Mastering The Assessment Center Process

The Assessment Center process is the best method for identifying management potential in candidates and whether they can demonstrate a talent for planning and organizing, and possess the necessary judgment, communication skills and decision-making ability to move up the ranks. Many candidates do possess these abilities, but they have not learned how to apply them. This book will teach you how to use all your potential. Law enforcement officers are often confused, afraid, nervous or just plain curious about what they will experience when they go through the process. Most books on the assessment center process cover primarily its history, the skill dimensions, a description of the process and provide a few sample exercises. What makes this book different is that it provides an experiential approach to preparing for an assessment center by including numerous practice exercises, experiential learning, role player scripts, sample detailed Assessor Guides, and information from an experienced professional who has a 360-degree view of assessment center processes. By practicing these exercises, the reader will learn a great deal about their potential and abilities. The organization of this book starts with the notorious, challenging, perplexing, incorrectly defined and life-changing in-basket exercise. The author has many years of experience with in-baskets, which has included providing feedback to candidates and training assessors. Many of the essential sample exercises and components of the in-basket exercise are included in this book and have been used in past assessment center processes or in customized exercises. This second edition also includes a new chapter on “The Future of Policing Exercises,” and several new exercises have been included in the Exhibits Appendix. After reading the sample exercises and commentary contained herein, you will be convinced that your time and money have been well spent. Why? Because you will have practiced the exercises herein and, beyond just reading about the assessment center process, you will have learned about many of the most important components of the process.

Bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Do you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to evaluate behavior, performance, and readiness? Read Mastering the Fire Service Assessment Center to identify what you need to learn and understand how to learn it. There is no way you can read and reflect on the wisdom in these pages and not become a better person and a better firefighter. Why Read This Book? The American fire service is facing a new normal fueled by mass exodus, influx of new generations of firefighters, a lack of hands-on leadership training, sweeping changes in mission, decimated budgets, and the genetics of task-oriented, reactive forefathers. The greatest and perhaps only area that we can affect directly is hands-on, inspiring, realistic, and useful training for our aspiring and incumbent leaders. This book will help you regardless of the fire officer rank you seek. It will help you know where you need to improve, how to develop a specific personal plan to become an excellent officer, and how to do well with whatever assessment center exercises throw at you. NEW MATERIAL in this second edition: --Enjoy reading “Wisdom from the Masters” from 18 fire service luminaries. They provide invaluable insights and challenges you will face as you prepare to promote, whether for the first time as a company officer or up the chain as a chief officer. --Learn lessons from thousands of students from the past 12 years whose feedback will benefit you in this second edition. --Benefit from the many new elements in this book, including relevant articles, additional exercises, and content regarding the dimensions of leadership, management, and emergency operations. The complexities of being a fire officer in the 21st century require an undercurrent of humility while continually pursuing mastery of leading in the modern fire service. Learn how to lead the modern-day firefighter in a modern world, with modern technology, modern fire behavior, and modern sociopolitical and economic challenges. Many firefighters ask themselves if they really want to do this job, but nothing is as professionally rewarding and challenging as leading others in battle to save lives! “This book will give you the greatest probability of success in your assessment center process.” —Bobby Halton, editor-in-chief, Fire Engineering magazine

Firefighters who want to advance must be skilled not only on the fireground, but in the assessment center as well. In Assessment Center Strategy and Tactics, Deputy Chief Michael A. Terpak provides a comprehensive approach to the assessment process. He includes step-by-step test preparation, scoring strategies, and test-taking tips as well as study cues for exercises that involve structure fires, hazardous material incidents, structural collapse, and beyond. Features & benefits: Real-world exercises Measurable answer keys Wisdom from a firefighter/fire officer with 32 years' experience in one of the nation's most congested and busiest cities

