Managing people and resources is, of course, not an easy task. To be able to manage resources effectively and efficiently, managers required certain skills which are collectively called managerial skills.
Management researcher Robert Katz identified three managerial skills that are essential for every manager. These skills are conceptual, human skills and technical skills.
Conceptual skills
This is the ability to visualize everything in the organization as a whole and see the relationship among various parts of the organization.
It is the manager's ability to think in the abstract. That is, it is a manager's ability to see the relationship between forces that others cannot see and understand how various factors in the organization are related.
It involves the manager's creative, analytical, information processing abilities.
Conceptual skills also include the ability to think strategically. That is, taking the broad and long-term view. It is the manager's ability to identify, evaluate and solve complex problems.
While all managers require conceptual skills, they are more critical for top-level managers.
This is because top-level managers ate primarily responsible for decision-making, resource allocation, planning, and problem-solving, all of which necessitate strategic thinking and strategic planning.
Human skills
As its name seems to suggest, human skill is the ability to work well with other humans (people).
In other words, human skill is the manager's ability to work with and through other people both individually and in groups.
It is the manager's ability to relate with people.
It is a manager's ability to understand, lead, motivate, facilitate, motivate, communicate, resolve conflicts and develop team spirit among his subordinates.
A manager with good human skills encourages employee participation, allows subordinates to express themselves without any fear of ridicule or humiliation, and shows appreciation to employees.
The better the human skills of a manager, the more effective he or she is likely to be
All managers, at all levels of management, require human skills. This is because all managers have to interact with people and work with employees.
This is perhaps why all managers are in a specific sense human resource managers.
Because human skills involve relating with people, It is also called interpersonal skills.
Technical skills
This is simply the manager's ability to perform a specific task. It refers to a manager's ability to understand and perform specified activities in the organization.
It involves mastery of the methods, techniques and equipment used in a specific area of an organization. This skill helps managers to use different machines, methods to solve a specific problem and achieve whatever they want to achieve.
It basically involves the use of knowledge methods and techniques to perform a job effectively. It is the "how-to" or "know-how" skillset that allows a manager to perform his job effectively
Technical skills are mostly required by low-level managers because they are the managers involved in the actual operations of an organization. However, Technical skill becomes less important as manager move up the managerial hierarchy.
Executive summary
For the successful execution of works and policies, managers should focus on enhancing their managerial skills. This ensures that managers can deal with various issues that may arise from the execution of their tasks and job effectively and efficiently.