Review Questions – Chapter 3: Skills Approach

1. Who began the discussion that led to the skills approach?
Robert Katz led the discussion on the skills approach. He did this through publishing an article entitled ‘Skills of an effective administrator’ in the Harvard Business Review in 1955. At the time of Katz’s article and study, researchers were trying to identify a definitive set of leadership traits. Katz’s article provided an alternative viewpoint to leadership and argued that leadership was set of developable skills rather than inherited traits or characteristics.

2. What methods have Mumford and his colleagues used to investigate leadership skills and effectiveness?
The main method Mumford and his colleagues used to investigate leadership skills and effectiveness was skill-based modeling. This particular method focused on a leader’s ability to solve problems through skills rather than inherited traits.

3. Explain the difference between a skill and a trait.
A skill is an ability that can be learned over time and accomplished, whereas a trait is largely viewed as innate and fixed.

4. Explain each element of the Three-Skill Approach.
Katz suggested that effective administration is composed of three key skills (the Three-Skill Approach); technical, human and conceptual. These are described below in more depth.
A technical skill suggests a proficiency within a certain specific field. This is a hands-on activity that requires a process within an organization. One way this is showcased is through the ability to use appropriate tools for the specified field. A simple example of this could work includes working in a computer software company and understanding how computer software works.
Secondly, a human skill can be described as the knowledge about and the ability to work with people (as supposed to things). These abilities help a leader to work well with their followers, peers and superiors in order to accomplish the organizations goals. Katz’ describes human skills as ‘being aware of one’s perspective and other’s perspectives on issues’. This means leaders will adapt their ideas to the ideas of others. Human skills also entail an atmosphere of trust, in which the employees feel comfortable and encouraged to become involved.
Finally, conceptual skills suggest the ability to work with ideas and concepts. Being a leader with conceptual skills, means you are comfortable talking about the ideas that shape the organization both on a broad and intricate level. A leader with conceptual skills works easily with hypothetical and abstract notions and knows how to develop them. Conceptual skills are central to creating a vision for an organization that will allow the organization to be successful and effective.

5. At what organizational level are each of the three skills most important?
The three skills described above although important in leadership, have a varying importance in different organizational levels. These differences for each skill are described below:
• Technical skills are most important in the lower and middle levels of the organization as these are generally the people producing the product of the organization.
• Human skills are equally important at every level of the organization and are needed to ensure effective and successful leadership.
• Conceptual skills are most important at the highest level of organization, specifically the bosses of the companies. In fact, lack of conceptual skills might jeopardize the whole organization.

6. Explain each of the elements and components of the Mumford Skills Model.
The Mumford skills Model is a capability model that examines the relationship between a leader’s knowledge and skills compared with their performance. This model suggests that people are capable of learning new skills to develop the potential for leadership. This model consists of three main competencies as described below.
The first competency is problem-solving skills. This competency entails a leader’s creative ability to solve new and unusual problems. The second competency is social judgement skill, or the ability to understand people and social systems. This competency includes perspective taking and knowing how other people view problems as well as social perceptiveness and social performance. The final competency is knowledge, which is the
accumulation of information organized into a schema (a summary of outline). Knowledge results from having developed a complex schema. Those who have the most information on a particular schema are considered to be experts.
The Mumford skills model is also composed of four key individual attributes, namely general cognitive ability, crystallized cognitive ability, motivation and personality. These individual attributes combined with the three main competencies lead to effective problem solving and performance.

