Survive or Thrive: Five Types of Skills Critical for Good Management
By Murray Johannsen
In
the 50s, Katz wrote a classic article in the Harvard
Business Review titled, "The Skills of the
Administrator." Katz divided required good management skills into
three general areas: human relations, technical, and
conceptual.
This article builds on that foundation and adds two moreto better account for managment skills need during an era of globilization and rapid change.
These five domains for good management are:
| Katz |
Core Five |
| Human Realtions |
Leadership |
| Technical |
Technical |
| Conceptual |
Strategy & Tactics |
| |
Management |
| |
Self-Mastery |
Success usually comes to those who are
too busy to be looking for it. — Henry
David Thoreau
My sister lived in Burma and was having some wiring installed by a native electrician. Again and again he would come to her for instructions, and finally, in exasperation, she said, "You know what I want done. Why don't you use your common sense and do it?" He made a grave bow and said, "Madam, common sense is a rare gift of God. I have only a technical education."
Dr. Carl Compton —The Public Speaker's Treasure Chest
Most people get their first job based on their technical skills (unless
one happens to be the daughter of the owner, but that is another story).
These jobs include traditional jobs such as software programmer,
engineer, hair dresser and machinist; to the more exotic ones such as
web master, systems integrator and beauty consultant. In fact, the
U.S. Labor Department's Dictionary of Occupational Job Titles contains
over 28,000 different technical skills.
Technical
skills does not imply high technology since janitors,
telephone operators, and secretaries are included in
this area. It may require a degree or just on-the-job
training. For example, a story is told about a young
man, who was hired to work at a supermarket.
He reported
for his first day of work and the store manager greeted
him with a warm handshake and a smile, gave him a broom
and said, "Your first job will be to sweep out the
store." "But I'm a college graduate." the
young man replied indignantly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I
didn't know that," said the manager. "Here,
give me the broom, I'll show you how."
Not
all technical skills are equally in demand. One of the
prime mistakes high school grads and college students
make is not understanding the value society places on
different technical skills. Some appreciate in value
(programmers), while others are in decline (telephone
operators and secretaries).
Technical
skills can also become obsolete. As any one who is in
the software area can attest, their knowledge has a limited
shelf life. This is an increasing problem for many companies.
Its like needing a workforce running with the computing
power of a calculator when one needs a Pentium microprocessor.
Just having a sound set of technical skills is not enough
for those who wish to move up in the organization—they
must also develop other types of management skills.
Today’s business graduates have an abundance of technical knowledge. They can do linear programming, calculate a discounted rate of return, develop a sophisticated marketing plan, and crunch numbers on a computer spreadsheet. They’re technically solid, but most lack the interpersonal and social skills necessary to lead people.
From Robbins, S. (1989). Training In Interpersonal Skills
 |
The Domain of Leadership
"You manage things. You lead people." — Grace Hopper, USN, Rear Admiral
Assssessing Leadership |
My father had a simple test that helps me measure my own leadership quotient: When you are out of the office he once asked me, does you staff carry on remarkable well without you?
Martha Peak, Group Editor, AMA Magazines, Management Review, October 1992
In a 2005 study called, Why New Hires Fail,
it was pointed
out that it's the human
relations skills that gets one
fired. Top
failure areas included: Coachability (26%): Emotional
Intelligence (23%): Motivation (17%):
and Temperament (15%). Lack of technical skills accounted
for 11% of failed new hires.
One
of the greatest source of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction with management
is the quality of the relationship an employee has with
their boss. If their manager lacks leadership skills,
morale goes into the dumpster and turnover sky rockets.
It
has long been known that while top-notch technical skills
allow one to be considered for the next level of the management chain, it's your
people skills that allow you to keep the job. Too often,
a technical expert gets promoted and then can't get along
with others—creating a lose-lose situation for
the company and that individual.
Management rarely want to spend hard dollars since
these are considered to be “soft” skills.Top management’s
failure to understand the importance of developing leadership
and social skills in the management ranks is both penny
wise and pound foolish.
 |
Business Management Domain # 3: Strategy and Tactics
Assessing Strategy and Tactics |
Looking for differences between the more productive and less productive organizations, we found that the most striking difference is the number of people who are involved and feel responsible for solving problems.
