As an entrepreneur your first duty is management. The management process includes planning, organizing, leading, and controlling your company to achieve the ultimate goal – growth.
What makes successful managers better than others? Their age and experience perhaps? None of those notions really make a difference in how successful a manager is. We have seen some pretty young successful managers with only a couple of years of experience. In reality, it’s all about their skills.
There are three types of management skills that matter: individual, scientific and conceptual skills. Scientific or like the wider audience knows technical skills, are made from the information the manager possesses about a specialized field – economics, IT, manufacturing or any other.
Individual skills come from the ability of the manager to work well with others. Moreover, personal skills include constant communication, so the manager can use his skills to encourage and motivate employees to do a better job.
Lastly, we have conceptual skills. This skill is essential in running a successful business is all you want. The truth is that managers develop the other two skills more quickly, while conceptual skills, on the other hand, require a lot of work and dedication to develop fully.
What are conceptual skills?
Conceptual skills are specific skills that allow managers to think outside the box and have the required knowledge about difficult and abstract circumstances. Thanks to conceptual skills any manager can observe communication and association between different subjects and imagine how their contacts can fit in the big picture.
How conceptual skills can help you with management?
Every input can influence a change in a company, especially from those employees who have unique conceptual skills. Their opinions can change the course the company will take and bring prosperity. To explain why conceptual skills in management matter, and how to improve them, we will go into more detail so that you can have a better understanding as a manager.
Establish relations between different ideas
A manager who possesses conceptual skills can create an analysis of the interrelations of different ideas and concepts. Some entrepreneurs fail to realize that some of their aspects can connect their departments with the same goals. In this situation, conceptual skills come into play and change the game for the better. Thanks to the conceptual thinking competency, the manager can find ways to integrate different departments in the company and make everyone focused on completing the same objective.
Problem solving
A manager with conceptual skills can find solutions to problems by creating practical solutions. For example, if there is an unsatisfied mob protesting about the construction of a bridge near their houses, a manager with conceptual thinking competency will try to find a solution. His first task would be finding out more details about their problems before starting negotiations. The perfect solution for his company would be not to spend any money on relocating. A manager with a conceptual mindset will start negotiating and persuading the mob that the construction of the new bridge would not disrupt their peace. Plus, the bridge will offer some new work opportunities for that particular region.
Sounds hard, right? With the right conceptual thinking exercises, you’ll get there!
Perceive the company as a whole
Conceptual managers have a different point of view for their companies. They don’t perceive it as many different parts and micro-manage each part separately. All their main objectives are made from looking at the company as a whole. That means plans, strategies, and analyses are made from one perspective with one goal in mind. In some situations, where there is the need to micromanage particular segments, they will do it. However, that doesn’t change the overall course because their way of managing works perfectly.
Creativity
Conceptual skills allow finding creative solutions to current and future problems. Abstract thinking is one of the most significant values of conceptual skills. Imagining new products and how the audience will interact with them is part of the conceptual thinking process. The power of conceptual skills requires much imagination from the manager.
That directly connects conceptual thinking with having more significant creativity than other people. Thinking out of the box is one of the best ways to assure that in the end our business goals will be accomplished. Every so often, that means looking for alternative ways to utilize all available resources which includes: remote working, hiring virtual assistants, or outsourcing part of the work.
Takeaways
Conceptual skills are essential for your business if you want to build a reliable company. The dynamic world of business requires more thinking than ever. What better way to succeed than developing conceptual skills. By investing in finding creative solutions to potential problems that do not exist yet, you will be one step ahead of everyone.
Read more from Stealth Agents:
