There’s a lot of emphasis on skills these days. What you know. What you’ve shipped. How fast you can deliver. The stack you’ve mastered. The results you can point to on a slide. All of that matters, of course. Competence is table stakes. But it’s rarely the thing people remember most.
What lingers is the feeling.
People may forget the exact details of a project, but they never forget what it felt like to work with you. Whether conversations left them clearer or more confused. Whether meetings drained them or energized them. Whether collaboration felt like a shared climb or a constant battle for air.
That’s where your real reputation is formed.
Some environments feel like growth. You leave a conversation sharper than you entered. You feel challenged, but supported. There’s space to ask questions without fear. Mistakes are addressed, not weaponized. Feedback is honest, but never demeaning. Even on hard days, there’s a sense that you’re moving forward together.
Other environments feel like survival. You’re constantly bracing yourself. Reading between the lines. Protecting your energy. Doing just enough to stay afloat. Every interaction feels like a test, a trap, or a threat. Progress happens, maybe—but at a personal cost that quietly accumulates.
The uncomfortable truth is that two people can deliver the same results and leave wildly different impacts. One can make a team better, stronger, more confident. The other can burn people out while hitting every milestone.
And often, neither realizes the difference they’re creating.
This isn’t about being “nice” all the time or avoiding difficult conversations. Growth is rarely comfortable. Real progress involves tension, disagreement, and accountability. But there’s a world of difference between pressure that sharpens and pressure that suffocates.
When someone works with you, do they feel seen or managed? Do they feel trusted or monitored? Do they feel like their ideas are welcome, or merely tolerated until a decision is already made?
Small moments matter more than we think. How you respond when someone pushes back. How you handle stress when things go wrong. Whether you listen to understand or listen to reply. Whether your presence makes the room feel safer—or smaller.
Over time, those moments add up.
People start to associate your name not just with outcomes, but with an experience. They know whether bringing you into a room will raise the level of thinking or raise everyone’s blood pressure. They know whether working with you will stretch them in a good way or leave them exhausted.
The most impactful professionals aren’t just good at what they do. They make others better at what they do. They create momentum instead of friction. They leave behind confidence, clarity, and a sense of progress—even when the work is hard.
That’s a skill no résumé can fully capture, but everyone can feel.
So maybe the real question isn’t how impressive your work looks from the outside. It’s what kind of environment you create on the inside. Because long after the project ends, that’s what people carry with them.
And that might be your greatest skill of all.
Kenrick Vaz 