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If you're like many administrative professionals, you might think improving your hard skills will earn you success on the job, including promotions, salary increases and recognition. And you might think that being the star performer at work when it comes to say computer skills or bilingual ability will secure your job. Maybe so. But you should never write off the power of soft skills to gain you these workplace perks and job security too. Read these three attributes that could help make you the indispensable assistant in your workplace.

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Be The Indispensable Admin Assistant

By Karen Porter

Publisher/Editor, The Effective Admin

You've heard about the indispensable assistant, haven't you? She's the one whose boss raves about her (not at her) both in and out of her presence. He's the assistant who makes the cut last, if at all, during downsizing. It's true that sometimes the budget dictates who goes when times are lean. But when job security is even remotely an issue, there are things you can do, or in some cases things you shouldn't be doing, to ensure that your name won't be first on the list of potential dismissals. And some of these things don't even relate to hard skills, but rather your soft skills. Here are just a few tips from some workplace consultants who work daily with people just like you and your boss that you can use year-round to be the indispensable assistant:

Be positively nice.
Would you be surprised to learn that your attitude on the job might mean more than your skills to some employers? And that attitude might even be the pivotal point in your next promotion? It's true, says Peggy Newfield, founder and president of Atlanta, Georgia, based PERSONAL BEST, INC., who teaches one-day business etiquette seminars on "Power, Presence and Style" and whose clients include Fortune 500 companies.

"In business, a negative attitude with a lot of complaining really doesn't get very many promotions," explained Newfield (www.personalbest.net). "CEO's have shared with me that they'd rather have an employee who has...

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