Skills matrix · what it is and what it is for
A skills matrix is a list of the skills a role requires and the level expected for each of them. It is not a rating of a person or a personality test, but a map: how far what you do routinely is from what your role, here and now, actually requires.
A warehouse doorman who is “flexible” has a job title: former doorman.
An example
The same job title, three completely different jobs. The scores are illustrative; the behaviour level runs from 1 to 9.
| Skill | Warehouse | 3★ hotel on the Adriatic | Waldorf Astoria, New York |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working by rules and procedure | 9 | 5 | 6 |
| Independent judgement (flexibility) | 2 | 6 | 8 |
| Reading people and empathy | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| Communication (languages, tone, discretion) | 3 | 7 | 9 |
| Staying calm under pressure | 5 | 7August, 40 °C, three coaches | 8 |
| Remembering people and details | 6who may enter | 4 | 9guest’s name, car, habits |
The job is control: check the documents, log every entry and exit, let no one through without an order. A doorman who waves a truck through without papers because the driver is likeable is not a good doorman — he is a risk.
The job is resourcefulness in high season: luggage, parking, a tip for a good tavern and directions to the beach in German, all in the same five minutes. Rules exist, but a guest with a broken-down car doesn’t read the manual.
The job is the guest experience: he knows you by name before you step out of the car and never says “no”, only “here is what I can do”. Discretion is part of the job description; what he sees at the door stays at the door.
The point: the best warehouse doorman would be average at the Waldorf, and vice versa. The problem is not the person but wrongly set levels. It’s the same with directors.
What determines what is required
In a software company, a team leader gets things moving with 60% of the information and corrects course on the way. In a bank or an audit firm, the same person at the same level wants 95% of the information and a signature — and “correcting on the way” is called an audit finding.
A start-up needs speed, improvisation and one person doing three jobs; a mature company needs collaboration beyond your own team, influence without formal power and respect for process. The hero of early Google can easily become “the one who ignores processes” at mature Google. I watched the same thing from the front row: Iskon in its early days and Podravka or Croatia osiguranje ask very different things of a CFO.
A junior auditor works by the rules and escalates anything outside them; there, flexibility is a flaw. A senior partner with major clients decides alone and sometimes has to accommodate the client; there, flexibility is a virtue. Specialists hardly delegate at all, while for a director delegation is a core skill.
What it is for
The method and the report are not the same thing. The matrix as a role profile is also used in hiring and team planning. The Skills Matrix 360 report, in which you are rated by the people you work with, serves development only and is never used for decisions on pay, promotion or dismissal. We tell the raters this in advance; otherwise they would tell us what they think we want to hear.
How we do it
A self-assessment of nine skills, about eight minutes. You see the result straight away, alongside the level your role expects. Currently in Croatian.
Ten skills chosen for your role, a self-assessment and 3 to 10 raters, the coach’s personal assessment and a conversation about the result.
An original method by Miroslav Klepač · miroslav.klepac@expertive.hr
