There is a common fallacy among many people from the world of Human Resource management which states that jobs begin at the technical level, but then eventually shift out of that phase and into the managerial level, where technical skills become less relevant. But is this really the truth? Some say that good leaders don’t lose their technical skills, but rather that those skills shift and expand to cover the bigger picture. In an article in HuffPo Business, Bernie Bulkin elaborates on how technical skills evolve as one moves into the managerial phase of their career.
Good Leaders Don’t Lose Their Technical Skills
There is a popular model used by many HR folk that conveys to employees, especially those progressing in the corporation, that at the outset of a career a job is mostly technical content (by which is meant specialist content, for example, selling would be technical in this regard), but that as one progresses, the technical content is reduced and the managerial content is increased. This little model envisions that the total amount of content is constant, but the balance shifts.
It is so easy for our young managers to accept this that I think it must be completely debunked. It is just plain wrong. Why?
First, we develop as individuals. If we are learning, if we are growing, if we are developing our skills, then we actually are growing the range of things we can do. Sure, if we were to look at how we spend the hours of a work week, more of them might be spent on things viewed as managerial, and fewer on things viewed as technical. But that is not very relevant. Our productivity per hour has increased and the range of work we accomplish should have radically broadened.
What is relevant is that the collection of skills and competencies that we need to do the job well, at any stage of our career, changes. And that brings us to the second fallacy; the technical content goes down. I think that as you progress you exchange a requirement for technical depth with a demand for technical breadth.
It is far more likely that really good leaders start “at the bottom” so to speak, where they learn the technical ins and outs of the business. From there, they can use what they have learned in order to see the big picture. So remember, as you make your way to the top, good leaders don’t lose their technical skills, they simple shift them over time.
