Question

It has long been recognized that for managers to be successful at their role they need to possess a range of skills, all of which are important. However, it could be argued that some skills are more important than others.

The skills that managers need include the following:

• technical
• interpersonal
• conceptual
• communications
• time-management
• decision-making

Within your group, consider two different managers at the same advertising agency: one is a supervisor who manages a creative team of six people who produce ads, commercials and promotions, and the other is a vice-president who manages the finance department which consists of fifty people who handle accounting and financial tasks for the agency.

For each manager (the supervisor and the VP) rank the six skills types from most important to least important, then follow up with an explanation as to why you ranked the skills the way you did. Please cite your work

Answer 1

The ranking of the six skills (from most important to least important) for the supervisor is:

1	Conceptual
2	Communications
3	Interpersonal
4	Time management
5	Decision making
6	Technical

The  ranking of the six skills (from most important to least important) for the is:

1	Technical
2	Time management
3	Conceptual
4	Decision making
5	Communications
6	Interpersonal

Explanation: To understand the way I have ranked the skills differently for the supervisor and for the VP we should look at the job profile of these two people. The supervisor is managing a creative team and hence is responsible for creative output in the form of advertisements and commercials. The task will involve a lot of creative thinking and out of the box thinking and hence the conceptual skill of creativity will be the most relevant. A technical skill is not too relevant in a creative process and hence is ranked last. While the team is small (six people) communications and interpersonal skills are important as it will enable the manager to amplify the creative ability of each team member and to ensure that the commercials that are produced are as per the goals and objectives of the clients.

With regards to the VP technical skill is the most important as the work at hand consists of accounting and financial tasks and so it is technical skills only that will enable the VP to ensure proper functioning of the finance department. Time management is important as all financial reports and accounting statements have to be prepared within the laid out or within the specified time. While the team is large interpersonal skills are not so important here because each member of the finance team will be performing their role more or less in an independent manner.

Citations:

1. Identifying work skills: International approaches - (Gitta Siekmann and Craig Fowler) - National Centre for Vocational Education Research

2. Executive perception of the Top 10 soft skills needed in today's workplace - (Marcel M. Robles) - SAGE