Here’s my summary of the critical assessment factors

in a job interview, and hence for support in a resume.

In all areas, the best examples are one where you describe a personal experience (not a philosophy!). Dramatic examples are better than routine ones. Situations with problems, complications, frustration are good—if they illustrate your ability, or at least a significant learning you took away from it. In general, more recent examples are better than older ones—but not always so. A mixture of school-related, work-related, and personal life-related experiences is powerful. A single experience may support multiple factors, so re-use where appropriate..

Initiative

starting activities;

getting others motivated;

going beyond what is required or requested;

“selling” opportunities;

Follow Through

finishing the job;

not quitting early;

overcoming obstacles;

looking for final payoff, result, impact; “ensuring” results

showing “ownership” for results, not just for activities;

assuring that things won’t get dropped or forgotten; measuring results

Leadership

essentially this is getting others to follow you, without a ‘following’ leadership is only an illusion;

setting a vision and getting it adopted;

organizing work and delegating it to others; using others/outside resources effectively;

competing/campaigning for positions and winning them;

participating in work is good—but don’t confuse teamwork for leadership;

showing a balance of toughness and compassion for those led

Communication

oral and written examples;

one-to-one, small, and large audiences;

knowing your audience and adapting your preparation, your presentation;

formal and informal styles;

to peers, subordinates, superiors;

especially look for tough, difficult, challenging situation examples

Working With Others

teamwork, yes; also mentoring; sports, work, academics;

best examples are where there are problems and challenges;

constructive management of conflict situations;

show you’re not a conflict-avoider;

performance across barriers (age, gender, class, race, boss/subordinate, teacher/student) are rich examples;

toughness as well as compromise is important;

Creativity/Innovation

examples where you chose to think out-of-the-box, try a new approach, reapply something from a different area, rethink an assumption;

this is a very difficult area for many individuals;

do not confuse it with artistic bent, nor with pure creative genius;

innovation is not the same as invention;

freshness of thinking and approach is key, not complexity or uniqueness, nor being first, nor patentability.

Priority Setting

is about making choices based on values;

is about being mature about the world and your capacity;

is not about fitting everything in or juggling;

is not about sorting good things from bad things;

is about not being able to have/do good things…and having to choose;

is best shown around big, important (life) issues, sacrifices

Problem Solving

is evidenced by the totality and variety of resources you consider applying to any problem;

shows versatility, ingenuity, practicality, cleverness, timeliness and efficiency in getting “the” answer, “an” answer, or a “good-enough” answer;

within ethical constraints, finding and calling the right person who has an answer and gives it to you is an example of great problem solving;

purchasing answers, copying existing answers, and building your own answer are all various problem solving methods;

school problems usually present a very limiting set of rules for problem solving, business does not;

applying your technical mastery (below) may be a good problem solving method, but it is just one approach

Technical Mastery

methods, techniques, and tools that you understand and have applied;

textbook approaches, analytic methods, algorithms, software tools, mathematical methods;

mastery means understanding the theory, where it applies, where it doesn’t apply, its power and its limitations, and how to use it (get a result);

the language describing technical mastery areas is very precise…like the language of physical/social science, engineering, finance;