The penultimate leadership opportunity in the career federal service is the Senior Executive Service (SES). While we all know people who are in the SES that perhaps shouldn’t be, ideally, the SES represents the best of the best the government has to offer.
SES
Preparing Executive Core Qualifications (ECQ)
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.
Using the Challenge-Context-Action-Result (CCAR) Model
If you are SES aspirational—or even if you’re not, the Challenge-Context-Action-Result (CCAR) Model should be your friend. Not only is CCAR required for the writing of Executive Core Qualifications (ECQ), it is also useful for interviewing.
Using CCAR allows you to tell your story in an interesting and compelling way. How does CCAR work? When writing your ECQ stories (or responding to interview questions), consider the following:
Challenge.
Describe a specific problem or goal. The more significant the challenges faced and overcome, the more significant the results will appear.
Context.
Talk about the individuals and groups you worked with and/or the environment in which you worked to tackle a particular challenge (e.g., clients, co-workers, members of Congress, shrinking budget, low morale). This is the background information needed to understand why your accomplishment was significant.
Action.
Discuss the specific actions you took to address a challenge. Focus on actions that showcase your ability to solve problems in the organization to which you are applying. Be sure to include multiple actions. Some people find it easier to actually list their actions (1, 2, 3, etc.; you can smooth it out when you edit).
Result.
Give specific examples of the results of your actions. These accomplishments demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of your leadership skills. Results can be quantitative (with metrics) and/or qualitative. And of course, they need to demonstrate that you solved the problem.
Here’s what a potential CCAR outline might look like:
Achievement: Ensure 24/7 security requirements were met while complying with mandated furloughs during 2013 Sequestration.
Challenge:
- Midway through the fiscal year, it became evident that Congress would not provide relief from the Budget Control Act of 2011, and the agency would be forced to comply with guidance requiring furloughs.
- Available staffing did not permit the simultaneous full furlough and minimum security requirements to provide proper building security.
- I was required to reduce labor hours by 22% over 7 weeks.
Context:
- The Budget Control Act of 2011 required significant budget cuts to the agency for fiscal year 2013.
- Department guidance leading into 2013 directed the agency to plan as if the cuts would not be implemented.
- I was required to ensure 24/7/365 security for vital assets throughout the Department while still taking my “share” of cuts.
Actions:
- I created a 5-person team to develop a solution to meet the security requirements and reduce expenditures toward reduction targets. I aimed to find other reductions to try to avoid furloughs.
- I created a quantitative framework of prioritized staffing to meet security requirements and associated costs. I had my team develop alternatives with risk assessments versus cost. These scenarios demonstrated that the required 7 furlough days presented an unacceptable risk to the agency and its tenants.
- My business case and risk assessment showed that a 3-day furlough could be sustained within acceptable risk parameters.
- Simultaneously, I sped the deployment of an automated scheduling tool 4 months ahead of schedule to replace the decades-old, paper-based process so that staffing could be assessed in near real-time. I developed technological solutions that complied with departmental guidance for deploying new software, trained administrative officers, and provided technical support for all shifts of FTEs and contractors.
Results:
- My 3-day furlough proposal persuaded agency leadership, who adopted it in place of the previous mandates. Politically, this caused less strife than justifying a complete furlough exemption.
- The prioritized framework I created based on risk assessment has served as the baseline minimum security standard since it was deployed. All staffing changes since then have been assessed within this framework.
- The lessons learned from the limited deployment of the automated scheduler significantly improved its full deployment later that year with operational lessons learned. The system is still in use by the agency and is being deployed to a wider set of users. Agency leadership views it as the most significant tool for managing staffing hours (which is the single largest agency expense) in the agency’s history.
Once you have an outline, you can “fill in the blanks” and craft your story.
Deciding Whether You’re Senior Executive Service (SES) Ready
Many people think they are ready for the Senior Executive Service (SES) if they have spent a year as a GS-15. There is actually no time-in-grade requirement for the SES; instead, it’s about your executive leadership experience.
Executive leadership includes the ability to provide strategic leadership and commitment to public policy and administration at the highest levels. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has identified 5 executive core qualifications (ECQ). The ECQs were designed to assess executive experience–not technical expertise.
They measure whether an individual has the broad executive skills needed to succeed in a variety of SES positions–not whether they are the most superior candidate for a particular position.
That decision is made by the employing agency, not OPM. Successful performance in the SES requires capability in each ECQ. The ECQs are interdependent; successful executives demonstrate successful competence in each.
As defined by OPM, the five ECQs are:
1. Leading Change – This core qualification involves the ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. This ECQ requires the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment.
2. Leading People – This core qualification involves the ability to lead people toward meeting the organization’s vision, mission, and goals. This ECQ requires the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts.
3. Results Driven – This core qualification involves the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. This ECQ requires the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks.
4. Business Acumen – This core qualification requires the ability to manage human, financial, and information resources strategically.
5. Building Coalitions – This core qualification requires the ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, State and local governments, nonprofit and private sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals.
In addition to the five ECQs, there are also 28 competencies embedded within the ECQs. The competencies are the personal and professional attributes that are critical to successful performance as a SES.
Before deciding whether you want to apply for the SES, you should do some careful self-assessment to decide:
- Do you actually want to be a member of SES—do you have the time, energy, and commitment to lead people and programs—and have the “buck” stop with you?
- Do you have the requisite experience (either inside or outside the government) and can you document it? If you have never held a supervisory position or never planned and executed a budget, it may be difficult to meet the Leading People and Business Acumen ECQs.
- If you do not have the experience already, are you willing to do what it takes to get there? Perhaps apply for a SES Candidate Development Program (CDP) or take a lateral or accept a detail / rotational assignment to obtain the necessary experience?
