People love having me around

Ask people to describe a colleague they were glad to see arrive and you rarely get anything about talent.

You get: she noticed when you were struggling and did not make a thing of it. He would tell you when you had got it wrong, quietly, before anyone else saw. She knew everybody's tea and never once mentioned it.

Being easy to be around is a real skill and an unglamorous one. It shows up in no assessment anywhere, and it is the first thing people name when somebody leaves.

Most of it is just attention pointed outwards for a few seconds at a time.