Executive Core Qualifications

What Do You Mean My ECQs Need Work?

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It is not unusual for me to get a call from recently selected Senior Executive Service (SES) candidates asking for help with their Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs). They have been told by their selecting agency that their ECQs need work before submission to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Hand selecting a file among many files. Some files in background have red Xs on them.

When I read their ECQs, candidates are often surprised to hear that their ECQs need a complete overhaul before submission. How, they want to know, could they have been selected if their ECQs need as much work as I say?

Here are my thoughts:

  • If you applied internally, your agency likely already knows you.
  • The agency focused more on your Technical Qualifications (also known as Mandatory Technical Qualifications or Professional Technical Qualifications) than on your ECQs.
  • Your ECQ stories are more agency- or technically-focused and “inside baseball” so they were relatable to agency readers who were not really thinking about OPM requirements.
  • Agency reviewers were not focused on OPM requirements.

It is important to remember that your audience for your ECQs is not people who know you are or likely to be wowed by your technical brilliance. Instead, OPM reviewers, known as a Qualifications Review Board (QRB), are looking for specific examples of your leadership experience as expressed through your 10 ECQ stories. Those stories need to meet specific criteria and be told in a certain way.

As you work on your ECQs, be sure to review OPM guidance for ECQ writing. Make sure that your ECQs are written using the Challenge-Context, Actions-Results (CCAR) framework, reflect the key competencies from each ECQ, include stories from the past 10 years, and clearly demonstrate your executive (not managerial) experience.

Getting selected for an SES position is great—congratulations! Understand, however, that getting selected does not guarantee that your ECQs will pass a QRB. Make sure that you put your best ECQs forward so that you are certified by a QRB the first time.

For more information check out our SES Playlist on YouTube or learn more about our SES & ECQs services.

Writing Your ECQs—Quick Tips

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You’ve made the decision that it is time to prepare your Executive Corps Qualifications (ECQs). Where do you start?

  • Identify your achievements and match them to specific ECQs. Before deciding what story to use in which ECQ, read the ECQ definitions and put the story in the ECQ where it fits the best. All achievements must be from the past 10 years and can only be used once. Focus on YOUR accomplishments, not those of your agency or organization. You should have 10 separate achievements and achievements should be from your executive level (this is generally GS-14 and up for current federal employees; O-6 and above for military members, and comparable experience for private sector applicants).
  • Review the definition of CCAR (challenge-context-action-result) to make sure you understand it. Your ECQs must be prepared using the CCAR framework.
  • Outline your stories. ECQ reviewers are looking for challenges above and beyond your daily work; try to have at least one action for each of the ECQ’s underlying competencies; and keep in mind that all results must show that you solved the challenge.
  • Use as many metrics as you can. Throughout your narratives, be sure to include numbers of people, dollar figures, customers served, etc. And, quantitative results are always more compelling than non-quantitative ones. If you do use a qualitative result, you may want to use a quote from an award recommendation or performance evaluation. It’s not enough to just note that things are better; you need to prove it.
  • Utilize “I” throughout your narratives. Although you may have worked with a team or supervised others during the achievement, your ECQs need to focus on your personal contributions.
  • Remember your audience. While your agency may “want” you for a SES position, they can’t have you unless you are certified by a Qualifications Review Board (QRB). The QRB members who will review your ECQs if you are selected by your agency will not include anyone from your agency. That means your ECQ narratives must be understandable to those who do not know your work or your acronyms.
  • Put in the required time. Putting together a strong ECQ package takes time. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) estimates that you should spend 40+ hours preparing the first draft of your ECQs—and another 6 months to get it right.

Ready to get started? There’s no time like the present!

Preparing Executive Core Qualifications (ECQ)

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You’ve examined your qualifications and interest, and made the decision to apply for the Senior Executive Service (SES). It is time to start working on your ECQs. Don’t wait until you have a specific SES posting. There is absolutely no reason why you cannot work on your ECQs now.

Not Job Specific

ECQs are NOT job specific; instead, they are about your leadership. Getting your ECQs prepared ahead of time will allow you the necessary time to prepare your executive resume and any Technical Qualifications (TQ) associated with an individual posting. Once you have a strong set of ECQs, you can use them across multiple postings.

What goes into ECQs?

ECQs include specific evidence of your possession of the each of the 5 executive competencies (leading change, leading people, results driven, business acumen, and building coalitions). In addition to the 5 ECQs, there are also 28 sub-competencies embedded within the ECQs and an additional 6 cross-cutting competencies that should be clearly exhibited throughout your ECQ document.

What is CCAR and why does it matter?

CCAR (challenge, context, action, result) is the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) rubric that must be used for your ECQs. Using this rubric will help readers of your ECQs understand your stories. The CHALLENGE is the specific problem you faced, the CONTEXT tells the reader about the people involved, the organization, the larger climate, and other details that demonstrate the executive nature and complexity of the challenge. ACTIONS are the things that you personally did (or that you directed others to do) to address the challenge. And of course, RESULTS are proof that you solved the challenge. In a perfect world, results should be demonstrate using qualifiable metrics; it’s not enough to say “things improved…” you need to prove that they improved.

What are your ECQ stories?

Before starting to write, you should identify your ECQ stories. Your stories need to be executive (rather than transactional) and ideally show enterprise-wide impact. Examples should be from the past 10 years (5-7 years is better if possible). Your examples should have an ending so that you can demonstrate results. If your specific example has not yet fully concluded, provide a specific metric to demonstrate progress. And obtaining a degree or talking about your philosophy will not be considered executive. Focus on specific leadership achievements.

How can you identify your stories?

There are two ways to go about identifying your stories; the first way is to identify when you led change, led people, etc. The second way is to identify your most significant achievements from the past 10 years and then match them to a specific ECQ. Both ways work; you need to figure out what works bet for YOU. It is not unusual to have more stories than you need for Results Driven and not enough for another ECQ. If that is a situation you face, review the underlying competencies for the ECQs and see if you can tell your story in that frame. For example, if you have too many Results Driven stories and not enough Leading Change, look at the underlying competencies for leading change (vision, strategic thinking, innovation/creativity, external awareness, flexibility, and resilience) and see if you can think about how to tell one of the results driven stories through the leading change lens.

Other things to keep in mind:

Review OPM Guidance on preparing ECQs (see: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/reference-materials/guidetosesquals_2012.pdf.) Try to have at least one action for each underlying competency in every ECQ (and keep the underlying competencies in the right ECQ). Use as many numbers as possible throughout your ECQs—numbers of people, dollar value of budgets / projects / contracts, timeframes, etc.

These numbers provide context to your stories and the ultimate readers of your ECQs is the Qualifications Review Board (QRB) at OPM—they will not know your agency or your job. Focus on your leadership, not your technical acumen. Be prepared to spend the necessary time to put together a good package; in my view, this is 40-60 hours.

And if you’re struggling with your package, get help! No one does this alone.