Cognitive Skills for VA's: Resourcefulness

Being resourceful is a skill which can be learned and mastered through learning such as the LinkedIn course Developing Resourcefulness by Todd Dewett and by utilizing your creative problem-solving skills. As Dewett explains, being resourceful means being able to create useful solutions to challenging situations (Dewett, 2019, 0:14). If you can come up with unique and practical solutions to tough situations, you are demonstrating resourcefulness (Dewett, 2019, 0:26). One of the most important skills an aspiring virtual assistant can have is to be resourceful. As Ebony Belhumeur from the Leader Assistant Podcast describes being a virtual assistant to that of waitressing and having to work multiple tables with different demands (Burrows, 2020, 10:47). A virtual assistant must be able to be resourceful to meet the many and often competing demands the role requires as well as the variety of tasks. In my interview with VA and entrepreneur Sarah, founder of Canadian Virtual Assistant Professionals spoke to this when saying that “thinking outside of the box” was one of her main duties and responsibilities (S. Luth, personal communication, February 18, 2022).

To learn how to improve your resourcefulness skills, Indeed offers three steps for improving this skill:

1. Be receptive to potential solutions, improvements, or ideas to boost creativity and being receptive to constructive criticism.

2. Learn from others, take initiative, and ask colleagues for feedback or advice. Observe how experienced employees display skills and evaluate how others work in relation to you. This can help you identify what you can learn from them, and what they can learn from you.

3. Analyze your performance and assess how you can develop to improve. (Indeed, 2021, How to Improve resourcefulness skills section, para.1-3).

In my own experience I list resourcefulness as one of my top skills and have often been called resourceful in professional settings and I have mastered this skill by using the same steps outlined by indeed. By being open, creative, learning, assessing, and striving to improve, I have resourcefulness and I bring that skill to the work setting. By following the above advice from experts, professionals, and the three steps outlined can an aspiring virtual assistant learn to be and improve their resourcefulness skills.