Management SkillsA skill is an acquired and learned ability to translate knowledge intoperformance. It is the competency that allows for performance to be superiorin the field in which the worker has the required skill. All managers need topossess technical, interpersonal, conceptual, diagnostic, communicationaland political skills. While technical and diagnostic skills refer to theknowledge and ability of understanding the processes involved andscientifically analyzing problems and opportunities, all other skills deal withpeople in one form or the other. These human skills are the most importantassets of any successful manager. It is the managers job to achieve theorganizational objectives through the proper utilization of its human andmaterial resources. However, since the material resources of equipment,capital, facilities, and information and so on can only be used by humans, thehuman resources are the most valuable assets of any organization.Accordingly, a manager must be highly skilled in the art of optimallyutilizing the human resources. This art is universal in nature. In every walkof life, human skills are necessary for success. These various skills arebriefly explained as follows:

Technical Skills:These skills basically involve the use of knowledge, methods and techniquesin performing a job effectively. This is a specialized knowledge andexpertise which is utilized in dealing with daytoday problems and activities.For example, engineers, accountants, computer programmers and systemsanalysts, all have technical skills in their areas and these skills are acquired

through education and training. This skill is highly necessary at the lowerlevel of management and as one moves to higher levels of management, therelative importance of technical skills usually diminishes. This is so becauseunlike first level supervisors, managers at higher levels have less directcontact with technical operating problems and activities.

Human skills:Human skill is the ability to work with other people in a cooperative manner.It involves understanding, patience, trust and genuine involvement ininterpersonal relationships. These are interpersonal skills and are necessaryat all levels of management. People with good interactory human skills buildtrust and cooperation as they motivate and lead and thus become successfulmanagers. This skill is gaining more importance as the work place isbecoming more and more ethnically diversified and the manager has to beaware and become adaptive to cultural differences. Furthermore, since thebusinesses are more and more becoming multinational and global, managersare required to learn new ways of dealing with people in different countrieswith different cultures and value systems.

Conceptual skills:Conceptual skill is the ability to view the organization as a whole and as atotal entity as well as a system comprised of various parts and subsystemsintegrated into a single unit. This skill is specially crucial for top levelexecutives who must keep the whole system under focus. They mustunderstand the complexities of the overall organization, including how each

unit of the organization contributes towards the overall success of the entireorganization. This skill generally depends upon an organized thinkingprocess which deals with understanding of various functions of anorganization, their interdependence and the relationship of the organizationwith the outside environment in terms of threats and opportunities.

Diagnostic skills:This skill refers to a managers analytical ability where a manager canlogically and objectively investigate and analyze a problem or anopportunity and use scientific approaches to arrive at a feasible and optimalsolution. It is important however that a manager gets to the root cause of theproblem so that the solution is the real and a permanent one rather thansimply a shortterm or a cosmetic one. This skill overlaps with other skillsbecause a manager may need to use technical, human, conceptual or politicalskills to solve the problem that has been diagnosed.

Communicational skills:Communicational skills are an important component of interpersonal skillsand are basic to all other skills and these are important and necessary at alllevels of management. Amanagers best ideas will have little impact if theycannot be communicated effectively. Good communication is the foundationof sound management. Proper communication eliminates delays,misunderstanding, confusion, distortions and conflicts and improvescoordination and control. All the four communicational skills, namely,writing, reading, listening and nonverbal gestures are important ingredients

of successful leadership.

Political skills:Political skill can be described as the ability to get your own way withoutseeming to be selfish or selforiented. It is the ability to get your share ofpower and authority and use it without fear of losing it. It is the mostcomplex of skills in the sense that it is required to establish the rightconnections and impressing the right people and then skillfully using theseconnections to your own advantage. Political skill is most important at themiddle management level because middle managers always aspire to reachthe top levels of management and right connections help in such aspirations.