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1955Organisation

Katz: the three skills of an administrator

The point, in one line

Three skills — technical, people, big picture — and the mix changes as you rise.

How it works

Every autumn the best organiser becomes president and gets worse — Katz explains why: a higher post needs a different mix of three skills, and a surplus of the old one now gets in the way.

  1. Technical skillThe budget, the sound, the sign-in desk. Decisive at the lowest levels.
  2. Human skillNeeded about equally at every level. Visible between meetings, not in them.
  3. Conceptual skillThe whole picture: how you look from the faculty's side, and where you are in two years.
the base holds the rest
You can see which layer your current post demands most — and that the skill you were elected for is now a temptation.
The same thing, in your club
  1. The situation

    You are the best event organiser in the faculty. In autumn you were elected president, and two months later you look worse than last year.

  2. What the model says

    You have lost nothing. The required mix changed, and you are still doing everything yourself.

  3. What you do

    This week hand one technical task, the sign-in desk say, to a named person and stop checking it.

What it claims

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Who created it

RK1955
An illustrated emblem, not a portrait.
Robert L. Katz (1926–2024)
1955

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Why this is your problem

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Why gslk uses it

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Where it runs in the product

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Source

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Rights and licence
In copyright

The primary source is in copyright. This page retells it in our own words and cites it rather than reproducing it.

What this connects to

These works are related to the one you just read — and not by accident:

Grounds these competency domains

Of the ten gslk competency domains, this work grounds:

The student version
Katz: the three skills of an administrator

The same work written for a member: what to do with it in the club.

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