How to Develop Your Conceptual skills for Effective leadership.*
How to Develop Your Conceptual skills for Effective leadership.
By Bright Edet
If you’re aspiring for a career in top management, then you probably know by now the importance of developing your emotional intelligence. All great leaders share one thing in common: they all have high emotional intelligence. However, turns out that there’s one major part of your soft skills that often receives very little attention: your conceptual skills.
In short, those are critical thinking skills that allow you to connect the dots and draw the (right) conclusions, even when some information is lacking.
Since that’s easier said than done and you deserve to learn about CS a bit deeper, read on to find out what are conceptual skills and how you can start developing them!
What are conceptual skills?
As we’ve said, conceptual skills are critical thinking and observation skills that are deemed crucial for top-level executives. A popular explanation goes that CS help you see the forest for the trees!
To help you understand the concept a bit better, here are the skills expected of every leader:
Technical skills – also known as the hard skills, or actual knowledge needed to execute the job
Human relationship skills- including but not limited to communication, conflict solving, and everything else that stems from working with others
Conceptual skills- the skills needed to work with abstract ideas and concepts, draw conclusions, and make the right moves forward
Who needs to develop their conceptual skills?
Anyone in top management and C-level executives, as well as others holding leadership positions.
According to Robert Katz, the person who first introduced the concept of conceptual skills, the more you move up the management hierarchy, the less you need technical skills and the more you need to work on your CS and HR skills.
Examples of conceptual skills
Let’s say you’re the CEO of a large enterprise. Your day-to-day tasks involve more than just getting the job right- you’re the ship’s captain!
If your CS aren’t highly developed, then you won’t be able to notice current problems or predict future obstacles, both internally or externally.
On the other side, if your conceptual skills are developed, then:
You’re highly observant & analytical – not only that you know where to look to find what you need, but you also know how to interpret the data in front of you
Creative thinking is your forte.Who says that all the solutions have to fit within a framework? That’s right, no one!
You know how to push emotions aside when needed and rely on your logical thinking only. Staying calm under pressure is never a problem for you!
You’re not only confident in your decision-making, but you also excel at action planning, action- taking, and predicting future obstacles
Problem-solving is never a problem (pun not intended) – it’s a fun task you actually enjoy!
How to develop your conceptual skills
Here are several ways you can develop your CS!
Become more observant
Practice being more observant. Train the eye to see something that’s not always obvious.
You can do this anywhere, anytime – on your way to work or during your lunch break in the park. Notice what you’re seeing, analyze it, and try to “predict” whats going to happen next.
Over time, you can move to bigger and greater things! (for instance, a problem in the company that’s been dragging for too long, etc.)
Learn how to listen
How many times do you listen only to respond – not because you actually care to hear it?
Learn how to listen to what people are saying – no matter whether that’s the biggest investor in the company or the delivery guy. Show them you care, the truth is, you can never go wrong with empathy.
We guarantee you’d be surprised by everything you find out simply by taking the time to listen!
Practice creative thinking
Creative thinking doesn’t necessarily need to stay in your head only. Actually, the only way to improve it is to get it on paper!
All the way from journaling or writing short stories, to doing mind-mapping to help you conceptualize ideas… the more you do it, the better you’ll become at it!
Grab a notepad and a pen and get started, it’s that simple!
Expose yourself to the unknown
You know how people swear that they look at the world with a different pair of eyes after a long period of traveling?
That happens because they’ve been brave enough to expose themselves to the unknown, which can be a life-changing experience!
In the business world, this translates to allowing yourself to look at things from a different perspective. Usually, that’s the perspective you need (but you don’t know it).
Let’s say, if you’re a B2C company trying to sell something, instead of trying to figure out what your clients need and wasting hundreds of dollars on manufacturing products no one’s going to buy, why not mingle among them to hear what they have to say?
Work with a mentor
Working closely with a mentor is the best shortcut to save yourself a lot of time, energy, and well –heartbreak! (yes, that happens in the business world too!)
Find yourself someone you trust and take it from there. Observe how the ways they think, speak and act. You’re bound to leaarn plenty!
Learn how to be mindful
There’s a reason why mindfulness is one of the words making the most buzz in the last decade.
When you learn how to quiet down the mind and let go, all the best ideas and solutions come to mind!
If you’ve never meditated before, start slowly and work your way up. Even 10 minutes per day can make a massive difference!
Happy New week all.