What is it?

Skill Will Matrix is an activity to help you lead and manage members of your team better.

Why is it useful?

• Helps leadership and management teams think through strategies to align stakeholders with objectives.
• Provides a structured way to decide how to secure team members as advocates and ensure optimal performance.

Objective

To inform decisions on how best to lead and manage individual members of a team.

When would you use it?

• At the planning stage of a project or program.
• As a leadership team to create a leadership strategy that secures advocates and high performance.
• To reflect on what leadership means and how it is demonstrated.

Rules

• Each leader must justify their classification of each team member with evidence.
• Agree a strategy for every team member that the leadership team signs off and supports.

Resources Required

• 1 sheet of flip chart paper with the Skill Will Matrix drawn up and posted on a wall.
• Sticky notes, each with the name of a team member.
• 1 sheet of flip chart paper with the Planning Matrix drawn up.

Ground Rules

• A facilitator must guide the activity.
• Everyone participates equally, no hierarchy.
• Focus on evidence when placing people on the matrix.
• Strategies should be based on past effectiveness, but also include fresh thinking.

Roles & Responsibilities

Facilitator

• Stays objective and provides no answers.
• Ensures every voice is heard.
• Guides the process and manages group dynamics.

Leadership Team / Participants

• Work through the process under facilitator guidance.
• Share evidence and viewpoints about each person.
• Collaborate to reach consensus on classifications and strategies.

Process

1. Purpose

Facilitator explains: “We’re creating a leadership plan to secure optimal performance from the team.”

2. Ground rules

Facilitator outlines the rules of participation and process.

3. Place people on the Skill Will Matrix

• Pick a sticky note with a team member’s name.
• Ask the group key questions about their Skill and Will levels.
• Facilitate debate, press for evidence, and place the note in the agreed quadrant.
• Repeat for each team member.

4. Fill the Planning Matrix

• Complete columns 1 and 2 with names and positions.
• Agree strategies to secure optimal performance and record them in the matrix.

How to put team members on the matrix

• Skill dimension: What level of relevant skills does this person currently have for the project/program?
• Will dimension: What is their level of motivation to deliver outcomes, work as a team, and perform optimally?

Critical questions for the leadership team

• How do we move individuals toward becoming advocates?
• How do we prevent advocates from burning out?
• Can advocates help shift resistors and blockers?
• How can these shifts be supported and managed?

Secret Sauce

• Calibrate each person relative to the rest of the group (who has more skill? more will?).
• If disagreement arises, focus on evidence and debate – insights often come from contested views.
• Spend time on creating effective, evidence-based strategies for the Planning Matrix.
• Challenge “this is what we usually do” thinking.
• Link the four quadrants to leadership styles: ask which style best suits each quadrant.