1Skills ApproachChapter 3Northouse, Leadership.docx

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Skills Approach
Chapter 3
Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.
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Overview
Skills Approach Perspective
Three-Skill Approach (Katz, 1955)
Skills-Based Model (Mumford et al., 2000)
How Does the Skills Approach Work?
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Skills Approach Description
Leader-centered perspective
Emphasis on skills and abilities that can be learned and

developed
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Leadership skills: The ability to use one’s knowledge and
competencies to accomplish a set of goals and objectives
Perspective
Definition
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Three-Skill Approach (Katz, 1955)
Technical Skill
Human Skill
Conceptual Skill
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Basic Administrative Skills--Katz (1955)
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Leaders need all three skills-- but relative importance changes
based on level of management
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Technical Skill
Having knowledge about and being proficient in a specific type
of work or activity.
Specialized competencies
Analytical ability
Use of appropriate tools and techniques
Technical skills involve hands-on ability with a product or
process
Most important at lower levels of management
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Human Skill
Having knowledge about and being able to work with people.
Being aware of one’s own perspective and others’ perspectives
at the same time
Assisting group members in working cooperatively to achieve
common goals
Creating an atmosphere of trust and empowerment of members
Important at all levels of the organization
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Conceptual Skill
the ability to do the mental work of shaping meaning of
organizational policy or issues (what company stands for and
where it’s going)
Works easily with abstraction and hypothetical notions
Central to creating and articulating a vision and strategic plan
for an organization
Most important at top management levels
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Skills-Based Model
Skills Model Perspective
Competencies
Individual Attributes
Leadership Outcomes
Career Experiences
Environmental Influences
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Skills Model Description
(Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, & Fleishman, 2000)
Research studies (1990s) goal: to identify the leadership factors
that create exemplary job performance in an organization

Emphasizes the capabilities that make effective leadership
possible rather than what leaders do
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Capability model-- Examines relationship between a leader’s
knowledge & skills & the leader’s performance.
Suggests many people have the potential for leadership
Perspective
Skills-Based Model of Leadership
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Competencies Skills
Problem Solving
Social Judgment
Knowledge

Creative ability to solve new/unusual, ill-defined organizational
problems
Capacity to understand people and social systems
- Perspective taking
- Social perceptiveness
- Behavioral flexibility
- Social performance
The accumulation of information and the mental structures to
organize the information
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Nine Key Problem Solving Skills
- Mumford, Todd, Higgs, and McIntosh, 2017
1. Problem definition
2. Cause/goal analysis
3. Constraint analysis
4. Planning
5. Forecasting
6. Creative thinking
7. Idea evaluation
8. Wisdom
9. Sense making/visioning
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Hypothetical Relationships of Problem-Solving Skills
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Individual Attributes
General Cognitive
Ability
Person’s intelligence
Perceptual processing
Information processing
General reasoning
Creative & divergent thinking
Memory
Intellectual ability learned or acquired over time
Crystallized
Cognitive Ability
Motivation
Personality
Three aspects of motivation
Willingness
Dominance
Social good
Any characteristic
that helps people

cope with complex
organizational
situations is
probably related to leader performance
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Leadership Outcomes
Problem Solving
Performance
Criteria = originality and quality of solutions to problem
situations--good problem-solving involves creating solutions
that are:
Logical
Effective
Unique
Go beyond given information
Degree to which a leader has successfully performed his/her
assigned duties
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Career Experiences
Challenging
Assignments
Mentoring
Appropriate
Training
Hands-on
Experience with
Novelty
Experience gained during career influences leader’s knowledge
and skills to solve complex problems
Leaders learn and develop higher levels of conceptual capacity
if they progressively confront more complex and long-term
problems as they ascend the organizational hierarchy
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Environmental Influences
Factors in a leader’s situation that lie outside of his or her
competencies, characteristics, and experiences
Internal environmental influences--For example, Outdated
technology, skill level of employees
External environmental influences--For example, Economic,
political, or social issues; natural disasters
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How Does the Skills Approach Work?
Focus of skills approach
Strengths
Criticisms
Application
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Skills Approach
Focus is primarily descriptive--it describes leadership from
skills perspective
Provides structure for understanding the nature of effective
leadership
Katz (1955) suggests importance of particular leadership skills
varies depending where leaders reside in management hierarchy
Mumford, Campion, and Morgeson (2007) suggest higher levels
of all skills needed at higher levels of hierarchy
Mumford, Zaccaro, and Harding et al. (2000) suggest leadership
outcomes are direct result of leader’s skilled competency in

problem-solving, social judgment, and knowledge
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Focus
Principal Research Perspectives
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Strengths
First approach to conceptualize and create a structure of the
process of leadership around skills
Describing leadership in terms of skills makes leadership
available to everyone
Provides an expansive view of leadership that incorporates wide
variety of components (i.e., problem-solving skills, social
judgment skills)
Provides a structure consistent with leadership education
programs
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Criticisms
Breadth of the skills approach appears to extend beyond the
boundaries of leadership, making it more general, less precise
Weak in predictive value; does not explain how skills lead to
effective leadership performance
Skills model includes individual attributes that are trait-like

