Chapter 3: Skills Approach

Cause/Goal Analysis

the ability to analyze the causes and goals relvant to addressing problems

Forecasting

the ability to anticipate the implications of executing the plans

Sensemaking/Visioning

the ability to articulate a vision that will help followers understand, make sense of, and act on the problem

Problem Definition

the ability to define noteworthy issues or significant problems affecting the organization

Creative Thinking

the ability to develop alternative approaches and new ideas for addressing potential pitfalls of a plan identified in forecasting

Wisdom

the ability to evaluate the appropriateness of these alternative approaches within the context, or setting in which the leader acts

Idea Evaluation

the ability to evaluate these alternative approaches' viability in executing the plan

Planning

the ability to formulate plans, mental simulations, and actions arising from cause/goal, and constraint analysis

Constraint Analysis

the ability to identify the constraints, or limiting factors, influencing any problem solution

Conceptual Skills

the ability to work with ideas and concepts - a leader with conceptual skills works easily with abstractions and hypothetical notions - central to creating a vision and strategic plan for an organization - important at upper management levels

Knowledge

the accumulation of information and the mental structures used to organize that information

Behavioral Flexibility

the capacity to change and adapt one's behavior in light of an understanding of other's perspectives in the organization

Social Judgment Skills

the capacity to understand people and social systems - enable leaders to work with others to solve problems and to marshal support to implement change within an organization

Skills Model

the model is characterized as a capability model because it examines the relationship between a leader's knowledge and skills and the leader's performance - unlike the "great man" approach, which implies that leadership is reserved for only the gifted few, the skills approach suggests that many people have the potential for leadership - rather than emphasizing what leaders do, the skills approach frames leadership as capabilities (knowledge and skills) that makes leadership possible

Motivation

the skills model suggests there are three aspects of motivation—willingness, dominance, and social good—that are essential to developing leadership skills 1. leaders must be willing to tackle complex organizational problems 2. leaders must be willing to express dominance, to exert their influence 3. leaders must be committed to the social good of the organization

General Cognitive Ability

thought of as a person's intelligence - sometimes described as fluid intelligence, a type of intelligence that usally grows and expands up through early adulthood adn then declines with age

Perspective Taking

understanding the attitudes that others have toward a particular problem or solution - empathy applied to problem solving

Schema

a summary, a diagrammatic representation or an outline

Career Experiences

career experience helps leaders to improve their skills and knowledge over time - learn and develop higher levels of conceptual capacity if the kinds of problems they confront are progressively more complex and more long term as they ascend the organizational hierarchy

External Environmental Influences

economic, political, and social issues as well as natural disasters can provide unique challenges to leaders

Internal Environmental Influences

factors such as technology, facilities, expertise of subordinates, and communication

Environmental Influences

factors that lie outside the leader's competencies, characteristics, and experiences

Mumford's Group Skill-Based Model

has five components: competencies, individual attributes, leadership outcomes, career experiences, and environmental influences

Application

has not been widely used in applied leadership settings - offers valuable information about leadership

Social Performance

includes a wide range of leadership compentencies

Social Perceptiveness

insight and awareness into how others in the organization function

Crystallized Cognitive Ability

intellectual ability that is learned or acquired over time

Human Skills

knowledge about and ability to work with people - human skills allow a leader to assist group members in working cooperatively as a group to achieve common goals - important on all levels of management

Technical Skills

knowledge about and proficiency in a specific type of work or activity - play an essential role in producing the actual products a company is designed to produce - most important at lower and middle levels of management and less important in upper management

Personality

our personality has an impact on the development of our leadereship skills

Leadership Outcomes

1. effective problem solving 2. performance

Individual Attributes

1. general cognitive ability 2. crystallized cognitive ability 3. motivation 4. personality

Strengths of the Skills Approach

1. leader-centered model that stresses the importance of developing particular leadership skills - first approach to conceptualize and create a structure of the process of leadership around skills 2. Intuitively Appealing: describe leadership in terms of skills that makes leadership available to everyone 3. Provides an expansive view of leadership that incorporates a wide variety of components, including problem-solving skills, social judgment skills, knowledge, individual attributes, career experiences, and environmental influences 4. Provides a structure that is very consistent with the curricula of most leadership education programs

Criticisms of the Skills Approach

1. the breadth of the skills approach seems to extend beyond the boundaries of leadership 2. skills model is weak in predictive value 3. skills approach claims not to be a trait model when in fact, a major component in the model includes individual attributes which are trait-like 4. may not be suitably or appropriately applied to other contexts of leadership - was constructed by using a large sample of military personnel

Experts

people with a lot of knowledge have more complex organizing structures than those with less knowledge - knowledgeable people are called experts

How does the Skills Approach Work?

primarily descriptive, describes leadership from a skills perspective - works by providing a map for how to reach effective leadership in an organization

Competencies

problem-solving skills, social judgement skills, and knowledge are at the heart of the skills model

Three-Skill Approach

suggested that effective administration, leadership, depends on three basic personal skills: technical, human and conceptual - skills are what leaders can accomplish, whereas traits are who leaders are

Skills Approach

takes a leader-centered perspective on leadership - emphasis on skills and abilities that can be learned and developed