We have sent you a mail asking you to complete a Competency Appreciation called the Critical Incident Questionnaire or CIQ on this website.Critical Incidents are a good way of forming an appreciation of a person's competence in different areas. A critical incident is any good example of past behavior on a particular competency.

There are a total of 27 competencies in this questionnaire divided into four categories:

  • Commercial Competencies covering 6 competencies
  • Getting Results covering 6 competencies
  • Personal Effectiveness covering 7 competencies
  • Working with People covering 8 competencies

You must only complete the CIQ for those competencies that were mailed to you, not all 27.

The CIQ is structured as follows:

You will be given a competency definition, for instance:

  • PLANNING AND ORGANISING: The ability to plan and execute a task or project by setting goals, identify action steps to achieve these goals, identify and co - ordinate the resources needed to achieve these goals, the ability to prioritise and to adjust plans as needed.

You will then be asked to rate yourself with respect to the competency (in this example planning and organising) and to provide a practical example of your planning and organising that will illustrate your competence and that would support your rating.

You will then asked four follow up questions that assess some of the behavioral indicators associated with the competency. In the case of Planning and Organising the follow up questions are:

  • What specific goals, objectives and resources did you identify as being necessary to your plan?
  • What did you do to obtain input and buy - in from the stakeholders involved in the project/task?
  • Tell us about the action steps you identified to execute the project?
  • What measures did you put in place to measure the progress towards your goals?

Please make sure that you complete each competency in one sitting and submit it before moving on. You CANNOT save your answers and come back to them later. Please do not complete the CIQ if you suspect that there may interruptions to your power supply. This will mean that you will have to start over right at the beginning when the power comes back on.

Here is an example of someone who completed the competency called Conducting Meetings:

CONDUCTING MEETINGS: Uses appropriate skills to conduct purposeful meetings. Rate yourself on this competency using the drop down box below and then answer the questions that follow.

Self Rating: Excellent

Conducting Meetings - Think of your career and provide a practical example/s which support/s your rating and which illustrates your ability to conduct meetings (Type in your answer in the box below)

As an HR executive in two Organisations meetings formed a large part of my life. The success in meetings lies in proper time management and planning. Timely planning, proper Agenda's. The success in conducting meetings lies in proper chairing of the meeting and sticking to Agenda items. Here the chairperson plays an integral role. Many managers send their PA's to attend meeting and minute taking courses, but they themselves cannot successfully manage meetings and this is due to the ability of the chair person to control the meeting and to ensure that the meeting is conducted in line with the Agenda which forms the basis from which the meeting runs. Successful meetings have objectives, planned outcomes, responsible people and deadline dates. To lead and control the meeting is to set meeting rules up front (house rules). Opportunity is given to each recipient to add and contribute around the table in an orderly manner. I conducted many successful meetings in my role and the key is planning and preparation and management of expectations. Meetings that I conducted ranged from HR meetings, disciplinary hearings, Employment Committee Meetings, Management Meetings, Union Meetings, Training Committee Meetings, Strategy Meetings etc.

How did you plan your meeting?

Time Management and protection of time is key to planning meetings. I forwarded Agenda items is to all relevant recipients and opportunity was given to them to add items and prepare in advance. (also considering the meeting time allowed) Recipients are requested to attend to their respective responsibility areas and to provide feedback at the next meeting. In this way closing areas for ambiguity and to ensure that all recipients are well informed and prepared. Prioritising of tasks is essential to planning.

What obstacles and resistance did you anticipate in the meeting and what strategies did you utilise to overcome them?

Obstacles arose in various ways and the biggest ones may be lack of respect (for individual differences, respect for one another's time, and lack of Emotional Intelligence) Here we set clear house rules and managers are evaluated by other managers on living the values of the organisation ito respect, collaboration etc. Managers had to undergo EQ training in order to be more accurately self aware and to make room for others to express their views. Differences had to be resolved in an Emotionally intelligent manner. Temperament Assessments (DISC) profiles help managers understand individual differences and that there is not always one best way to do things, but that conflict is normal as long is it gets resolved in a mature manner. It is through differences that innovation can be encouraged. We managed by objectives and in doing so people had to place their focus on reaching outcomes as a team and jointly had to be involved in problem solving. Thus pulling the focus more towards the solution than the problem A strong Chairperson plays an essential role in managing the outcomes of the meeting. If random meetings are held without clear objectives or clear communication resistance can occur in that recipients do not know what is expected and this leads to time waste and challenges in getting the desired outcomes. Planning, and sound communication is key.

What did you do to mobilize participants to take action or to accept responsibility to execute decisions taken at the meeting?

The minutes of the meeting is set up in a format with tables to ensure that every action or objective has a responsible recipient with an agreed delivery or feedback date that is determined at the meeting thus tying recipients down to commit to deliverables. Minutes gets distributed soon after the meeting to allow sufficient time for the responsible parties to act on deliverables either before or at the next meeting. Accountable recipients are followed through on their deliverables.

What follow – up system did you put in place to ensure that decisions were executed?

Accountable recipients are followed through on their deliverables depending on the urgency and importance of such deliverables(prioritising) of delivery via e-mail, telephonic. In cases where we were involved in projects the Project Manager followed through on individual deliverables and provided weekly updated project reports to indicate deviation as in many cases there were interdependence between departments.

You should try to be specific and give a good insight into your behavior on the competency. While there is no time limit, you should try to complete a competency within 20 to 30 minutes. 

Please click here to go to the Competency Menu