Is there a soft skill, a communication skill, a people skill that would be very valuable in your role? Develop that soft skill.
