Executive Support / Confidential Advisory Services

Confidential Advisory Services

Executives should never feel alone! Hosted by APEX, this confidential, bilingual service is free of charge and provides a safe space for conversations. Our team will explore a wide range of options and opportunities to address your concerns and work towards the best possible outcome! YOU are the center of our attention!

We are passionate, caring seasoned executives with a wide range of expertise and lived experiences. We want to give back to the executive community and are here to provide you with confidential counseling, referrals to specialized resources and to point you to trusted sources of information.

To contact ASE please email Nathalie Clément.

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ASE is a one-stop shop for confidential advice, strategies, and referral to specialized services available to all executives on topics such as:

Career reflections and strategies

Making the choice to leave a position, department or agency can be a difficult decision, it is even more difficult when executives are facing career transitions or being encouraged to look for another position that would be considered a better fit. While change is not always easy, the possibilities of opening a new door can be exciting. Reach out to the team to discuss your career reflections, aspirations, and strategies in a safe and confidential space. We can be a great sounding board and give you additional tips, strategies, or insights, and help you reframe your inner dialogue.

Conflict management, including with your immediate manager

Conflicts are inevitable in the workplace and when not proactively managed at an early stage, it can escalate quickly, affect your wellness and mental health, the psychological health safety of your team, and your reputation as a leader. Learning how to strategically deal with conflicts, abrasive styles, and workplace irritants and turning those difficult situations into learning opportunities can be a game changer for you and can lead you to thrive rather than just survive in your role. Reach out early to the ASE team to discuss practical strategies and tips to deal with difficult situations, including conflict with your immediate supervisor.

Harassment, workplace violence, complaints, and investigations

The ASE team provides a safe space for executives facing very difficult situations and emotional distress when confronted with perceived harassment and bullying in the workplace, or when named as respondents in violence and harassment complaints or subject to administrative investigations. Reach out in total confidence and we will support throughout the process until the final report is sent to you. We can help you navigate through the process; help you prepare your responses to allegations and for the investigations interviews and refer you to legal counsel if appropriate.  It should be noted that APEX does not accompany clients to interview nor disciplinary hearings.

People management strategies

Reach out for broad advice, reflections and strategies related to effective people-centric management strategies like building a culture of care, trust, and psychological safety.  Discuss your views and reflections with us about the future of work and hybrid workplaces. Hybrid workplaces and future of work considerations are an amazing opportunity to transform the public service and the way we all work throughout our careers. You are in a position of influence, and we would be delighted to help you navigate the associated challenges and lead your teams through times of change.

Performance and talent management discussions

Reach out to us to leverage the power of relationships to enable strong, strategic, and authentic performance discussions with your supervisor and with your management team. At the heart of building a culture of care and psychological health and safety is building trust and setting the stage for open and honest two-way discussions that identify barriers to success and learning opportunities for growth and development. We can be a great sounding board when it comes to preparing you for challenging performance discussions and helping you navigate the performance management and talent management process and challenges for executives.

Retirement considerations

While retirement planning can be exciting and stimulating, it can also prove to be challenging, especially when you are considering retirement for health, mental health, or psychological safety reasons, or when you have a perception that you are forced into retiring early. Reach out to discuss strategies, options, and considerations.

Terms and conditions of employment

As an executive, do you understand your terms and conditions of employment? Do you have any concerns, fears, or perceptions you would like to discuss? Or perhaps you have a need for specific advice or interpretation? Reach out and if the ASE team doesn’t have the answer, we can access experts who will! We can also brief you on APEX advocacy and research work we are doing on your behalf to improve your working conditions.

Wellness and work-life integration

Work-life balance has always been important, but when the pandemic hit, everything changed. Many leaders were confronted with paradigm shifts, biases, beliefs and were struggling to find new ways of leading, thinking and working in a virtual working setting while juggling new and emerging priorities and stressors at work and at home. Some thrived, others struggled, some unfortunately collapsed and had a wake-up call and realized status quo was no longer an option…Which is your experience? Reach out to the team to have a discussion on setting boundaries, work-life integration tips and effective time management strategies and options.

Nathalie Clément, Senior Advisor to Executives

Nathalie joined APEX’s Confidential Advisory Services in 2022 and offers free practical advice and guidance to public service executives, as well as a safe space for conversations.  She explores a wide range of options and opportunities to address executives’ concerns and works towards the best possible outcome.

She has over 25 years of experience in the public service and has been an executive since 2008 in a variety of roles in communications, human resources, change management and transformational leadership. Proud ambassador of wellness and mental health, she takes pride in developing and guiding her clients, so they become effective and conscious leaders at all levels, take care of themselves, and realize their full potential.

Nathalie cultivates a growth mindset and has recently completed her micro-certification in Psychologically Safe Leadership from University of New Brunswick.

Nathalie Clément Picture

Advisory Services for Executives (ASE) Annual Reports

Practical Guide for New Executives

More than 50 % of our clients are newly appointed or acting executives. Browse through this practical guide for tips, tools, and advice any experienced executives wish they had known when they joined the executive ranks!  We are happy to discuss specific content areas with you. Do not hesitate to reach out early in your new mandate.

Reflections and Best Practices

This guide was put together from the last 5 years of ASE Annual reports, the APEX  Executive Work and Health Survey results and various discussions with senior management across the public service

As we look at best practices, it is important to consider three levels: the individual level, executives who manage executives and the organizational level.

Mentoring Circles

For recent inductees to the executive ranks, the APEX-CSPS Mentoring Circles are small group mentoring events specifically designed for new executives. The sessions are a benefit for APEX members at no cost.

More Resources and Tools

Click here to consult more Resource and Tools.

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