This document discusses the core leadership skills of administrative skills, interpersonal skills, and conceptual skills. Administrative skills involve managing people, resources, and showing technical competence. Interpersonal skills include being socially perceptive, showing emotional intelligence, and managing interpersonal conflict. Conceptual skills comprise problem solving, strategic planning, and creating a vision. The chapter provides examples and discussion of developing skills in each area to become a more effective leader.

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Chapter 6:Chapter 6:
Developing Leadership SkillsDeveloping Leadership Skills

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Chapter Objectives
• Understanding administrative skills and their
use in practice.
• Understanding interpersonal skills and their
use in practice.
• Understanding conceptual skills and their use
in practice.

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Discussion Questions
• What skills do you think are most
important for leaders to possess?
• Why have traits of leaders historically
received more attention than leadership
skills?

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What Are Leadership Skills?
• Leadership skills refer to learned
competencies that leaders are able to
demonstrate in performance.
• Leadership skills:
o Give people the capacity to influence others
o Are a critical component in successful
leadership

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Core Leadership Skills
• Administrative Skills
• Interpersonal Skills
• Conceptual Skills

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Administrative Skills
• The competencies needed to carry out the
purposes & goals of the organization
o Involve planning, organizing work, coordinating
work activities
o Allow leaders to accomplish the mundane, but
critically important, aspects of leadership
• Divided into three specific skill sets:
o Managing People, Managing Resources, &
Showing Technical Competence

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Managing People
• An effective leader connects with people & understands
the tasks, the skills required to perform them, & the
overall environment.
o Includes helping employees
 to work as a team
 motivating them to do their best
 promoting satisfying relationships among employees
o Occupies the most time
o Involves communicating with multiple stakeholders
o Ex.: Nate Parker and after-school recreation program
• “Management by walking around”

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Managing Resources
• Resources can be money, supplies,
equipment, space, etc., anything needed to
operate an organization.
• Managing resources requires a leader to be
competent in both obtaining and allocating
resources. Ex.: cross-country coach buying
new uniforms for the team
• The ultimate responsibility of resource
management rests on the leader.

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Showing Technical Competence
• Technical competence involves having
specialized knowledge about our work.
o A leader with technical competence understands the
intricacies of how the organization functions.
o A leader is more effective when he or she has
knowledge about the activities subordinates are
asked to perform.
o A leader is not required to have technical
competence in every situation.
• Also referred to as “Functional Competence”

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Interpersonal Skills
• People skills—the abilities that help a leader
to work effectively with subordinates, peers, &
superiors, to accomplish the organization’s
goals
• Divided into three specific skill sets:
o Being Socially Perceptive
o Showing Emotional Intelligence
o Managing Interpersonal Conflict

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Being Socially Perceptive
• Being socially perceptive involves
understanding the unique needs, goals, &
demands of different constituencies
• Having insight into & awareness of:
o what is important to others
o how they are motivated
o the problems they face
o how they react to change
• Ex.: Univ. of Michigan graduation

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Showing Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional Intelligence:
o a person’s ability to understand his or her
own & others’ emotions
o apply this to life’s tasks
• Emotional intelligence is the ability to:
o perceive & express emotions
o use emotions to facilitate thinking
o understand & reason with emotions
o manage emotions effectively (Mayer,
Salovey, & Caruso, 2000)

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Enhancing Emotional Intelligence
1. Leaders need to work on becoming aware
of their own emotions.
2. A leader should train to become aware of
the emotions of others.
3. A leader needs to learn how to regulate his
or her emotions & put them to good use.
• Ex.: high school principal and student
pranksters

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Handling Conflict
• Conflict creates the need for change and occurs as the
result of change.
• Conflict is the struggle between two or more individuals
over perceived differences regarding substantive issues
or relational issues.
• Although uncomfortable, conflict is not unhealthy nor
necessarily bad.
• If conflict is managed effectively there is a reduction of
stress, an increase in creative problem solving, and
improved group relations.

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Conceptual Skills
• Conceptual skills involve the thinking or
cognitive aspects of leadership, such as
concepts and ideas.
• Divided into three specific skill sets:
o Problem Solving
o Strategic Planning
o Creating Vision

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Problem Solving
• Problem Solving Skills are a leader’s cognitive
ability to take corrective action in a problem
situation to meet desired objectives.
• Skills include the following:
o identifying the problem
o generating alternative solutions
o selecting the best solution from among the
alternatives
o implementing that solution

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Strategic Planning
• Strategic planning requires developing careful
plans of action based on available resources &
personnel to achieve a goal
• Boal & Hooijberg (2000) suggest that strategic
leaders need to have:
o The ability to learn—capacity to absorb new
information and apply it towards new goals
o The capacity to adapt—being able to respond quickly
to changes in the environment
o Managerial wisdom—A deep understanding of people
and the environment in which they work

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Creating Vision
• Creating vision requires the capacity to
challenge people with compelling visions of
the future.
• To create vision, a leader needs to:
o set forth a picture of a future that is better than
the present
o move others toward a new set of ideals &
values that will lead to the future
• A leader must implement the vision & model
the principles set forth in the vision

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Leadership Snapshot: Coquese Washington
– Grew up in Flint, MI; played seven musical instruments.
– Was an All-State selection for girls’ basketball two years
in a row and was awarded a scholarship to attend Notre
Dame where she earned her undergraduate and law
degree.
– After law school, played for the Portland Power of the
ABL (American Basketball League) and the WNBA.
– Helped the Houston Comets win the WNBA title.
– Became the founding president of the WNBA Players’
Association and negotiated the players’ first collective
bargaining agreement.

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Leadership Snapshot: Coquese Washington
• She realized that she loved being part of a basketball team. In
2007 she was chosen as the Head Coach for Penn State
Women’s Basketball and by 2013, she led the Lady Lions to
three consecutive appearances at the NCAA Women’s Division I
Basketball Championships.
• But the winning isn’t what’s keeping Washington on the court. It’s
the opportunity to be a mentor and leader to her players.
• Coach Washington believes that “we use basketball as a vehicle,
but I’m probably most proud of our kids’ ability to achieve. I’ve
learned over the years that that is a skill that’s developed, not
something you’re born with. Perseverance, persistence, belief –
there are so many skills that have to be nurtured to become an
achiever.”

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Case Study: Sweet Caroline’s
• Based on the Model of Primary Leadership Skills (Fig. 6.1), how
would you describe Caroline’s skills? In what skills is she
strongest and in what skills is she weakest?
• Sweet Caroline’s bakery and restaurant seemed to emerge out
of nowhere. What role did Caroline play in this? Do you think
Caroline could improve her business with more strategic
planning?
• Have you ever worked at a place that was very successful but
felt quite chaotic and disorganized? How did you handle it?
• If you were a consultant to Caroline, would you recommend she
open a second location? If so, what three skills would you have
Caroline develop in order to help manage her business better?

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Summary
• Administrative, interpersonal, & conceptual
skills play a major role in effective
leadership.
• Through practice & hard work, we can all
become better leaders by improving our
skills in each of these areas.