Conceptual Skill
What is Conceptual Skill?
Conceptual skills allow you to think through and work with ideas. Leader with higher
levels of conceptual skills are good at thinking through the ideas that form an organization and
its vision for the future, expressing these ideas in verbal and written forms, and understanding
and expressing the economic principles underlying their organization’s effectiveness. These
leaders are comfortable asking “what if” or hypothetical questions and working with abstract
ideas. Conceptual skills allow leaders to give abstract ideas meaning and to make sense of
abstract ideas for their superior, peers, and subordinates. This skill is most important for top
managers, less important for middle managers, and least important for supervisory managers
(Northouse, 2010). We could offer one caveat. While conceptual skills are less important at lower
levels of management, to be promoted to higher levels of management, it is important to develop
and demonstrate the skill at all levels of management (Yukl, 2006).
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Why is conceptual skill more important for top managers than for supervisors?
Vision
A common leadership trait among top managers is their vision. They have minds that
constantly look ahead toward an end goal or company objective. This vision is what
provides the framework for the structure and actions of a company. Within a company,
top managers normally develop long-term vision and set the course for the company,
while supervisors carry out directives in leading their employees on that course.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is the periodic process of reviewing company plans of action and
updating them when necessary. For instance, a company may have a growth strategy of
diversifying its business by adding new product lines and services. Top managers
normally lead in the strategic planning process and then convey the tasks required to front
line supervisors. They then carry out directives with their employees by delegating tasks
to each.
Broad Thinking
A major crossroads in business conception is taking big picture goals and strategies and
outlining how each functional department in the organization participates. This is a
critical element of conceptual skills that makes good top managers successful. They can
effectively communicate vision and strategy to get supervisors on board, and then explain
how each functional department participates in the process. For instance, top managers
often involve human resource professionals in strategic workforce development to ensure
the company meets its talent needs to carry out its goals and strategies.
Stability
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A major reason top managers need conceptual skills more than supervisors is that this
scenario gives the company more stability. Rather than waffling around with new goals,
strategies and task roles, conceptually-skilled managers can keep the organization on the
right track and make minor tweaks in strategy and tasks as needed. Employees have more
faith in their business when top managers project a good sense of the big picture and the
details of the operations. Supervisors are looked to more for task direction and motivation
of employees in completing their specific job functions.
