Executive Counselling Services Assessment Services

Comprehensive personality and vocational interest assessments from ECS will enhance your career development and increase your self understanding. A skilled ECS psychologist will tailor your individual assessment to your individual needs.

Through ECS Assessment Services, you will:

• know if you are prepared for the challenges of a role in senior management and discover the strengths and weaknesses of your leadership and management style;
• find out how you interact in work or interpersonal settings and gain valuable insight into how you process information and make decisions; and
• pinpoint your strengths and potential for development and chart new strategies for enhancing your performance.

Depending on your individual situation, you may be assessed on some or all of the following:

Your management and leadership characteristics

Be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses on the leadership and management characteristics mentioned in the Profile of Public Service Leaders and Managers, and obtain feedback from your superiors, peers and subordinates. Evaluate your action management and administrative skills by undertaking a work sample that simulates the typical executive's or manager's in-basket. Included are letters, memos and reports that require a response or some form of action. Each response is assessed within the context of other actions taken, the current organizational environment and the particular problem under consideration. Your individual results are compared to those of public service executives and managers.

Your personality characteristics

Profile those personality characteristics that are relevant to how you interact in a wide range of settings, such as those involving work and interpersonal situations. The emerging profile can increase your self understanding and enable you to see how you compare to other executives within the public service and in the general population. You can also determine your psychological type, i.e. your basic preferences in regard to where you focus your attention, how you take in information and make decisions, and the kind of lifestyle you adopt. Information about how each preference relates to your occupational setting - as well as manner of interacting with others - can be valuable in your daily activities and career planning.

Your professional and personal interests

Compare your professional and personal interests with those of people happily employed in a wide variety of occupations. This measure of your interests - as opposed to aptitude or ability - is valuable when making career decisions.

Your career needs

Use exercises to clarify what aspects of your work are satisfying. Although no job is likely to satisfy all your career needs, identifying your expectations and the extent to which a given job can fulfil them, will enhance your chances of meeting most of these needs. You will see the right opportunities more clearly.

Your cognitive abilities

Evaluate your general cognitive abilities through a written multiple choice test which taps skills in areas such as vocabulary, memory and arithmetic reasoning.

Your sources of stress and your performance level

Explore your sources of stress and your personal responses to them. Take the opportunity to pinpoint your strengths and areas of improvements, detect burnout zones and chart new strategies for enhancing personal health and performance.

Other assessment services such as assessment centres are also available. To schedule an appointment or for more information, please call a counsellor at (613) 943-1195.

Executive Counselling Services has professional counsellors in major cities across Canada. To bring out the best in your career, call ECS today at (613) 943-1195 or e-mail us at ECS-SCC @ psc-cfp.gc.ca.ECS is a cost-recovery service paid for by your emplyoer.