Chief Steve Prziborowski reveals more than 101 tips for getting promoted and becoming a vital asset to your fire department, family, and community. From soft skills to hard truths, this book covers what you need to move up the ranks the right way. FEATURING: • Sound advice for personal growth and personal improvement for any firefighter of any rank who wishes to advance • Insights, tricks, and tips for avoiding the pitfalls while preparing for a comprehensive promotional testing process • Bonus: Guidance from 37 professional, knowledgeable fire service veterans What others are saying: “Just like firefighting, getting promoted and moving up isn’t something you can succeed in alone­—it takes a team. Steve has assembled a whole bunch of good fire service veterans who own their very personal experiences, bumps and bruises along with their successes, to help you figure this out. Sit back and prepare to soak up decades of advice based on experience so you can start the climb up.” —Deputy Chief Billy Goldfeder (Proudly bumped and bruised since 1973) “After years of teaching thousands of aspiring fire rescue officers, Steve Prziborowski has documented his highly successful training information. You need this book if you are looking to get the edge up on the competition and demonstrate to the hiring authority that you are ready for the job. If you are serious about being a successful fire rescue officer at any rank, do yourself a favor and add this text to your personal library today!” —Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin “Committing to taking a promotional exam requires a Herculean effort, a never-looking-back attitude, and a willingness to give up your life as you know it until the exam is over. The book is an invaluable resource to guide your journey. Study hard and then study harder. Good luck.” —Deputy Chief (Ret.) Anthony Avillo, North Hudson Regional (NJ) Fire and Rescue

Getting promoted in the fire service is not an easy process. Many people have that desire to promote, but for whatever reason cannot put the pieces together to make it a reality. Over the 20 plus years I have been in the fire service, I have had the opportunity to be on both sides of the promotional process - as a candidate, and as a rater and proctor. This book will assist fire department personnel specifically prepare for their next promotional exam. Promotional candidates will be exposed to and offered key points for the most common tasks and events within a fire department promotional process including, but not limited to: promotional preparation, completing the application, resume preparation, the written exam, the oral interview, the personnel problem, the oral presentation, and the emergency simulation.

A comprehensive framework for effective real-world instructional design Mastering the Instructional Design Process provides step-by-step guidance on the design and development of an engaging, effective training program. The focus on core competencies of instructional system design helps you develop your skills in a way that's immediately applicable to real-world settings, and this newly updated fifth edition has been revised to reflect the new IBSTPI Competencies and Standards for Instructional Design. With a solid foundation of researched and validated standards, this invaluable guide provides useful insight and a flexible framework for approaching instructional design from a practical perspective. Coverage includes the full range of design considerations concerning the learners, objectives, setting, and more, and ancillaries include design templates, PowerPoint slides, lecture notes, and a test bank help you bring these competencies to the classroom. Instructional design is always evolving, and new trends are emerging to meet the ever-changing needs of learners and exploit the newest tools at our disposal. This book brings together the latest developments and the most effective best practices to give you a foolproof framework for successfully managing instructional design projects. Detect and solve human performance problems Analyze needs, learners, work settings, and work Establish performance objectives and measurements Deliver effective instruction in a variety of scenarios Effective training programs don't just happen. Instructional design is a complex field, and practitioners must be skilled in very specific areas to deliver a training program that engages learners and makes the learning 'stick.' Mastering the Instructional Design Process is a comprehensive handbook for developing the skillset that facilitates positive training outcomes.

Is your leadership a competitive advantage, or is it costing you? How do you know? Are you developing your leadership effectiveness at the pace of change? For most leaders today, complexity is outpacing their personal and collective development. Most leaders are in over their heads, whether they know it or not. The most successful organizations over time are the best led. While this has always been true, today escalating global complexity puts leadership effectiveness at a premium. Mastering Leadership involves developing the effectiveness of leaders—individually and collectively—and turning that leadership into a competitive advantage. This comprehensive roadmap for optimal leadership features: Breakthrough research that connects increased leadership effectiveness with enhanced business performance The first fully integrated Universal Model of Leadership—one that integrates the best theory and research in the fields of Leadership and Organizational Development over the last half century A free, online self-assessment of your leadership, using the Leadership Circle Profile, visibly outlining how you are currently leading and how to develop even greater effectiveness The five stages in the evolution of leadership—Egocentric, Reactive, Creative, Integral, and Unitive—along with the organizational structures and cultures that develop at each of these stages Six leadership practices for evolving your leadership capability at a faster pace A map of your optimal path to greater leadership effectiveness Case stories that facilitate pragmatic application of this Leadership Development System to your particular situation This timeless, authoritative text provides a systemic approach for developing your senior leaders and the leadership system of your organization. It does not recommend quick fixes, but argues that real development requires a strategic, long-term, and integrated approach in order to forge more effective leaders and enhanced business performance. Mastering Leadership offers a developmental pathway to bring forth the highest and best use of yourself, your life, and your leadership. By more meaningfully deploying all of who you are every day, individually and collectively, you will achieve a leadership legacy consistent with your highest aspirations.