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Application
The Skills Approach provides a way to delineate the skills of a
leader.
It is applicable to leaders at all levels within the organization.
The skills inventory can provide insights into the individual’s
leadership competencies.
Test scores allow leaders to learn about areas in which they may
wish to seek further training.
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Rubric
1. Topic sentence clearly illustrates the purpose of the paper
and is used to command the rest of the body sentences.
2. Body sentences discuss main idea of the paragraph. Illustrate
good use of details and examples to achieve the descriptive
purpose of the assignment.
3. Concluding sentence is relevant to show review of the main
idea as expressed and signals completion of the paragraph.
4. Varied sentence structure and simple/complex sentences
handled correctly. Demonstrates use of the steps of the writing
process. Effective use of transitions noted.

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Trait Approach
Chapter 2
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Overview
Great Person Theories
Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective
What Traits Differentiate Leaders From Nonleaders?
How Does the Trait Approach Work?
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Great Person Theories
“Great Man” Theories (early 1900s)
Focused on identifying innate qualities and characteristics
possessed by great social, political, and military leaders
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Trait Approach: One of the first systematic
attempts to study leadership
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Great Man Theories
Early 1900s
Research focused
on individual
characteristics
that universally
differentiated
leaders
from nonleaders
Traits Interacting With
Situational Demands on Leaders
1930-50s
Landmark Stogdill (1948)
study - analyzed and

synthesized 124 trait studies
- Leadership
reconceptualized
as a relationship between
people in a social situation
Mann (1959) reviewed 1,400
findings of personality and
leadership in small groups
- Less emphasis on situations
- Suggested personality traits
could be used to discriminate
leaders from nonleaders
Revival of Critical Role of
Traits in Leader Effectiveness
Stogdill (1974)
- Analyzed 163 new studies
with 1948 study findings
- Validated original study
- 10 characteristics
positively identified with
leadership
Lord, DeVader, & Alliger
(1986) meta-analysis
- Personality traits can be
used to differentiate
leaders/nonleaders
Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991)
- 6 traits make up the
“Right Stuff” for leaders
Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective
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1970s - Early 90s
Innate Qualities
Situations
Personality / Behaviors
Today
Intelligence
Self-Confidence
Determination
Integrity
Sociability
5 Major
Leadership Traits
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Major Leadership Traits
Intelligence--Verbal, perceptual, and reasoning capabilities.
For example, Steve Jobs
Self-Confidence--Certainty about one’s competencies and
skills. For example, Steve Jobs
Determination--Desire to get the job done (i.e., initiative,
persistence, drive). For example, Dr. Paul Farmer
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Traits to possess or cultivate if one seeks to be
perceived by others as a leader:

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Major Leadership Traits
Integrity--The quality of honesty and trustworthiness. For
example, Character Counts! program
Sociability--Leader’s inclination to seek out pleasant social
relationships. For example, Michael Hughes, university
president
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Traits to possess or cultivate if one seeks to be
perceived by others as a leader:
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Five-Factor Personality Model and Leadership
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Five-Factor Personality Model and Leadership

RESULTS--a strong relationship between personality
traits and leadership
Extraversion--factor most strongly associated with leadership
Most important trait of effective leaders
Conscientiousness--Second most related factor with leadership;
but highest correlation with overall job performance (Sacket &
Walmsley, 2014)
Openness--next most related
Low Neuroticism
Agreeableness--only weakly related to leadership
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Big Five and Leadership Study Using Meta-Analysis
(Judge et al, 2002)
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Strengths and Leadership
Strengths are the ability to consistently demonstrate exceptional
work. (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001; Rath, 2007)
Strengths come from having certain talents and then further
developing those talents by gaining additional knowledge,
skills, and practice.
Leadership capability is enhanced when we are able to
discover our fully utilized strengths, underutilized strengths,
and weaknesses. (MacKie , 2016)
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Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
people who are more sensitive to their emotions and their
impact on others will be more effective leaders
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Ability to perceive and:
apply emotions to life’s tasks
reason/understand emotions
express emotions
use emotions to facilitate thinking
manage emotions within oneself and relationships
Definition
Underlying Premise
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Different Ways to Measure EQ
MSCEIT (2000): EQ as a set of mental abilities
to perceive, facilitate, understand, and manage emotion
Goleman (1995, 1998): EQ as a set of personal and social
competencies
self-awareness, confidence, self-regulation, conscientiousness,
and motivation
Shankman and Allen (2015): EQ as awareness of three aspects
of leadership
context, self, and others
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How Does the Trait Approach Work?
Focus of trait approach
Strengths
Criticisms
Application
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Focus of Trait Approach
Focuses exclusively on leader
What traits leaders exhibit
Who has these traits
Organizations use personality assessments to find the “right”
people
Assumption--will increase organizational effectiveness
Specify characteristics/traits for specific positions
Personality assessment measures for “fit”
Instruments: LTQ, Myers Briggs
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Leader
Personality Assessments
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Strengths
Intuitively appealing
Perception that leaders are different in that they possess special
traits
People “need” to view leaders as gifted
Credibility due to a century of research support
Highlights leadership component in the leadership process
Deeper level understanding of how leader/personality related to
leadership process
Provides benchmarks for what to look for in a leader
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Fails to delimit a definitive list of leadership traits
Endless lists have emerged
Doesn’t take into account situational effects
Leaders in one situation may not be leaders in another situation
List of most important leadership traits is highly subjective
Much subjective experience and observations serve as basis for
identified leadership traits
Research fails to look at traits in relationship to leadership
outcomes
Not useful for training and development
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Criticisms

