Skill Will Matrix is an activity to help you to lead & manage members of your team better. This page shows you how it works in easy-to-follow steps.
If you are in a project situation Skill Will Matrix is a great activity to run at the planning stage because it helps start everyone off on a positive path before the hard work starts.

The Skill Will Matrix
You can also use it with leadership and management teams to help them think through their strategy for bringing all the key stakeholders into line with their objectives.

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Objective
When Would You Use It?
Are There Any Rules?
Resources Required
Ground Rules
Roles & Responsibilities
Facilitator | Leadership Team / Participants |
---|---|
Process
- 1The Facilitator outlines the purpose of the activity – “to arrive at a leadership plan to secure optimal performance from members of the project/program team.”
- 2The Facilitator outlines how the process will unfold, and sets the ‘Ground Rules’ (see separate slide).
- 3The Facilitator selects a ‘Sticky note’ with the name of a team member on it and asks the leadership team the ‘Key Questions’ to get their views about the allocation to a quadrant of the Skill Will Matrix and their reason. The Facilitator supports the group to move towards a consensus and then places the ‘Sticky note’ in the appropriate quadrant.
- 4The Facilitator repeats stage 3 with each project team member.
- 5The Facilitator completes columns 1 and 2 of the Planning Matrix.
- 6The Facilitator supports the group to agree a strategy to secure the optimal performance of each team member and records this in the Planning Matrix.
How To Put Team Members on the Matrix
For the SKILL Dimension
For the WILL Dimension
The Planning Matrix

Critical Questions for the Leadership Team
The aim is to ideally have a team of strong Advocates. At the very least, however, for the project to be successful there needs to be a critical mass of Advocates.
Has anyone tried Skills Base? I was thinking of using it for this purpose. http://www.skills-base.com
Thanks for putting this exercise together, excellent workshop
Ron
Thanks!!
Hi Nick,
Great slides and interesting information. I;m increasingly being asked to run workshops and coach our senior leaders. Appreciate the resources. Some I have done before and am familiar with, others are great new take on delivering to suit the audience.
Keep up the great work.
Cheers
Zubyer
I like this. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for sharing all this great information. It’s very useful and the best part was the critical question for leadership team and the secret sauce!