What are the traits of an effective corporate secretary?

Another in the "newbies" series: The people that wear the corporate secretary's hat are among the most amazing people you could meet. Their wide range of skills are incredible to behold. Yet, they are among the humblest—the nicest—people around.

When you look at the incredibly wide swath of things they do—the unfathomable number of hats they wear—it's surprising they elect to stay in such a difficult job. It takes a special person to be a corporate secretary.

I will be blogging soon enough about the 21 hats that I believe a corporate secretary must wear to be successful in their job—many of them overlap a tad, but there really are 21 hats...