Management Skills

Technical Skills: Technical skills are those skills necessary to accomplish specific tasks within the organization. Assembling a computer, developing a new formula for a frozen food additive, and writing a press release each require technical skills. Hence, these skills are generally associated with the operations employed by the organization in its production processes.

Interpersonal/ Human Skills: Interpersonal skills comprise the manager’s ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate individuals and groups. As we have already noted, managers spend a large portion of their time interacting with others. Thus, it is clearly important that they be able to relate to, and get along with other people.

Conceptual Skills: Conceptual skills refer to the manager’s ability to think in the abstract. A manger with strong conceptual skills is able to see the “big picture.” That is, she or he can see potential or opportunity where others see roadblocks or problems. Managers with strong conceptual skills can see opportunities that others miss.

Diagnostic Skills: Most successful managers also bring diagnostic skills to the organization. Diagnostic skills allow the manager to better understand cause-and-effect relationships and to recognize the optimal solution to problems.

Of course, not every manager has an equal allotment of these four basic skills. Nor are equal allotments critical. For example, the optimal skills mix tends to vary with the manager’s level in the organization. First-line mangers generally need to depend more on their technical and interpersonal skills and less on their conceptual and diagnostic skills. Top managers tend to exhibit the reverse combination—a greater emphasis on conceptual and diagnostic skills and a somewhat lesser dependence on technical and interpersonal skills. Middle managers require a more even distribution of skills.