SIOP Conference, Austin, 2020: All-New Individual Leadership Assessment Course

Rob Silzer, HR Assessment and Development Inc./ Baruch, Graduate Center, City University of New York; Sandra Davis, MDA Leadership Consulting; & Vicki Vandaveer, The Vandaveer Group, Inc

Save the Date > Wednesday, April 22, 2020

SIOP is introducing this as the first course under the new Advanced Professional Development Program (APD). This initiative is offered by the Professional Practice Portfolio to provide advanced professional development for experienced SIOP members.

This first APD course is on Individual Leadership Assessment (see related article on the APD Program in this issue of TIP).

The purpose of this course is to provide a development opportunity for experienced assessment psychologists to strengthen their assessment skills and techniques, and to learn from other highly experienced colleagues. This course is offered in four half-day modules.

The benefits to course registrants include:

• Further deepen your Individual leadership assessment skills and expertise,
• Get assessment insights and techniques from leading assessment experts,
• Improve your skills in collecting, interpreting, and integrating assessment data and in leveraging the results for providing feedback and converting to developmental actions, and
• Increase your awareness of best practices in leadership assessment.

At the Austin 2020 SIOP conference, two modules of the leadership assessment course will be offered. Both modules are offered together as a full-day program registration at the Austin conference.

• Module 3: The Secret Sauce: An Insider’s Guide to Assessment Interpretation and Integration (AM session)

This assessment course module reviews and discusses approaches to interpreting and integrating assessment data to reach assessment decisions and conclusions. It is a unique opportunity for experienced psychologist assessors to advance their own assessment skills and learn from other highly experienced assessors, as well as practice those skills.

Intended audience: Advanced/intermediate. Participants should have a solid understanding of assessment concepts, processes, and tools. The course is intended for SIOP members who have substantial leadership assessment experience and who are, or may be, eligible for psychologist licensing.

Course leaders: 

• Rob Silzer, PhD, HR Assessment and Development Inc.; Baruch, Graduate Center, CUNY
• Sandra Davis, PhD, MDA Leadership Consulting
• Vicki Vandaveer, PhD, The Vandaveer Group, Inc.

• Module 4: From Insight to Action: Advanced Approaches for Providing Assessment Feedback and Using it for Growth and Action (PM session)

This assessment course module focuses on advanced approaches and techniques for providing assessment feedback, reporting assessment results, and outlining development action recommendations. It is a unique opportunity for experienced psychologist assessors to advance their own assessment skills, to learn from other highly experienced assessors, as well as to practice those skills.

Intended audience: Advanced/intermediate. Participants should have a solid understanding of assessment concepts, processes, and tools. The course is intended for SIOP members who have substantial leadership assessment experience and who are, or may be, eligible for psychologist licensing.

Course leaders: 

• Rob Silzer, PhD, HR Assessment and Development Inc.; Baruch, Graduate Center, CUNY
• Sandra Davis, PhD, MDA Leadership Consulting
• Vicki Vandaveer, PhD, The Vandaveer Group, Inc.

This course is designed for experienced SIOP members who are eligible for psychologist licensing, because individual psychological assessment falls under most state licensing regulations. Further information about this course will be provided in forthcoming SIOP announcements, in future TIP issues, and on the SIOP website. Any questions should be directed to Rob Silzer (robsilzer@prodigy.net). We anticipate that this 1-day program (both modules) will be fully subscribed.

The full leadership assessment course is being offered in four modules.

Module 1 – Assessment design and overview

Module 2 – Assessment Interviewing

Module 3 – Assessment Interpretation and Integration

Module 4 – Assessment feedback and development actions

Participants who complete all four modules will receive a course certificate indicating they completed the full course. The modules can be completed in any order.

The first two modules of this course were offered at the Chicago 2018 SIOP Chicago conference as a pilot. Both modules sold out early and received very strong positive evaluations from participants.

Chicago, 2018 conference, course outcomes (first two modules).

• Both modules were fully sold out ahead of time.
• Participants had an average of 15 years of individual assessment experience and conducted an average of 77 assessments each year. 76% of participants rated their assessment expertise as expert or highly experienced
• Participants expressed strong interest in completing the full course

Sample participant reactions

• Excellent and fast paced—should be a staple at any future SIOP conferences.
• Excellent session for experienced professionals. Content was relevant, leaders were expert. Participating in a session limited to experienced practitioners was very valuable in terms of discussion and using peers as resources—and I encourage SIOP to do more of this.
• Having an advanced practitioner's course was worth the registration fee.
• Wonderful to have experienced colleagues in the room, learning at a higher level from each other, and led by the wise sages.
• This was terrific as a first run for advanced and experienced assessors.
• This was a great start and, hopefully, this will launch future efforts to put individual psychological assessment on the SIOP docket for SIOP programs.
• We need to make this a staple of any future SIOP planning. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
• The idea of having a course certification in individual assessment is a great idea, and it would distinguish me from some of my competitors
• All of you are to be commended for doing such a fine job. It was a real act of leadership to get these modules on the program, and hopefully, all of us can help you build momentum going forward.

Conclusions from Chicago pilot

• Participants were very excited about the course before, during, and after taking the first two course modules
• Participants greatly appreciated going through an Advanced Professional Development Program with other advanced participants so they could learn from each other.

If you are an experienced assessment psychologist, please consider joining us in Austin for the next two modules of the Individual Leadership Assessment course.