IT Employment

I stand behind that performing any sort of staff assesment in your _first month_ as an IT manager is a bad idea. Just for an example, they might have performed one three weeks ago...assuming that you never bothered to find out it is easy to make a fool out of yourself. Or they perform one at every year that is a part of their yearly appraisal.

"Does this new guy thinks that he knows it all?" -- you will not gain any trust by showing your incompetence in your first month on the job ;-)

I would be immediately suspicious if a new manager asked me to fill in a skills matrix in their first month.

I would feel better about filling one out once I had got to know them and trusted them.

Thats the first question. If it was poor performance top management should be able to indicate.

If it was due to them not being ablt to control their staff or the same just dont have the abilities such assesments WILL be a disaster. You may even have staff who believe they should have been promoted and were not. I agree a NO NO to assesments.

To investigate and establish the worth of each is a must but not in such a manner.

Rather take an existing situation or project and have a brain-storming workshop and let them do the talking to access who gets involved, the talkers, the do-ers, the thinkers and lastly but most importantly the ones who "idle but survive" those are your danger kids on the block. They will hang you in a day.

I think an assessment is necessary - but maybe not in a formal way. Maybe more of asking what you do, what you can do, what you can do well (in your own opinion), what you want to do, what you don't like to do, what you were expecting to do but were never allowed to do, etc. Without making it sound like an Inquisition. In fact, many people would like the chance to speak about their skill set and their personal growth goals. It might be written down in a review somewhere, but there is nothing like getting it first hand.

tol

I agree with mike to an extent, you need this information early on to prevent you from asking too much from them. It is about how you ask for it. Rather than the formality of a "skills matrix"
I prefer an informal chat 1 to 1, explaining why you are asking often helps. This info is vital to make the most of your team and provide the best level of service to users. **** i have once fired a techie in my first week because he was not upto the job & a liability!

StephanS has this nailed. Most other comments are right too. However, you are only new once, you're in a uniqe period where people will be watching you to see what you are made of. Some will give you the benefit of the doubt, others will want to scupper you from the off. Find one of these quick wins Stepan talks about and implemet it in the style you want to set for the rest of your tenure. But do it soon, the hneymoon factor will mean you get to do it; once you've been there for six months you loose the momentum a new manager brings. The time for change is not today, but its gone in six months if you haven't done anything by then...

Good luck

Best piece of advice I've seen in years!
Fantastic insight. Couldn't agree more with Lardo.

Get familiar with business
- Business Objective
- Business Process
- Revenue generation
- Expenses

Get the expectation right
- Senior Management
- Customers/Clients

Win People
- Meet subordinates and colleagues
- Meet key partners
- Make people feel secure

Risk Identification
- Determine risks & impacts
- Identify possible mitigation

Determine quickwins
- Quantify risks and benefits
- Determine cost of implementation
- Report resentation