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Application
Can be used by managers to assess where they stand within their
organization and what is needed to strengthen their position
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Provides direction as to which traits are good to have if one
aspires to a
leadership position
Through various tests and questionnaires, individuals can
determine whether they have the select leadership traits and can
pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses
Leadership Traits
Intelligence
Self-confidence
Determination
Integrity
Sociability
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Introduction
Chapter 1
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Overview
Importance of Leadership
Leadership Defined
- Ways of conceptualizing leadership
- Definition and components
Leadership Described
- Trait versus process
- Assigned versus emergent
- Leadership and power
- Leadership and coercion
- Leadership and management
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The Evolution of Leadership Definitions
1900–1929--Control and centralization of power
1930s--Trait approach
1940s--Group approach

1950s--Group theory, shared goals, and
effectiveness
1960s--Leadership as behavior
1970s--Organizational behavior
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The Evolution of Leadership Definitions
1980s--Explosion of research
- Leader’s will
- Influence
- Traits
- Transformation
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21st century--The process of leadership
- Authentic leadership
- Spiritual leadership
- Servant leadership
- Adaptive leadership
- Followership
- Discursive leadership
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Conceptualizing Leadership

The focus of group processes
A personality perspective
An act or behavior
The power relationship between leaders and followers
A transformational process
A skills perspective
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Some definitions view leadership as:
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Leader at center of group change & activity – represents the
“will” of the group
combo of special traits/characteristics - allows them to affect
others to accomplish tasks.
3. Things leaders do that bring about change
4. Leaders have power and use it to cause change
5. In helping group members achieve their goals/meet needs
Leadership Defined
Leadership
is a process whereby an individual influences a group of
individuals to achieve a common goal.
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Components Central to the Phenomenon of Leadership
Leadership
Is a process
Involves influence
Occurs within a group context
Attends to common goals
Leaders
And followers are involved together
And followers need each other
Often initiate and maintain the relationship
Are not above or better than followers
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Leadership Described
Trait Versus Process Leadership
Assigned Versus Emergent Leadership
Leadership and Power
Leadership and Coercion
Leadership and Management
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Trait Versus Process Leadership
Leadership is a property or set of properties possessed in
varying degrees by different people (Jago, 1982).
Observed in leadership behaviors
Can be learned
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Assigned Versus Emergent Leadership
Leadership based on occupying a position within an
organization
Team leaders
Plant managers
Department heads
Directors
An individual perceived by others as the most influential
member of a group or organization regardless of the
individual’s title
Emerges over time through communication behaviors
Verbal involvement
Being informed

Seeking others’ opinions
Being firm but not rigid
Affected by personality and gender
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Assigned
Emergent
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Power
The capacity or potential to influence
Ability to affect others’ beliefs, attitudes, and actions
Bases of Social Power
French and Raven (1959); Raven (1965)
Referent
Expert
Legitimate
Reward
Coercive
Information
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Power is a relational concern for both leaders and followers.
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Position Power derived from office or rank in an organization
Personal Power is influence derived from being seen as likable
and knowledgeable
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Shift in Leadership Power, Kellerman (2012)
Power no longer the domain of leaders
Followers demand more from leaders
Access to technology has empowered followers
Leaders more transparent
Decline in respect for leaders
Leadership as social contract between leaders and followers
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Leadership and Coercion

Coercion Involves
Use of force to effect change
Influencing others to do something by manipulating rewards and
penalties in the work environment
Use of threats, punishments, and negative rewards
Examples of Coercive Leaders
Adolf Hitler
Jim Jones
Taliban leaders
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Power and restraint used to force followers to
engage in extreme
behavior
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Leadership and Management, Kotter (1990)
Management Activities
Planning and Budgeting
Organizing and Staffing
Controlling and Problem Solving
Leadership Activities
Establishing direction
Aligning people
Motivating/inspiring
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“Produces order
and consistency”
“Produces change

and movement”
Major activities of management and leadership
are played out differently; BUT, both are essential
for an organization to prosper.
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Leadership and Management, Zaleznik (1977)
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Managers
Unidirectional Authority
Leaders
Multidirectional Influence
Are reactive
Prefer to work with people solving
Low emotional involvement
Are emotionally active and involved
Shape ideas over responding to them
Act to expand available options
Change the way people think about what is possible
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