Top Technical Skills for Managers

But when it comes to entrepreneurship, it’s not enough simply to have a “great idea"—there are a certain fundamental skills and concepts that entrepreneurs should be familiar with such as management skills, not only to conceptualize a business plan, but also to identify sources of funding for their plan, implement their plan, and then if and when the time is right, expand their business in some way. Possessing and developing certain management skills and technical skills can be important in helping them navigate the different stages of starting a new business or enterprise. But what is a technical skill?

Three Types of Management Skills

Robert Katz is known for his identification of three fundamental skills that managers should possess: technical skills, human skills, conceptual skills.

• Technical skill “implies an understanding of, and proficiency in, a specific kind of activity, particularly one involving methods, processes, procedures, or techniques… Technical skill involves specialized knowledge, analytical ability within that specialty, and facility in the use of the tools and techniques of the specific discipline.”¹ Technical skill is needed to perform an activity.
• Human skill refers to interpersonal or “people” skills—human skill is “the ability to work effectively as a group member and to build cooperative effort within the team he leads.”¹ In other words, human skills help facilitate and promote clearer communication within an organization and more productive team interactions.
• Conceptual skill involves seeing a business or enterprise as a whole—how an organization’s functions work together, how changes to one function can affect others and how a business relates to the world around it (to the industry, to the community, to political, social and economic forces).¹ Understanding how things work holistically can improve managerial decision-making.

The Importance of Technical Skills for Managers

While much can be said about the importance of human and conceptual skills in starting and running a business, the focus in this article is on technical skills in management and entrepreneurship. And there are a few reasons why technical skills are important. Having relevant technical skills can help to demonstrate knowledge, proficiency and competence in a particular activity or field. Possessing necessary technical skills could also make it easier to solve certain problems or help others to solve them (for example, if a coding issue is causing a product not to work, technical knowledge of coding will be necessary to fix it)—not to mention that adequate technical skills may be able to help prevent problems in the first place.

What Are Technical Skills?—Examples

Necessary technical skills vary widely—they may depend on a range of factors, including job role, organization, field, industry and so on. It seems logical that someone who wants to establish or grow a business should ideally possess the same kinds of specialized knowledge and technical skills expected of professionals working in a similar sphere. Think about it—it would be difficult if not impossible to develop a new type of accounting software if you weren’t already well-versed in accounting and didn’t really understand how to develop software. And so with that in mind, here are some examples of relevant technical skills by occupation:

Information Technology Skills

To remain competitive, and in addition to meeting minimum formal education requirements, computer systems analysts need to be aware of technological advances and may need to take continuing education courses throughout their career paths to keep up with new technology. Industry-specific knowledge is also necessary so that they can work with managers to determine the role of information technology (IT) in an organization—a systems analyst working in a hospital may need to thoroughly understand healthcare plans, and an analyst working for a bank may need to understand finance.² The following are some types of IT software that a computer system analyst may need to be proficient in:³

• Access software—Access management software; Citrix cloud computing software
• Administration software—Cisco Systems CiscoWorks; Element management software
• Application server software—Docker; GitHub; Oracle Application Server; Oracle WebLogic Server; Red Hat OpenShift; Red Hat WildFly; Spring Boot
• Backup or archival software—System and data disaster recovery software; Veritas NetBackup
• Network monitoring software—Nagios; Network intrusion prevention systems NIPS; Snort; Wireshark
• Network security or virtual private network VPN management software—Virtual private networking VPN software
• Object oriented data base management software—Hibernate ORM; Microsoft Visual FoxPro; PostgreSQL

Project Management Skills

While project management specialists may have a degree in any number of fields, such as business or project management, some employers may prefer candidates who have a degree in a technical field related to their industry, such as computer and information technology or engineering. Relevant work experience and professional certification may also be required for some positions.⁴ Such specific qualifications—earning a degree in a technical field and possessing work experience and certification—exist so that employers can better identify candidates who are proficient in the technical project management skills that a given role may require.

