An alternative CMC certification process for Profession Leaders

Introduction

At the ICMCI conference in Jordan in 2010 a resolution was adopted and subsequently passed by Trustees that permitted an alternative certification process for the award of CMC in the special case of very senior and experienced management consultants who are recognised leaders and outstanding practitioners within their professional communities.

The certification process is somewhat different from the “mainstream” one within the current ICMCI standard: more appropriate for senior professionals, less onerous and time consuming for the candidate, but still assuring adequate rigour and thoroughness. It is designed to recognise the experience, acknowledged achievement, and standing within their professional communities, which these individuals command.

Principles for the Certification Process

1. Candidates for the profession leaders’ entry route should be expected to be by the invitation or suggestion of the institute, although candidates may also likely to come forward of their own accord.

2. Certification is based on a very intensive, high level peer review and assessment process by a “Profession Leaders Reference Group” – a committee of senior and experienced CMCs of an institute, established for this purpose. This Reference Group should consist of a minimum of 5 members, representing between them the widest possible high level perspective of the institute’s consulting community and its clients.

The Reference Group’s role is to use its combined knowledge and judgement, backed by due diligence research as necessary, in order to identify appropriate candidates for entry to CMC by the profession leaders route (or to check their suitability out, if they come forward of their own accord).

In a sense, this process of peer assessment backed by due diligence research is substituted for some of the detailed documentation, scrutiny and analysis in the mainstream entry route, in order to streamline the process for candidates

3. Because of the obvious difficulties if candidates who are invited to come forward are found subsequently during the certification process not to meet the standard, the Reference Group’s approach in assessing prospective candidates (before invitation or acceptance as candidates) needs to be thorough and rigorous. This means:

• prospective candidates should be considered by the Reference Group against the main headings of the Competency Framework, using their knowledge and judgement and any due diligence research
• if any member of the Group has doubts about the suitability of a candidate, then either (more) research is carried out to resolve these, or the candidate should not be approved for this entry route
• no candidate is approved for this entry route except by unanimous agreement of the Reference Group.

Candidates who are not approved for this entry route may of course be referred to the mainstream certification route, and should be encouraged to apply via this.

4. An appropriate application form, a detailed CV, and contact details for two clients are required –but no assignment case studies, and no evidence of qualifications etc.

5. References should be taken from the two nominated clients. This will not be in the detailed form relating to specific client assignments as in the mainstream process, which is likely to be inappropriate. However, all suitable candidates should have extensive dealings with clients, at least in terms of managing client relationships, overseeing work undertaken for the client, and developing and submitting proposals. References should be taken at this higher level and in these more general terms. Gaining a client perspective to complement the peer group assessment is considered of importance.

6. The second main stage of the process is an interview conducted by at least two senior and experienced CMCs of the institute, approved by the Reference Group (they may or may not be members of the Group).

This interview may be somewhat different from the interview conducted in the mainstream process, because of the nature of the candidates. It should be conducted in a relaxed, peer to peer discussion style, not requiring for example any presentation from the candidate. And the pre-screening by the Reference Group should have been so thorough, that it should essentially be confirmatory in nature and candidate failure at this point should be unlikely.

Nevertheless, the interview should be thorough and probing, at least an hour in length. During its course, the interview assessors should explicitly assess the candidate against the main headings of the Competency Framework, and it should follow a structure which facilitates this. After the completion of the interview, they should produce a specific assessment report on the candidate, against the main headings of the Competency Framework, together with an overall summary and recommendation on the award of CMC. Although, as noted above, candidates are not normally expected to fail at this point, this is certainly not ruled out

7. The interview assessors’ report is submitted to the Reference Group, who review it and take the final decision on the award of CMC. A decision to award CMC should normally require unanimous agreement by the Group.

Comparison between the mainstream and profession leaders certification process standards