I found that Katz’s skills approach could easily be related to my co-workers and me. My divisional director was given the opportunity when he was a young biologist to be part of a strategic planning team that has helped structure our agency over the last 20 years. As he nears his retirement he wants to give the future leaders of the agency the tools to build and help guide the agency into the future.
Along with fellow rising stars in the agency, I have been given the opportunity to be on the guiding principles team that makes a plan for the future. Currently the biologist and field staff with which I am working possess the technical and human dimensions that are mentioned in Katz’s 3-skill approach. (Penn State, 2013) The assigned roles and task are very “hands-on;” we perform the day-to-day functions that make the agency run. We interact with the public and solve problems and address the needs of our constituents.
(Juliane, 2009)
This opportunity afforded to us by our leaders to build a plan for the future is allowing us to work with a group that has perfected their conceptualizing skills while allowing us to get a firm grip on the bigger picture of the agency and how it functions as a whole. We are using our technical and human skills but also developing conceptual skills as we maintain a path toward supervisory positions in the future.
Katz noted that the middle level position needed to have an equal balance of all three skills and I think that by making this commitment, our management is preparing us with the needed skills to run a successful agency. (Penn State, 2013)
I think that one of the important concepts that relates to Katz is the building of leaders from the bottom up, allowing them to develop their technical and human skills and then working their way to the conceptual approaches to tasks or projects. If they were once in the field, they can relate far better than someone who has always been a high-ranking person in a company or agency.
I know the television show Undercover Boss is cheesy, but it highlights many times the disconnect between the top CEO and the employees. I think that it is important for the top executives to have an understanding of what is going on in the field. CEOs that master all three of the skill sets laid out by Katz set a good example in leadership.
Reference
Juliane (Feb 2, 2009) Leadership Trait or Skill? Retrieved from http://performancetech.blogspot.com/2009/02/leadership-trait-or-skill.html
Pennsylvania State University. (2013, January 29). Angel Psychology 485 Leadership. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp13/psych485/001/content/04_lesson/04_page.html