Michael McTague, Management and training consultant, Personnel Journal, March 1986
For
those that see themselves in the executive ranks or desire
to own their own business, another category of mangement skills
must be developed. Conceptual skills deal with
the ability to use mental heuristics and understand paradigms
to solve problems and make decisions. Unfortunately,
many individuals lack the ability to successfully solve
complex problems.
When
the quality movement begin to blossom in America during
the 80s, one of the foundation principles taught to employees
were the Seven Tools of Quality. These were really very
simple techniques such as flow charting and Pareto analysis.
When used routinely throughout the organization, this
basic tool set was enough to allow companies like GE,
Motorola, Toyota and Sony to develop a reputation for
high quality that resulted in better profit margins.
At
the managment level, these skills come into
play in a different way. Executives must deal with
a rapidly changing environment fraught with risk and
uncertainty. They must develop marketing, sales and competitive
strategies that are better than their competitors if
they hope to get in front of the rest of the pack.
An
even more subtle strategy and tactics skill involves developing
the ability to find new business opportunities. There’s
an old saying that goes, “No opportunity is ever
wasted. If you miss it, one of your competitors will
find it for you.”
For
example, while many managers consider Microsoft’s
Bill Gates to be a techno geek, he is much more than
that. He obviously has a vast knowledge of computer programming
or Windows would not have evolved. But it would have
only been one operating system among many if he lacked
the ability to think strategically.
The most dominant executive decision type, will be decisions under uncertainty.
Henry Tosi and Stephen Carroll
Management, John Wiley & Sons, 1976
 |
Skills Domain 4: Management
Assessing The Management Domain |
[Referring to his managerial counterparts in local government:] How would you like to run a business where your top management can change every two years, your revenue can depend on the whims and fancies of state and national government, and you have to convince more than half a million people that you can collect garbage, control crime, enhance safety, and brighten the future better than anyone else?
Anonymous executive, Chief Executive, Winter 1982-1983
Despite the fact that many individuals inside organizations consider themselves to be part of managment, there is a surprising amount of confusion on exactly what the term "management" means. If you accept the wordnet definition from the Princeton.edu site, it is "the act of managing something." Another better definition that captures the essence of management goes this way, "Managment is the efficient allocation of scarce resources to accomplish an organizational goal."
But whatever definition you choose, good management skills are critical to good government and good business.
 |
Skills Domain 5: Self-Mastery
A competitive world has two possibilities for you. You can lose. Or, if you want to win, you can change. Lester Thurow, Dean, Sloan School of Management, M.I.T., 60 Minutes, February 7, 1988
Assessing Self-Mastery |
The easiest person to deceive is one's own self.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1803-1873, English novelist and playwright
If you think the definition of management is confusing, self-mastery is even more difficult to nail down. But it is without doubt the most important skill to develop. When one is in power, even small faults become noticed, magnified, and discussed by underlings. Impatience as an engineer is barely noticed, but in the vice-president of engineering, it's a major problem.
This was driven home in a recent book by Marshall Goldsmith called, What Got You Here, Wont' Get You There. In this book in which he documented twenty-one major faults of the CEO's he has worked with as a result of a number of years of executive coaching. These include, failing to give recognition, making excuses, and not listening.
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th American President
Conclusion
Typically,
what goes unseen gets neglected. There
is an old story from the Middle East that illustrates
this point.
One day a neighbor happens to walk by and
see his friend Nasrudin looking for something so he asks, "Nasrudin,
what have you lost?" "My key," said Nasrudin. "Exactly
where did you drop the key?" “In my house." "Then
why are you looking here for your key?" "There
is more light here than in my house."
Moral of the Story: It's where you are not looking that you will find the key to what you are looking for.
For
individuals and organizations alike to grow, they must invest in the good management skills
required to prosper. It's the combination of the skills in these five domains: technical, leadership, management, self-mastery and strategy and tactics that make all the difference between success and failure.
Discover how to assess these skills. Take action now.
Striving
for success without hard work is like trying to harvest
where you haven't planted.
David
Bly
References:
Katz, xxx
