Module Catalog →
Module Catalog →
Technical, human, and conceptual skills — learnable, not innate.
Robert L. Katz (1933–2010) was a Harvard Business School professor, consultant, and executive whose 1955 Harvard Business Review article reframed effective administration as three developable skills — technical, human, and conceptual — varying in mix by organizational level. HBR reprinted it as a classic two decades later.
Katz proposed that effective administration rests on three developable skills — technical, human, and conceptual — whose mix shifts with organizational level. A direct, practical answer to trait theory.
The era: The Group Era — Leadership can be learned; leader–group relations. Not apart from the group but part of the group — any member can lead.
Technical, human, and conceptual skills — learnable, not innate.
This theory sits in the The Group Era era of the map: Leadership can be learned; leader–group relations. Not apart from the group but part of the group — any member can lead.
Audit yourself on technical, human, and conceptual skill — in the mix your level requires.
Develop the skill your next role needs, not the one your last role rewarded.