Management Skills

Skills is what separates good managers from others. Like a player in any game, the more skilful a manager is, the greater are his chances of success. Most scholars and writers agree that for effective  management the primary skills are technical, interpersonal, conceptual and diagnostic.

a) Technical Skills

They are the skills needed to perform specialized tasks. They enable one to use the tools, procedures or techniques of a specialized field. These skills are gained through formal training. These skills are specially important for Firstline managers as they are the ones in the real operations of the firm.

b) Interpersonal (Human Skills)

These are the skills needed to enable one to work with, understand and motivate others, either as individuals or as groups. They include the ability to understand someone else's position, to present ones own position in a reasonable, amicable manner. The better a manager's human skills are, the more effective he/she is likely to be, since management is basically getting work done through people.

c) Conceptual Skills

These relate to the managers mental ability to coordinate and integrate all the organization's interests  and activities i.e. to be able to think in the abstract, to see relationships between forces that others cannot see and to take a global perspective of the organization and its environment. For example if a manager recognises an opportunity that others have not and then successfully exploits that opportunity he is drawing on conceptual skills. Conceptual skills are most important for top  managers who must look for opportunities to be exploited by the organization.

d) Diagnostic Skills

The skills used to define and understand situations and events. They are mainly directed at problem solving. For example, if a manager notices there is too much waste in production, the first step is to define the problem, next determine what is causing the problem and third identify way(s) of solving the problem.


Note:
Although all the skills are essential for effective management, their relative importance depends on the level of each manager.
Technical skills are more important at the lower levels of management and they get less important as you climb up the managerial ladder.

While human skills are needed at all levels of management, they are probably most important at the supervisory level where manager—subordinate interactions are more frequent.Conceptual skills are most important at the top management level where the managers are involved in broad issues concerning the whole organization.