HR assignment on: Conceptual skills

Conceptual skillsConceptual skills are probably some of the most important management skills. There are some very basic principles behind conceptual skills. The inputs by people who are hired especially for their exceptional conceptual skills often influence the decision-making process in an organization, be it about a simple thing like a change in the employees dress code, to something as big as a revamped advertising campaign for a product. Some functions of these skills are mentioned below. They might help you understand it better.

Establish Inter-relation

A person who has conceptual skills has the ability to carry out a detailed study of the possible and probable inter-relation between various ideas and ‘concepts’. It is a cognitive skill that requires the person to have a deep understanding of what has to be studied, what can be ignored and how to ascertain how much importance should be given to which concept. It also relates to how to use the inter-relation between the various aspects of the matter and come up with a concept or an idea to make it better. It is an integral part of how business management actually goes about.

Problem SolvingA conceptual person can combine problem solving with the practice of conceptualizing a practical issue. For instance, if there is group of people who are opposing the construction of a bridge near their houses, the person will go deeper into the problem, find out why it is so, how to convince them without offering them just money, get them to understand how the bridge will in no way harm the peace and harmony of their homes and finally get them to agree to the construction.

Study as a Whole

A conceptual person will not look at the organization as a part of the industry. Using this basic business management skill, he will look at it as a whole. The main focus will be on how to study, analyze and develop new strategies that will enable the smooth and better functioning of the organization as a whole. He may compartmentalize each section within the organization and come up with various concepts to help them individually, but the overall progress of the whole organization is the ultimate goal.

Creative Thinking

Apart from problem solving, conceptual skills also play another very important part as far as manager skills are concerned. This involves coming up with creative and innovative ideas and concepts pertaining to the growth of the organization. For instance, a company needs to boost the sales of its new product- a tangy tomato ketchup, with a hint of mint in it. A person with conceptual skills is the one who will treat the ‘increase of sales’ as a concept rather than a physical target. He will perform the important functions of management. He will study and speculate, he will analyze and comprehend. He will then come up with a concept which will use the distinct ‘flavor’ of the ketchup as its USP. As you can see from this, the person has come up only with a concept of the flavor being different. The next step of forming a suitable advertisement is the job of the ad department and the technically skilled managers will handle the technical aspect of making the whole concept a reality.

Human skills

Number of job roles with definitions. Most organizations with formal competency management programs use one of two basic approaches when choosing the number of job roles with formal competency definitions: either the “two-level” approach or the “job position” approach. In the twolevel approach, organizations define two levels for each job role (drilling engineer, petrophysicist, etc.).An E&P organization may have 10 to 20 such broad job roles. Then, for each of these roles, they define two competency levels. The purpose of the firstlevel competency definition is to ensure a common foundation of competencies and perhaps be used as a criterion for first promotion. The second level aims to ensure proficiency in the  application for specific roles.

The two-level approach has the advantage of being much easier and quicker to implement and maintain. It requires significantly less ongoing staff work to assess personnel because formal assessment comes in frequently at one of the two levels, not for every possible job. It also can be organizationally easier to implement because a consensus can develop more easily around the definition of two levels than one definition for each job. In the job-grade approach, detailed competency definitions for each job and pay grade ensure that competencies are a specific part of every promotion discussion and, if properly done and implemented, that each person will have the competencies required for each job role. The job-grade approach requires about five times the work to implement and maintain. The basic question is: Does the improved performance with more specific job definitions offset the added costs of using this approach?

Approaches to assurance. Organizations implementing a competency management approach generally have one of four approaches to competency assurance: Self-Assessment, Supervisor Validation, Formalized Review, or Formal Testing. The selfassessment approach relies on individuals to complete their own competency inventory and then use it for development planning. Organizations using this approach rely on the normal performance evaluation process to evaluate capability and use the competency system as a development aid. They often allow individuals to attend training courses only if they have a self-identified competency gap. This approach is the easiest to implement, and it has the advantage of individuals buying into their own  assessment and normally becoming motivated to close any identified competency gap. The disadvantages are that individuals may not be qualified to assess their own competence, there are often organizational forces inducing them to overstate their competence, and organizations using this approach help individual development by describing in specific terms what competencies are required for specific roles but cannot consistently ensure competencies.

Supervisor validation is an approach whereby the supervisor reviews and validates an individual’s competency and skill inventory. This provides some assurance of the competency inventories and facilitates detailed development discussions between the employee and his supervisor. Disadvantages to this approach include the added time for a supervisor to review and approve the competency inventories, and supervisors are sometimes not qualified to assess the competency of their employees. For example, an asset team leader might not be qualified to assess the competency of the drilling engineer reporting to him.

Valued Traits

Great Managers present themselves well. In traveling the country talking to managers, hundreds of them in fact, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of folks just don’t get it: The clothes you wear make a giant difference in how you are perceived, let alone in how you contribute to the Beautify America program. This doesn’t mean you have to always wear a suit, but it does mean you must dress appropriately for the occasion as well as your professional status. How you look, dress and generally “present” yourself physically has a lot to do with gaining and maintaining that presence. A couple of years ago I was the keynote speaker at a CAI chapter for their annual trade show and soiree. Like many attending management firms, one had reserved a table, right up front, for all their staff members. How did I know they all worked for the same company? They were all wearing T- shirts. Not collared shirts “golf” shirts with a stitched on logo; ill-fitting inexpensive T-shirts with the company logo on them. Next to them was seated another management firm. No company shirts, but the staff looked like they were professional managers, not as if they just stopped gardening in the yard and came to this function which was chock full of potential clients

Great Managers are organized. Organized in thought and organized physically, great managers have the information or resources they need at their fingertips. They have developed a logical system that works for them and their communities for everything from soup to nuts. Great managers know that all the information in the world can be in the  office, but if there is  no way of accessing it, it’s useless.

