Skills overview

A skill is a specific, observable capability someone can develop — for example “Gives actionable feedback” or “Closes a support ticket cleanly.” Each skill defines how it’s assessed and what counts as mastery, so progress is measured consistently across your team.

Skill — the unit of management

Admire treats the skill as the unit of management. Almost everything a manager cares about ladders up to skills: a job description is really the set of skills a role requires, a performance review is a snapshot of skills demonstrated, and a development plan is a path to the next skill. Anchoring on skills works because skills:

• Drive results — they directly affect whether goals are met.
• Are in people’s control — unlike outcomes, someone can actually work on a skill.
• Align everyone — individuals, managers, and AI share one clear definition of what good looks like.
• Standardize and automate — because skills are defined consistently, AI can track them, coach on them, and handle the legwork.

What makes up a skill

• A description of what the skill is and what good looks like. This captures the what, not the how — how to actually carry out the skill belongs in a linked playbook page, so an assessment can point straight to the guidance for closing a gap.
• An assessment type — how you score it (see Assessment types).
• A mastery bar — the score threshold (0–100) and, optionally, a number of consecutive sessions required to count as mastered. Requiring consecutive sessions makes mastery reflect consistency, not a one-off.

Skill trees

Skills can be organized hierarchically, with broader skills made up of narrower ones. A composite skill can roll up its children, letting you track both the big-picture capability and the specific behaviors underneath it.

Recommended structure: 1 – 5 – 25

A simple three-level shape works well for most teams:

• 1 — Skill family (root): the broad capability, e.g. “Client communication.”
• 5 — Skill (child): the specific skills within the family, typically graded on a gradient (e.g. a 1–5 rating). This is the level you usually assess.
• 25 — Behaviour (grandchild): concrete, binary (yes/no) behaviors that make up each skill — a checklist that makes assessing the parent skill easier and more consistent.

The behaviour level is optional. It turns a judgment call into a checklist, but an assessor can always assess the skill directly if they prefer.

Creating skills

You can build skills three ways. We recommend them in this order:

1. Use AI over MCP — connect an AI tool and let it guide skill creation. It understands Admire’s structure and asks the right questions, so it’s the fastest way to a well-formed skill.
2. Import from the Skills Library (Vault) and adjust — start from a pre-built, science-backed skill and tailor it to your context.
3. Create directly — once you’re comfortable with how skills are structured, define one by hand.

You can edit a skill’s description and settings at any time, and disable a skill that’s no longer relevant without losing its history.

Assigning skills

Skills are assigned to roles so the right people are expected to develop them — see Roles & Teams.