Technical Skills

Leaders typically do not begin their career in a leadership position. Leaders come from the “ranks” and are usually experts in their field. Organization’s value those technical skills and promote leaders who excel in their field. The expectation is that leaders will maintain their technical skills and grow in their leadership skills.

Why Technical Skills are Important to a Leader

A leader’s technical skills establish their credibility to their team. Imagine having a team of technical experts at NASA who suddenly were assigned a leader who comes from the food service industry. Leaders are not expected to know everything that is current in their field, but they are expected to have enough knowledge to be a problem solver and stimulate creativity.

Benefits for the Leader

Being a technical leader requires a responsibility to be current in your field, and although this requires significant effort in time and energy, credibility is built, and that makes you a highly desired commodity. This credibility is important within your organization and also in the marketplace. Maintaining your technical skills enables you to communicate with others in your field to solve problems, make decisions, and grow your business.

Top 3 Coaches Recommendations for Technical Skills

1. Take steps to proactively contribute to the body of knowledge in your field by writing articles, blogs or conference papers. This establishes your credibility as a leader in your field and helps advance your organization.
2. Continually seek ways to improve your technical knowledge and skills. As a leader you are a resource to your team.
3. Network and build alliances with others in your field. Knowing others gives you additional resources when needed to solve problems.

Measure and Improve Your Technical Skills

Be determined to improve your technical skills. Take the short technical skills self-assessment on this page to identify where to improve your technical skills. Then, get more coaches’ recommendations in Chapter 17 of The Leadership Compass: Mapping Your Leadership Direction to help you fine-tune your technical skills.