Once you decide you’re ready to apply for the SES, you should start to work on your SES package. In most cases, your package will consistent of your SES resume and your ECQs. OPM recommends that candidates be ready to spend 40+ hours preparing their ECQs. My experience tells me that more time is needed, especially if you have never written ECQs before or thought about the specific examples you want to use.
A subsequent article will address preparing your ECQs. If you do not want to wait, more information about the ECQs and preparing your SES package can be found at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/reference-materials/guidetosesquals_2012.pdf.
OPM Asking Agencies to Prioritize Continuous Professional Growth
In its 2018 Federal Workforce Priorities Report OPM has said it wants agencies to provide employees with ample opportunities for continuous professional growth and skill development. Regardless of the extent to which agencies make new opportunities available, it’s a worthy goal and one you should be take seriously.
Yes, assignments might take you outside your comfort zone (that’s a good thing), and yes, those assignments might be collateral to your existing duties. However, they can also be growth opportunities that will enhance your exposure to others in your organization as well as teach you new skills. And to maximize the effectiveness of those opportunities, research has shown that those experiences are most effective when:
- You had one-on-one meetings with your immediate manager to discuss how to apply the development in your specific role.
- You perceived that your manager endorsed and supported this specific opportunity.
- You expected to be recognized or in some other way rewarded for applying what you learned.
Perhaps that list will jog you imagination as to what to look for. Also, don’t forget that volunteer leadership or growth roles can provide the same benefits. Just because it’s not formal training, does not mean that it doesn’t “count” or can’t help you move forward in your career.
In fact, consider this quote from Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger and the Center for Creative Leadership’s The Career Architect Development Planner, a classic book on how to become an effective leader:
“Development generally begins with a realization of current or future need and the motivation to do something about it. This might come from feedback, a mistake, watching other people’s reactions, failing or not being up to a task – in other words, from experience. The odds are that development will be about 70% from on-the-job experiences – working on tasks and problems; about 20% from feedback and working around good and bad examples of the need; and 10% from courses and reading.”
In essence, what this is saying is that adult learners learn best by doing. This does not render formal training ineffective, however, we should not ignore the very real and positive effects of developmental assignments, details, task force assignments, and the like, on our learning.
Writing Your Executive Core Qualifications (ECQ), Part 2/2
Your ECQs should be well written narratives that provide information about your strategic, executive achievements in the language of the ECQ and its relevant sub-competencies. When writing your ECQ narratives, OPM recommends using the Challenge-Context-Action-Result (CCAR) Model.
An ECQ narrative may include one or two examples (not more than two) of relevant experience that matches the ECQ (and sub-competency) definitions. Keep in mind that your ultimate audience is the Qualification Review Board (QRB) (again, no one from your agency may sit on your QRB) so your stories must stand on their own. The QRB is looking for specific challenges, actions and results, rather than expressions of your philosophy or technical expertise.
Here is OPM’s definition of CCAR to use when writing your ECQs (along with some edits):
Challenge. Describe a specific problem that needed to be solved. Remember to think as holistically as possible. The QRB is interested in the large-scale, if you have suitable examples. And, it should be something where you had to get others behind you (this is not about your sole contributions but your leadership of others).
Context. Describe the individuals and groups you worked with, and/or the environment in which you worked, to address a particular challenge (e.g., complexity, co-workers, members of Congress, shrinking budget, low morale, impossibly short deadlines). Make sure this is at the executive level—not an example where you were asked to implement someone else’s idea. Think about examples where you were the initiator of an idea that had enterprise-wide impact.
Action. Discuss the specific actions YOU took to address a challenge. Use “I” not “we” even if you were part of a team. The QRB wants to see your personal contributions.
Result. Give specific examples of measures/outcomes that had some impact on the organization. These accomplishments demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of your leadership skills. Metrics always help support your results. If your result was qualitative, how can you show it was substantial? Perhaps a quotation from an award recommendation or performance evaluation, or a comparison to a prior situation.
Before you can begin writing your ECQs, you need to identify your examples. Your examples must be from the past 10 years (the past five years is even better—you don’t want anyone to think your best days are behind you!) and exhibit your strategic thinking, rather than transactional activities. You are limited to two examples per ECQ; each example must be a fully developed CCAR.
How can you identify your examples? Think back over the past five to seven years of your career. What do you consider to be your major achievements? What would your supervisor think was most impressive? Look back over your award citations, performance evaluations, and accomplishment reports—you may get some ideas from those documents. Talk to your colleagues; conversations may prompt your memory for good examples. Don’t forget to think about things outside of work that might show your executive level experience.
Other things to keep in mind:
- You should not repeat examples in multiple ECQs. However, if you have a large complex story, you can use different parts of the story in different ECQs.
- Even if your example is highly technical, be sure to simplify it in the telling and focus on your leadership of that issue. Your ECQs are not the place to show off your technical prowess; instead, wow the reader with your leadership savvy.
- For some, it may be easier to identify examples and then match them to the ECQs; for others, trying to identify a specific story for each ECQ might be more effective.
- The ECQs are not about your philosophy but rather your demonstration of the ECQs and sub-competencies in specific work situations. Do not include statements along the lines of, “I believe…” or use quotations from famous leaders.
- You should use “I” throughout your ECQs. Even if the example that you are using is from your work as part of a team, the QRB is interested in your personal contributions. And yes, you can take credit for work done by your subordinates (after all, your leader is taking credit for your work, right? That’s just how it works folks.)
- Do not refer the reader to earlier ECQs or your resume; each ECQ should stand on its own.
- Sometimes an example can fit more than one ECQ; in that case, be sure to use the example where it best fits the ECQ definition.
- Spell out acronyms and keep your stories simple—remember KISS.