The following are some types of software a project management specialist may need to be proficient in:⁵

• Cloud-based data access and sharing software—Dropbox; Google Drive; Microsoft SharePoint; Slack
• Content workflow software—Atlassian JIRA
• Data base reporting software—SAP Crystal Reports
• Desktop publishing software—Adobe InDesign
• Development environment software—Microsoft Azure software; Microsoft Visual Basic; Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications VBA
• Process mapping and design software—Microsoft Visio
• Project management software—Atlassian Confluence; Google Classroom; Microsoft Projects; Microsoft Teams; Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management; Planview Clarizen; Smartsheet

Data Management and Analytics Skills

Management analysts (also known as business analysts or business consultants6) typically enter the occupation with several years of work experience. However, field-specific work experience is sometimes required. For example, tax preparation firms may prefer candidates who have previously worked as an accountant or auditor, and software companies may prefer candidates who have previously worked as a computer systems analyst.⁷ They should have data management technical skills—that is, they need be able to gather and analyze data to develop solutions or alternative methods of proceeding, document their findings and prepare their recommendations, and plan the study of work problems and procedures. They may need to be proficient in the following software, as well as others:⁶

• Analytical or scientific software—IBM SPSS Statistics; Minitab; SAS; The MathWorks MATLAB; StataCorp Stata
• Business intelligence and data analysis software—Alteryx software; Apache Spark; IBM Cognos Impromtu; Microsoft Power BI; MicroStrategy; Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition; Qlik Tech QlikView; Tableau
• Financial analysis software—Delphi Technology; Oracle E-Business Suite Financials
• Object or component oriented development software—Advanced business application programming ABAP; Apache Groovy; C#; C++; jQuery; Jupyter Notebook; Microsoft ActiveX; Oracle Java; Perl; Python; R; Scala; Swift
• Object oriented data base management software—Hibernate ORM; PostgreSQL

Other Important Technical and Managerial Skills

Even if you aren’t planning on starting or managing a business in a technical field or industry, developing certain types of foundational entrepreneurial and business management skills could still be important. So, what are these skills managers might need?

Computer and Digital Literacy

Long gone are the days of typewriters and snail mail. Having some degree of computer literacy is essential in the modern world—and for entrepreneurs who tend to figure a lot of things out on their own, the higher the level of digital literacy, the better. At a minimum, sufficient Microsoft Office skills—Word, Outlook, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, etc.—are needed to send documents, communicate via email, put on presentations and pitches and so on. And basic IT knowledge, such as awareness of commercial antivirus programs or VPN software, could also help in making sound decisions about how to protect proprietary information.

Technical Writing

Although technical writing is a specific occupation that involves translating complex technical information into easier-to-understand formats such as instruction manuals, how-to guides and journal articles,⁸ there are some aspects of technical writing that could conceivably be useful in starting up, managing and growing a business. Technical writers strive to make products and instructions easier to use, and they incorporate animations, graphs and other visual aids to increase understanding of the material at hand.⁸ Utilizing technical and business writing principles to simplify complicated ideas could be useful in a scenario where an entrepreneur is trying to secure funding for a new business, presentations may need to be tailored to different audiences with varying levels of technical knowledge—familiarity with technical writing principles could be helpful in such a scenario.

Communication

Although technical skills are the primary focus of this article, no discussion of entrepreneurial or managerial skills would be complete without at least mentioning the importance of communication skills (an aspect of human skills), specifically workplace communication skills. Managers and entrepreneurs are constantly communicating—with team members, investors, partners and other stakeholders. Maintaining open lines of communication and being able to clearly convey ideas and talk through solutions to technical and other issues is one way to promote positive working relationships.

Pursuing a degree program could provide an opportunity study different skills that can be utilized in managing a business or enterprise. American InterContinental University offers a number of degree programs and specializations designed to help students work to develop their technical and leadership skills. Check out our Bachelor of Business Administration—Management, Bachelor of Business Administration—Project Management, and Bachelor of Science in Information Technology degree programs to learn more, or apply now.

¹ Robert L. Katz, “Skills of an Effective Administrator,” from the Magazine, Sep. 1974, https://hbr.org/1974/09/skills-of-an-effective-administrator.
² Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Computer Systems Analysts,” https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/computer-systems-analysts.htm (visited 6/20/2024).
³ O*NET Online, “15-1211—Computer Systems Analysts,” https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-1211.00 (visited 6/20/2024).
⁴ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Project Management Specialists,” https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/project-management-specialists.htm (visited 6/20/2024).
⁵ O*NET Online, “13-1082—Project Management Specialists,” https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1082.00 (visited 6/20/2024).
⁶ O*NET Online, “13-1111—Management Analysts,” https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1111.00 (visited 6/20/2024).
⁷ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Management Analysts,” https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/management-analysts.htm (visited 6/20/2024).
⁸ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Technical Writers, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/technical-writers.htm (visited 6/20/2024).

American InterContinental University cannot guarantee employment, salary, or career advancement. Not all programs are available to residents of all states. REQ1963884 6/2024