My time in the military has given me a wide array of experience, and now that I have that experience I can understand things more clearly than when I first enlisted. After reading about the three-skill approach, I believe that it can be best related to how a portion of the military structure works. The portion that I am talking about is when one enters a supervisory role as a Staff Sergeant and progressively goes up in rank from this point to the highest enlisted grade in the Air Force which is a Chief Master Sergeant.
To be able to get a better understanding of this though, one must know what the three-skill approach is comprised of. Robert katz published an article in the Harvard Business Review that suggested leadership is dependent on three different skills, which are technical, human, and conceptual skills (Northouse, 2016). It’s important to know that these are all necessary to have for the three-skill model, although they are not needed equally across the different levels of management (Northouse, 2016). When you are a supervisor in a management position katz’s model shows that both technical and human skills are needed equally, while conceptual skills are needed the least (Northouse, 2016). The opposite is true for a top management position, where technical skills are needed the least and both human and conceptual are needed equally, while one serving in middle management is required to have an equal level of all three skills. (Northouse, 2016).
To have technical skills though means that you have a type of knowledge and level of proficiency in the job that you preform (Northouse, 2016). This is true for the entry rank of Staff Sergeant because you must be technically proficient at your job now as you are relied upon to lead in work and demonstrate it. You are also required to work with people and/or groups depending on the situation. As a leader it is important that you can manage this, since it can sometimes make or break how the end result will be, which is why having human skills like this are necessary as well (Northouse, 2016). The one skill at this rank that is not needed so much though is the conceptual skill. This skill is one that deals with the ability to work with ideas and visions, or strategic plans (Northouse, 2016).
The rank that comes next is Technical Sergeant, followed by Master Sergeant. These two can often go hand in hand for some situations, but overall one out ranks the other. These two can be best described as the middle management role. When one is in this it’s required that all three skills of technical, human, and conceptual are all equally important skills (Northouse, 2016). To be in these positions though, it’s required that you take two separate tests, one of them will be on your job knowledge, and the other will be on your knowledge on Professional development in the Air Force. It is essential that these are both passed with the required score for the year they are taken because to advance further into a managerial role, one must skilled in their technical knowledge before becoming a manager (Peterson & Van Fleet, 2004). This will ensure that they have the aptitude to handle what will be thrown at them. When in these two ranks, you still possess the technical and human skills. The new skill that is now equally important is the conceptual skill. This is where you start to understand the vision and strategic planning, or “big picture” of what is going on (Northouse, 2016). This is most definitely true as the ranks that these positions fill often work between top management and the supervisor’s. These are the link between the two that often act as a translator to relay messages both up and down the chain of command. That’s why it’s so important that they have an equal balance in all three of these skills.
Top management is where the Senior Master Sergeant, and Chief Master Sergeant reside in. These ranks no longer deal with the technical side of things, they have mastered this skills and almost solely function as management. They are still there to support everyone below them though, that’s why the human skills are still important to have at this position. The conceptual is important for this rank as well, due to them having to work with more strategy with where they sit and look towards the future (Northouse, 2016). They need to do this because they ultimately control what happens to the force below them, which another reason why the technical ability is not necessary as much.
This is just a broad overview of how the enlisted force fits into Katz’s three-skill approach. It’s important to be able to recognize how as one develops up the rank structure how skills become both more and less important across the spectrum of technical, human, and conceptual. It takes time and experience to understand this concept, and hopefully you have caught a glimpse of that here. While you may not be in the military yourself, most companies have a structure to them, and this three-skill approach just may fit into your company as well.
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (Seventh ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Peterson, T. O., & Van Fleet, D.,D. (2004). The ongoing legacy of R.L. katz: An updated typology of management skills. Management Decision, 42(10), 1297-1308. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/212063415?accountid=13158
Moon Park says
I think you have a well-written post, and agree that the three-skill approach developed by Katz (1955) strongly influences one’s ability to lead effectively.
I find it very interesting how the various skill models and concepts, such as the technical, human, and conceptual approaches, all tie in with the two other concepts we have been learning about– psychodynamic and traits. As the psychodynamic approach explores the environmental and historical influences from one’s life, the skills approach seems to focus on the outputs of those “lessons” that people undergo (Northouse 2015).
The interesting part, that I like to think about, is how much of the psychodynamic and skills approach are predicated of the traits approach. In other words, I believe that the characteristics that people inherit will directly influence their upbringing, environment, and capacity to process, along with how they process all the information.