A skill is the learnt capacity or talent to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both1. In other words, a skill is an ability or proficiency that a person possesses that permits him or her to perform a particular task2.
Technical Skills
Technical skill is the ability to use specific knowledge, techniques, and resources in performing tasks. Examples of technical skills are writing computer programs, completing accounting statements, analyzing marketing statistics, writing legal documents, or drafting a design for a new airfoil on an airplane. Technical skills are usually obtained through training programs that an organization may offer its managers or employees or may be obtained by way of a college degree. Indeed, many business schools throughout the country see their role as providing graduates with the technical skills necessary for them to be successful on the job.
Analytical Skills
These skills are the abilities to identify key factors and understand how they interrelate, and the roles they play in a situation. Analytical skills involve being able to think about how multiple complex variables interact, and to conceive of ways to make them act in desirable manner.
Decision Making skills
These skills are present in the planning process. A manager's effectiveness lies in making good and timely decisions and is greatly influenced by his or her analytical skills.
Digital Skills
These are important because using digital technology substantially increases a manager’s productivity. Computers can perform in minutes tasks in financial analysis, HRP, and other areas that otherwise take hours, even days to complete.
Human Skills
Human skill involves the ability to interact effectively with people. Managers interact and cooperate with employees. Human skills, therefore, relate to the individual's expertise in interacting with others in a way that will enhance the successful completion of the task at hand.
Communications Skills
Effective communication is vital for effective managerial performance. The skill is critical to success in every field. Communication skills involve the ability to communicate in ways that other people understand, and to seek and use feedback from employees to ensure that one is understood.
Conceptual Skills
Conceptual skill is the ability to see the “big picture,” to recognize significant elements in a situation, and to understand the relationship among the elements. Examples of situations that require conceptual skills include the passage of laws that affect hiring patterns in an organization, a competitor's change in marketing strategy, or the reorganization of one department which ultimately affects the activities of other departments in the organization.
Design Skills
It is the ability to solve problems in ways that will benefit the organization. To be effective, particularly at upper levels, mangers must be able to do more than see a problem. They must also be able to design a workable solution to the problem.