Skill Approach in Leadership

What is Skill approach?

A Leader has certain abilities and knowledge which can be developed to accomplish a set of goals and objectives. “Skills and ability can be learned and developed” (Northhouse, 2010)

There are two influential models; one is three skill approach of Katz, 1955 and the skill model of Mumford etal., 2000.

1) Three Skills Approach (Katz, 1955)

There are three types of Skills a leader should have Technical, Human and Conceptual skill. But it changes based on the level of management.

1.1 Technical Skill

It is the knowledge and ability in a particular area of work. Technical skills are more important in supervisory and middle management level but less important in top Management.

1.2 Human Skill

It is the ability to work with people. Effective communication, attention to the relationship with others, working together and motivating are some of the human skills needed in an organization. These skills are required in all three levels in Management.

1.3 Conceptual Skill

It is the ability of creative ideas and concepts to work with and understand complicated ideas. The conceptual skills help an organization to create the vision and implement it creatively. This skill is more important in Top and Middle management, less important for Supervisory Management.

2) Skill Model (Mumford etal., 2000)

This model has five components which are Individual Attributes, Competencies, Leadership Outcomes, Career Experience and Environmental Influence.

2.1 Individual Attributes

It includes four components

• General Cognitive ability - Intelligence and common sense
• Crystallized cognitive ability - Specialized knowledge or acquired knowledge through learning and experience
• Motivation
• Personality

2.2 Competencies

It includes three components

• Problem Solving Skills – The ability to solve a problem It can be done by understanding the problem, defining the problem, gathering information regarding the problem, formulating and generating a plan to solve the problem
• Social Judgment – The capability to understand others perspective and interact with people.
• Knowledge – The accumulation of Information

2.3 Leadership outcomes

Effective problem solving and performance are the outcomes of Leadership.

• Effective Problem Solving – It involves providing solutions that are unique, High quality and logical. If the leader has advanced  level of competency will be a more effective problem solver
• Performance – It refers the job performance. Good performance leads to better evaluation.

2.4 Career Experience

Career experience effect both Individual attributes and Competencies. The knowledge acquired through career experience can help to solve problems or interact with people. It can change the leaders’ personality.

2.5 Environmental Influence

Environmental influence are the factors lies down outside the Attributes, Competencies and experience of a leader. It is out of control of the leader. There are two types of Environmental influence Internal (for example Technology, Competency of employees, poor communication skills and etc.) and External ( for example political, social, economic and natural disasters)

Strengths in skill approach

• Skills make leadership available to everyone. Everyone has skills if they can develop it they can use it. (Northhouse, 2016)
• It is the first approach to conceptualize and create a structure of the process of leadership around skills (Northhouse, 2016)
• Provides an expensive of leadership that incorporates with a wide variety of components (eg: Problem-solving skills, social judgement skills, etc.) (Northhouse, 2016)
• Provides a structure consistent with leadership education programs. (Northhouse, 2016)

Critics in skill approach

• The breadth of the skills approach appears to extend beyond the boundaries of leadership, making it more general/ less precise. (Northhouse, 2016)(Don’t really specify how to solve problems in certain situations)
• Week in predictive value; does not explain how skills lead to effective leadership performance. (Northhouse, 2016)
• Skills model includes individual attributes that are trait-like such as cognitive ability, motivation and personality. (Northhouse, 2016)

Bibliography

Northhouse, P. G., 2010. Leadership Theory and Practice. 5 ed. s.l.:SAGE.

Northhouse, P. G., 2016. Leadership Theory and Practice. 7 ed. s.l.:SAGE.

Leadership and Management

What is Leadership?

We can’t say all the successful people are leaders. You can’t be a leader because you are rich and popular. The person who becomes popular overnight can’t be a leader. All politicians can’t be a leader because they are selected by peoples vote. All the entrepreneurs can’t be leaders since they are money makers. Leaders are more than that.

Leaders are the people who inspire, motivate and influence others or a group of people to engage for a purpose or vision that would define them. The leaders are the people thing differently from above others and change things. They are ready to take challenges and take the risk to meet their purpose even when others demotivate them.

“I learned the courage is not an absence of fear, but the triumph over it, the brave man is not who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”. Quotes of Nelson Mandela

“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out”. Quotes of Steve Jobs

“Great leaders don’t sacrifice the people to save the numbers they sacrifice the numbers to save the people”. Quotes of Simen Sinek

“If your action inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more you are a leader”. (Sinek, 2009)

What is Management?

Management is about the administration or controlling or directing an organization or set of people to achieve one or more objectives. It’s not about inspiring people it’s about getting things done in an organized and efficient manner.

Managerial concerns are Efficiency - greater output with less input and Effectiveness - accomplishing organizational goals.

The primary function of management is planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. (Fayal, 1916)

The Relationship and Difference between Management and Leadership.

Leadership is an important part of management which plays an important role in managerial operations. Leadership involves influence, teamwork and achieving the goal effectively the same as the management (Northhouse, 2016)

Differences.

• Leadership is about directing by creating a vision and communicating and inspiring the employees to achieve it, while the managers create the structure, gives authority and responsibility to achieve the goals.
• Leaders get their authority from his followers; Manager gets his authority by his higher position in the organization.
• Leaders follow their instinct, while the managers follow the rules and regulation of the organization.
• Leaders think by heart, for the manager is about the mind.
• Leadership is about people aspects, management is about the technical aspects.
• Leadership sees the ability of their followers, but the management sees their profile and past performance.
• Communicating with leaders are easy, but with managers is complicated.
• Leadership is proactive and management is reactive.

“All managers are not effective leaders”

References

Fayal, H., 1916. General and industrial management. London: Pitman.

Northhouse, P. G., 2016. Leadership Theory and Practice. 7th ed. s.l.:SAGE Publication.

Sinek, S., 2009. Start with Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. s.l.:s.n.

Images

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