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Managerial Skills
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A manager's job is varied and complex. Managers need certain skills to perform the duties and
activities associated with being a manager. What type of skills does a manager need? Research by
Robert L. Katz found that managers needed three essential skills. These are technical skills, human
skills and conceptual skills. Technical skills include knowledge of and proficiency in a certain
specialized field, such as engineering, computers, financial and managerial accounting, or
manufacturing. These skills are more important at lower levels of management since these managers
are dealing directly with employees doing the organization's work. Human skills involve the ability to
work well with other people both individually and in a group. Because managers deal directly with
people, this skill is crucial! Managers with good human skills are able to get the best out of their
people. They know how to communicate, motivate, lead, and inspire enthusiasm and trust. These
skills are equally important at all levels of management. Finally conceptual skills are the skills
managers must have to think and conceptualize about abstract and complex situations. Using these
skills managers must be able to see the organization as a whole, understand the relationship among
various subunits, and visualize how the organization fits into its broader environment. These skills are
most important at top level management.

A professional association of practicing managers, the American Management Association, has

identified important skills for managers that encompass conceptual, communication, effectiveness,
and interpersonal aspects. These are briefly described below:

Conceptual Skills: Ability to use information to solve business problems, identification of

opportunities for innovation, recognizing problem areas and implementing solutions, selecting critical
information from masses of data, understanding the business uses of technology, understanding the
organization's business model.

Communication Skills: Ability to transform ideas into words and actions, credibility among
colleagues, peers, and subordinates, listening and asking questions, presentation skills and spoken
format, presentation skills; written and graphic formats
Effectiveness Skills: Contributing to corporate mission/departmental objectives, customer focus,
multitasking; working at multiple tasks at parallel, negotiating skills, project management, reviewing
operations and implementing improvements, setting and maintaining performance standards internally
and externally, setting priorities for attention and activity, time management.

Interpersonal Skills: Coaching and mentoring skills, diversity skills; working with diverse people and
culture, networking within the organization, networking outside the organization, working in teams;
cooperation and commitment.

In today's demanding and dynamic workplace, employees who are invaluable to an organization must
be willing to constantly upgrade their skills and take on extra work outside their own specific job
areas. There is no doubt that skills will continue to be an important way of describing what a manager
does.
The term ‘management’ encompasses an array of different functions undertaken to accomplish a task
successfully. In the simplest of terms, management is all about ‘getting things done’. However, it is the
way and the process of how one achieves ones target or goals and it is in this respect that management
is considered an art and a science as well.

The term management may be recently defined, but it existed at a time when men started learning the art
of organizing, strategizing (during wars) and/or simply planning. At the core of it, management was
quintessentially considered as an art of ‘managing men’ and hence the term “manage-men-T.”
management is a creative as well as a systematic flow of knowledge that can be applied to produce
results by using human as well as other resources in an effective way. Management has not been limited
to managing human resource; management today has been segregated into various branches like
financial management, strategic management, operations management, time management, crisis
management, marketing management etc.
managerial funtions:-
Planning: Planning refers to anticipate the opportunity, problems and conditions and choosing from
among the alternative future courses of action. The planning process generally includes the following
activities.

Forecasting is looking ahead to anticipate the opportunity, problems and conditions in a future period of
time.

Establishing objectives means setting the end results to be accomplished by directing organizational
efforts.

Programming is establishing sequence and priority of actions to be followed in the attainment of the
objectives.

Scheduling is deciding on time sequence for program steps.

Budgeting is allocation of resources to minimize costs.

Establishing procedures means developing and applying standardized methods of performing a specific
work.

Developing policies involve establishment and interpretation of standing decisions that apply to repetitive
questions and problems of significance to be organization as a whole.

Organizing function: The organizing function of management is the process of defining and grouping of
activities and creating authority relationship among them. It consists of

Developing the organization structure which involves identification of task and grouping them into units or
departments for performance.

Delegating authority to the managers and making him responsible for group performance.

Establishing relations creating conditions necessary for mutually fooperative efforts of people in the
organization.
Staffing: Planning the organization with suitable personnel constitutes the staffing function. It involves
selection, training and development, compensation, and appraisal of subordinates by the manager.
Manpower planning and manpower management looks after these activities and try to ensure suitable
methods of remuneration and performance appraisal of the employees.

Directing Function: involves managing people and the work through the means of motivation, proper
leadership, effective communication and coordination. A manager must develop ability to command. He
should issue orders and instructions without arousing any resentment among the subordinates. He must
be able to secure willing obedience from his subordinates without destroying their initiative and creativity.
Moreover, it requires a sound communication system to enable exchange of ideas and information for
common understanding.

Controlling Function: enables management to ensure that achievement is in accordance with the
established plans it involves:

Establishing performance standards for evaluating results.

Performance on the basis of records and reports on the progress of work.

Performance evaluation against the standards set.

Corrective action to regulate operations, remove deficiencies and improve performance

The three essential skills or competencies are :
1. Technical skills – involve process or technique knowledge and proficiency in a certain specialized field,
such as engineering, computers, accounting, or manufacturing. These skills are more important at lower
levels of management since these managers are dealing with employees doing the organization’s work.
The technical skill involves the manager’s understanding of the nature of job that people under him have
to perform. It refers to a person’s knowledge and proficiency in any type of process or technique. In a
production department, this would mean an understanding of the technicalities of the process of
production. Whereas this type of skill and competence seems to be more important at the lower levels of
management, its relative importance as a part of the managerial role diminishes as the manager moves to
higher positions. In higher functional positions, such as the position of a marketing manager or production
manager, the conceptual component, related to these functional areas becomes more important and the
technical component becomes less important and the technical component becomes less important.

2. Human Skills – involve the ability to interact effectively with people. Managers interact and cooperate
with employees. Because managers deal directly with people, this skill is crucial. Managers with good
human skills re bale to get best out of their people. They know how to communicate, motivate, lead, and
inspire enthusiasm and trust. These skills are equally important at all levels of management.
Human skills are also the ability to interact effectively with people at all levels. This skill develops in the
manager sufficient ability.
a) To recognize the feelings and sentiments of others
b) To judge the possible reactions to, and outcomes of various courses of action he may undertake and
c) To examine his own concepts and values this may enable him to develop more useful attitudes about
himself.

3. Conceptual Skills- involve the formulation of ideas, conceptualization about abstract and complex
situations. Managers understand abstract relationships, develop ideas and solve problems creatively.
Using these skills, managers must be able to see the organization as a whole. They have to understand
the relationships among various subunits, and visualize how organization fits into its border environment.
These skills are most important at the top management levels.
Conceptual skills refer to the ability of a manager to take a broad and farsighted view of the organization
and its future, his ability to think in abstract, his ability to analyze the forces working in a situation, his
creative and innovative ability and his ability to assess the environment and the changes taking place in it.
In short, it is his ability to conceptualize the environment, the organization, and his won job, so that he can
set appropriate goals for his organization, for himself and for his team. This skill seems to increase in
importance as a manager move up to higher positions of responsibility in the organization. Thus, technical
skill deals with things, human skills concerns people, and conceptual-skill has to do with ideas.