Great Managers follow through. Whether it’s returning a phone call, visiting an owner, finishing a project or meeting with a vendor, great managers follow through and do what they say they are going to do. There is no shorter route to losing credibility with everyone with whom you work than by not following through on word or deed.

Great Managers do not procrastinate. They start the hardest job first by simply digging in. They know that once they start procrastinating, their days of being a great and credible manager are numbered.

Great managers never give information they aren’t sure of. Because they know their stuff and know their jobs, great managers stay credible by never giving out information as fact when they do not know if it is indeed fact. Woe be unto to any manager who gives an “off the cuff” answer to a question only to have it shot down with factual information (maybe very publicly). If a credible manager does not know the answer to a question, or is unsure of the facts, he or she obtains the right answer or fact then follows through and reports that answer or fact back to the inquiring party in a timely manner.

Great managers understand the value of their relationships with vendors. Long term, trusted relationships are very much valued by great  managers. These managers understand that  relationships with vendors assist them in their ability to manage communities more effectively and efficiently. This means they treat vendors with respect; they pay them on time and don’t jerk them around for a few bucks. A trusting relationship between a manager and a vendor is money in the bank for an association.

Great Managers admit mistakes up front, take responsibility, and then fix them. Even the most reliable and trusted manager will make mistakes from time to time – BIG ones. Managers who maintain – and even gain additional – credibility from mistakes are those who recognize the mistake, go right to their Board(s), tell them what happened and explain how he or she is going to fix it. Then, they FIX IT. Managers who duck this process, deny the existence of a mistake or even worse blame someone else for it lose all credibility. And many times their job.

Great Managers maintain professional detachment.  It’s very easy in our business to become emotionally attached to the people we work with daily, and that includes our Boards. When this happens, managers begin to identify way too closely with one or more individuals, and eventually those individual agendas start to become the manager’s agenda. The best managers have no agenda other than to get the job done for the corporation, not for any one person. Many a manager has fallen from grace by getting too close in this fashion. Managers stay credible by keeping a healthy professional distance between themselves and their Boards.

And another thought about keeping distance from your Board(s):  Managers who are emotionally attached to their Boards have a tendency to be myopic about their own options when it comes to upward mobility, placing an excessive amount of importance on their role with their current Board(s), and guilt on themselves for needing to move on. Take it from me, you can be the best manager in the world and your Board may miss your competence (for awhile) – but they don’t pine for you.

Great Managers stay current with their industry and with business in general. If you want credibility, you must have knowledge about not only your business, but business in general. You must continue to expand and nurture that knowledge. You do this through industry education, through continuing public or private education, through reading books about performance, business, human nature and the world at large.

One of the biggest problems I see with our industry is how unique we think we are – as if our industry is so extraordinary that regular business principles and practices don’t apply to us. The very nature of our business often makes it easy to fall in to this narrow-minded trap because we are so busy handling problems in a job that never ends. But if more folks applied regular business principles to community management, we might begin to see things such as higher wages, higher profit margins, a full market strategy for the industry as a whole and oddly enough, better service for the client.

Great Managers deal well with change. Throughout any sort of major change, a manager will have to adapt to new or previously unknown circumstances while remaining predictable and reliable to the client. This trait lends comfort to those affected by change.  The manager is present and consistent, communicating with owners, service providers and the Board, and otherwise getting the job done. This develops tremendous credibility with those affected by the outcome of the change, as well as those effecting the change.

Great Managers have a sense of humor. You can’t be exceptional at what you do unless you enjoy it. And you can’t enjoy this business unless you have a healthy sense of humor. The best managers don’t take themselves or the job too seriously, so they see the funny side of the business, as well as the serious side.

Great Managers value their integrity and credibility above all. When we come right down to it, great managers have a lot of traits that make them great, but each of these traits point to two overriding qualities: Credibility and Integrity. And the best managers nurture and protect these two characteristics because in reality – it’s all they have. It’s all any of us has.  An ok manager may be able get the lawn mowed and write a decent letter, but if they don’t have credibility and integrity they are just another in a long line of undistinguished managers who blew in to the business one year and blew out the next.

Great Managers command higher salaries and get the best jobs in our fast growing, recession-proof and outsource-resistant business. Why? The great manager helps the Board look great.   This ability is a very valuable commodity. You see, your Board(s) rely on the manager and his/her credibility to get their agenda across to the owners in a professional, sincere and reliable manner. If the manager isn’t credible, the Board doesn’t look credible.  And if the Board isn’t viewed as such by the owners they will be faced with obstructionists to their agenda at every turn, making their jobs far more time consuming and difficult.

Great Managers make things happen for their Boards and themselves anywhere and everywhere they go, because Integrity and Credibility – the traits of Great Managers – follow those managers throughout their careers, and wherever life may take them.

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