Definition: Conceptual skills are abilities that allow an individual to understand complex situations to develop creative and successful solutions. In other words, it is a natural talent that addresses difficult scenarios with an innovative approach.
What Does Conceptual Skills Mean?
Conceptual skills are highly valued from a management perspective. People with a certain degree of responsibility within an organization are frequently exposed to highly complex dilemmas that are not easy to tackle. Having conceptual skills to deal with these situations is particularly useful since it expands the range of possible solutions by adding a creative mindset that might see the problem from different angles that are not easily visible by other parties involved.
The ability to conceptualize these ideas is crucial, since everyone might have an opinion but not all individuals are capable to implement those ideas successfully. These skills are considered more strategic since their range of impact is wider from an organizational perspective. Decisions based on conceptual skills are normally productive and they focus on solving more than in explaining or describing. These abilities allow individuals to deconstruct and approach certain situations with an abstract thinking that is highly effective at top management levels.
Example
Mr. Tom is a Human Resources Manager at Creative Marketing Co., an advertising agency that focuses mostly in the automobile market. The company managers are currently worried about the staff’s competence, since most Creative Directors are not being able to translate marketing concepts into valuable advertising campaigns. They think the problem originates in their lack of knowledge about the industry.
Mr. Tom was assigned with the task of training these Directors in a way that they understand the industry from within. Mr. Tom is known for being a creative thinker and his bosses recognize his highly developed conceptual skills.
After studying the problem carefully, Mr. Tom decided to come up with a program that submerges these executives into some client’s factories for at least 2 weeks and also, a scheduled frequent attendance to automobile conferences that allows them to understand the market more deeply. This solution evidenced Mr. Tom’s ability to think creatively and to present innovate solutions to difficult problems.
