The Leadership Skills Approach
by Ken Valenzuela, BeALeader.Net's Chief Editor
The second approach in the Leadership studies is the Leadership SKILLS APPROACH. While the Traits Approach took into account the personality of the leader, the Leadership skills approach takes into account the knowledge and abilities that the leader has. Underlying is then, the notion that a leader can be made. A leader can learn certain skills and turn himself into a remarkable one.
Although different in the focus, the Traits Approach and the skills approach, both center their attention in the leader, as its main purpose.
Leadership studies based on Skills
The first one is a model proposed by Robert Katz in 1955. The second approach is proposed by Michael Mumford and colleagues in the year 2000. You can think of them as complimentary to each other, since they offer different views on leadership from the skills point of view.
Robert Katz’s Three-Skill Approach
In this model proposed in his Harvard Bussiness article from 1955, Katz recognizes three different abilities that a leader should have. These are:
TECHNICAL SKILLS
A technical skill is to have knowledge and be competent and proficient in a specific work or activity. For example, to use excel and know how to implement macros is an advanced technical skill. To drive a 300 Ton truck is also an advanced technical skill. Just like these there are thousands of examples of technical skills in every organization.
HUMAN SKILLS
CONCEPTUAL SKILLS
A conceptual skill is one that enables us to understand and better decide the actions and measures that has to be taken in a particular field of work.
Based on his observations Katz stated that the level of importance of each set of skills (technical, human and conceptual) was directly correlated with the level that the person has in the organization. The next figure displays this relationship.
The higher someone was in the organisation, the less technical skills were required to fill the position, in the same manner more conceptual skills are required. On the other hand, the lower the position in the organisation more technical skills and less conceptual skills were required. A very interesting observation from the diagram is that human skills are always required no matter the level or the position in the organisation.