7. Explain each of the nine key problem-solving skills of leaders.
Problem-solving skills entail a leader’s ability to solve new and often unusual challenges. These skills can be sub-divided into nine key problem-solving skills as defined below (not necessarily in chronological order):
1. Problem definition; The ability of a leader to define significant problems affecting an organization.
2. Cause/goal analysis; the ability of a leader to analyze the goals and causes relevant to addressing a problem.
3. Constraint analysis; the ability of a leader to identify the constraints, and limiting factors, influencing a problem solution.
4. Planning; the ability of a leader to formulate plans, mental situations and actions arising from cause/goal and constraint analysis.
5. Forecasting; the ability of a leader to anticipate the implications of executing plans.
6. Creative thinking; the ability of a leader to develop alternative plans and ideas for addressing caveats in solutions should they arise.
7. Idea evaluation; the ability of a leader to evaluate alternative approaches as well as their viability when solving a problem.
8. Wisdom; the ability of a leader to evaluate the appropriateness of alternative approaches within the context in which he/she acts.
9. Sensemaking/visioning; the ability of a leader to articulate a vision that will help followers make sense of and act on a problem.

8. What career experiences could help a person develop his or her problem-solving skills?
Career experiences can have a direct impact on the development of ones problem-solving skills. An example of this includes certain on-the-job assignments that have the ability to enhance a leader’s motivation or intellectual ability. Additionally, leaders are more likely to learn and develop higher levels of conceptual capacity if these kinds of problems or on-the-job assignments become progressively more complex as they ascend the organizational hierarchy.

9. Explain how all the arrows work in the Mumford Skills Model (Figure 3.3). How do attributes influence competencies? How do competencies influence outcomes? How do career experiences affect competencies and attributes? How do environmental influences affect competencies, attributes, and outcomes?
As can be seen in figure 3.3 career experiences have a direct impact on both individual attributes and competencies. Career experiences allow one’s individual attributes such as general cognitive ability to be developed as more skilled are learned, which can in turn improve competencies such as problem-solving skills. In this sense the more individual attributes are developed the more the three key competencies will develop as a result. These competencies can than influence leadership outcomes as they represent the end point. For example, if problem-solving skills are applied by a leader to a problem in a successful way, the natural outcome will be effective problem solving. Finally, environmental influences (both internal and external) affect all of the skills model as they have an impact on how a leader leads.

10. How might the skills approach be used for personal awareness and development?
The skills approach can be used for personal awareness and development in multiple different ways. One example of this pertains in the definitive idea of the skills approach. This suggests that if a leader understands the skills required of a leader that they often can then reflect on their own leadership and become more self-aware of their leadership characteristics. More specifically, the skills approach provides a map to successful and effective leadership, which when studied carefully can lead to personal development.

11. What are strengths of the skills approach?
There are four main strengths of the skill approach. Firstly, the skills approach is a leader-centered model that stresses the importance of developing particular leadership skills. This is important as this was the first model of leadership to do so. Secondly, the skills approach is intuitively appealing. This makes leadership available to everyone and a quality that can be developed over time. Thirdly, the skills approach provides a more expansive view of leadership that incorporates different components (e.g. problem-solving skills, knowledge) and finally the skills approach is generally consistent with most educational programs surrounding leadership making it easy to understand and apply into everyday life.

12. What are criticisms of the skills approach?
The skills approach has four main criticisms. Firstly, the breadth of the skills approach seems at times to stretch beyond the boundaries of leadership. An example of this includes the mentioning of motivation, critical thinking and personality, which as a result addresses more than just leadership. Secondly, the skills approach is weak in predictive value. This suggests the skills approach dies not clearly explain how certain components such as problem-solving skills and social judgement skills fit together. Thirdly, the skills approach, specifically the individual attributes, includes a lot of trait-like qualities, that shift the model away from being a strictly skills-based model. Finally, as the skills approach was constructed within a military setting it may not be applicable to every situation of leadership.

13. How does the skills approach fit with the four components of leadership?
The skills approach and the four components of leadership are building blocks towards one another. Firstly, the skills approach identifies what an effective leader looks like at the relevant organizational level and defines which skills of the three-skill approach are most relevant to the leader. These skills could include technical, human or conceptual. Once the leader has been identified the four components of leadership (the process, influence, groups and common goals) can then be applied to continue effective leadership within the organization such as maintaining common goals.