Skills Theory Case Study

Defining Skills David Burkos stated that the skills theory grew from the obvious flaw in the trait approach; traits are relatively fixed. This meant that trait theory was not particularly useful for developing new leaders who lack those traits. Skills theorists sought to discover the skills and abilities that made leaders effective. Similar to trait theory, skills theories are leader-centric, focused on what characteristics about leaders make them effective. The two primary theories to develop from a skills approach were Katz’sthree-skill approach and Mumford’s skills model of leadership.

The three-skill approach argued that effective leadership required three skills: technical, human and conceptual skills. Technical skill refers to proficiency in a specific activity or type of work. Human skill refers to being able to work with people and conceptual skill refers to the ability to work with broad concepts and ideas. The three-skill approach asserted that, while all skills were important for leaders, their level of importance varies depending on the organizational level of leaders. As leaders move through the levels of the organization (from lower to upper), skill importance moves from technical to human

It outlines the journey from surface to deep learning. SOLO is John Hattie’s taxonomy of choice and is currently being studied in depth at his Visible Learning Labs (Osiris Educational Outstanding

SOLO 1: “The Pre-Structural Level”

Here the student does not have any kind of understanding but uses irrelevant information and/or misses the point altogether. Scattered pieces of information may have been acquired, but they are unorganized, unstructured, and essentially void of actual content or relation to a topic or problem.

SOLO 2: “The Uni-Structural