Advanced Skill-Will Diagnostics: Distinguishing Habits from Values, Incentives

from Attitudes

DANSPIRA Analytics, Business, Learning, Talent

Analytics, Business, learning, talent, values 4

Earlier this year I spent some time exploring the Skill-Will Matrix from the employee’s
point of view, that is to say, the point of view that this classic model is
typically NOT presented from. I also lightly brushed on the diagnostic element —
every consultant and their grandmother knows how to use Skill-Will Matrix as a
coaching tool (and it’s ok if you don’t, I’ll review it in a minute) — but how many
people really know how to make an assessment with it, especially on that vague,
slippery dimension of “Will” or “willingness?” More to the point, how can we
create accurate self-assessments that align with this model?
Let’s review the model, and what these terms “Skill” and “Will” actually mean:

The implications of this model are that there are different ways you’d want to deal
with each situation if you are a manager (or, if you are self-managed, see the
aforementioned post). Here is my rendering of the typical “situational leadership” or
“coaching styles” model, based on the Skill-Will Matrix:

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Ok, great. We’ve got it summarized neatly into one nice little graphic. Now, let’s take
a closer look at these two dimensions of “Skill” and “Will” and try to figure out what it
would take to make an accurate assessment (or self-assessment)… because the
utility of this model absolutely depends on the ability to make accurate
assessments. (That’s why in management training, the Skill-Will Matrix is often
followed by a lecture on the Pygmalion Effect… getting this stuff wrong is bad for
everyone’s health!)
The dimension of “Skill” refers to one’s ability, proficiency, facility or dexterity in a
given capability… a “capability’ being some bit of knowledge or behavior that the
person can demonstrate.

Where does “Skill” come from? It is acquired or developed through

training/learning, understanding, latent talent or experience.

What are some of the things a coach can do to enhance “Skill?” They can…

 provide tools and resources to develop the capability

 reduce obstacles and facilitate a learning pathway

 provide effective guidance and feedback

Ok, that was easy… and you could see how easy it would be to assess the level of a
person’s Skill: If they demonstrate it, they can do it.

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If they don’t demonstrate it, though, it may or may not be because they lack the
Skill.
Enter the wonderful world of “Will”….

The dimension of “Will” refers to one’s motivation, volition, inclination or desire to

achieve, to initiate (and sustain, despite obstacles) a given capability… this includes
actions such as taking on new responsibilities or new learning.

Where does “Will” come from? It is acquired or developed as a result of beliefs,

values, attitudes, habits and incentives.

What are some of the things a coach can do to enhance “Will?” They can…

 provide appropriate incentives and sense of safety

 reduce obstacles or other de-motivating factors

 provide encouragement

 facilitate intrinsic motivation

Ok, but how does one measure or assess “Will?” Notice some of words I chose to
use above: Beliefs, Incentives, Habits, Attitudes, Values… each of these words
has a distinct meaning and each provides a potential means for measurement and
assessment.
“Oh, BIHAV!”

Beliefs inform a person’s willingness to do something, and a person’s beliefs can be

measured by asking questions directly to the person being measured. There are all
sorts of beliefs that can affect one’s willingness to initiate or sustain an activity, and
one of those beliefs is called “self-efficacy,” which is our belief in our own ability or
capacity do to something. Interestingly, the self-efficacy component of belief is
connected at the hip with the observable “Skill” dimension. Am I good at something
because I believe I’m good at it (or can be good at it)? ..or do I believe I’m good at
it because I actually am good at it? See, it’s a feedback loop, and so for most
people there is a strong upwards (left-to-right) diagonal correlation between “Skill”
and “Will.” That’s why typical Likert-scale-driven “Please rate yourself on a scale of

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1 to 5” skills assessments can sometimes provide a fair approximation of overall
competency… but always remember those are measures of self-perception of
efficacy, not actual efficacy.

Incentives, on the other hand, are a whole different ballgame. Incentives exist
externally — they are part of the overall performance context — and they can block
or enable behavior very easily. The great news is that these can be measured
through direct observation and context analysis… no interpretive self-assessments
necessary. Millions of dollars in training could be saved each year if companies paid
more attention to what behaviors they were tacitly rewarding vs. punishing. Also,
remember that measurement and observation is itself an incentive, so go on and
measure away, your clients can thank you later.

Habits are trickier to measure, as the target capability itself must be measured,
which gets into the fuzzy territory of “which part of this performance/non-performance
came as a result of Skill versus Will?” Perhaps habits are merely an effect of Skill…
a manifestation of Skill that has been… habitualized? No, not quite. I think that
habits, by themselves, are also a major causal factor of “Will” since we are
willing to do things (or don’t do things) simply because we’re used to (or not
used to) doing those things…. sheer habit drives our motivation. Nevertheless,
it’s still a pretty blurry distinction. Perhaps behavioral frequency analysis (“how
often do you…”), particularly on subordinate skills (the sub-components of
the target behavior) would provide some measurable inputs here. Worst case, trying
to measure people’s habits will cause you to develop some decent hooks for that all-
important-but-hard-to-make-credible ROI Analysis, which is currently replete
with rainbows and unicorns.

Attitudes are different than beliefs in that they aren’t necessarily grounded in
anything other than a person’s mood, temperament, reaction to circumstances, or
even simply physiology… how long has it been since that last cup of coffee/sugary
doughnut/visit to the gym/hug from a friend? Attitude is a managed state (though
many people have a hard time managing it) which directly impacts the “Will”
component of performance. The great news is that it’s easy to learn how to manage
your attitudinal state, and therefore your performance at any task. Now for the bad
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news: Your attitude is almost impossible for you to objectively self-assess. Direct
observation of you — particularly under challenging situations — is probably the only
way to go on this one… or maybe I could simply ask you this question: “How much
do you enjoy doing [insert capability being measured]?” Pure enjoyment,
excitement, boredom, etc. might be good emotions to look for… though it does
bleed a bit into my fifth and final component of “Will” which is…

Values. These are a wonderful thing. Are you willing to do something because you
think it’s a good/useful/fun thing to do? Values run deeper than beliefs, though there
is definitely some overlap there (..hey, I don’t get as good an acronym if I combine
the concepts.. BIAH??) but I think that values have to do more with the person’s
perception of the task or capability itself, rather than their perception of their own
abilities or their organizational context. In that sense values represent a very different
type of opinion measurement: “How important is this to you / the business?” So
values get measured similarly to beliefs, though it can be extremely difficult to get an
honest self-assessment on values… I prefer to used forced-ranking / prioritization
between items on a list, and then index those results to a baseline and top line score
of “importance” or “value” for everything on the list. This sort of thing is best done a
few items at a time. Forced-choice responses with an asymmetrical word pairing (a-
la StrengthsFinder) are the best, but those assessments take forever to build and
almost-forever to complete.

So those are five measures you can use to quantify “Will.”

Of course, if you only need to assess just one person’s level of willingness, ditch all
that stuff above and simply ask them a series of good, open-ended
coaching questions… however, even that isn’t so easy to do…

What do you think?