Management Skills

MANAGEMENT SKILLS

by Antonio C. Antonio

November 25, 2013

More often, we have a tendency to brand and classify managers for the type of skills they have.  More often too, we classify managerial skills as “must have”, “may have”, or even “not necessarily have.”  Managerial skills come in different forms and degrees… technical, conceptual, human and design skills.  Most of us will agree that a manager/leader should possess all four skills even when this skill set may be of varying degrees…. And some will say all four should be on the same (high) degree.  But all will agree that a manager/leader must at least have all four.

There really is no perfect combination of managerial skills.  At the end of the day, what would really matter is results and performance.  In business, production seems to be the main objective… but production at the least possible cost (therefore, profitability) matters most.  In organizations, the accomplishment of the goals and objectives of the group, the reason for the organization’s meaningful existence, defines the brand of management a particular leader/manager has.

Here are some relevant questions and my answers on the subject of management skills:

1.  What management skill (technical, conceptual, human and design) do you think can be learned from the textbook or in the classroom and what can be learned only through experience?

All four skills could be learned from textbooks and the classroom… at least in the theoretical framework sense.  The actual validation of these theories is done in actual practice.  Because of its interactive nature, people skills can also be acquired in school because of group work and the dynamics that goes with it plus the fact that students interact in person almost daily.  Human/People skills should, however, be developed in actual work conditions especially when the concepts of management are clear in our minds.

 2.  What type of personality should a manager possess?  Can anybody be trained or able to learn to become an effective and efficient manager, or is a manager position suited only for a few with a certain personality?

People normally display two types of personality: Type A (aggressive, pro-active, inquisitive, result-oriented, have good communications skill, welcomes challenges, etc.) and Type B (passive, reactive, easy-going, dislikes responsibility, etc.).  Unfortunately, the general accepted norm is Type B and people while Type A personalities often find themselves in managerial and leadership positions.  Personality traits belonging to Type A are the characteristics akin to managers.  Conceptual skill is another ability needed in management which allows the manager to see the "whole picture" (Heinz, 1999 and Quinn, 2010) and not just the particular task at hand

 3.  From the four management skills above, which do you think is the most important and why?

Not to say that one is more important than the others but Conceptual Skills seems to be the important one considering its broad scope.  The ability to visualize the entire picture is exactly what a manager should have before he could involve himself in micro-management.

Upland organizational activities are no different from those in the lowlands.  It probably is more challenging in the uplands considering the lower level of educational attainment and learnedness that is prevalent among its inhabitants.  Socio-cultural traditions and barriers will also be largely considered together with excellent inter-personal skills to back-up management skills.

Just my little thoughts…

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