Using Good Judgement - New AF Test Questions

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Number6
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Using Good Judgement - New AF Test Questions

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The AF is adding 20 questions to one of it's enlisted promotion tests that will test their decision making skills. NCOs will read a short scenario and then have four answers to choose from. While any of the four answers could be subjectively supported, there is only one "correct" answer. Here's an example of the type of decision making questions and answers:

Scenario: “You have told your staff sergeant to not let subordinates go home early without permission from you first. Later that day, one of your subordinates shows you a forwarded email from the staff sergeant to others telling you it ‘was not his fault’ but yours that they can no longer go home early. Responses to the initial email showed that the unit was divided over the issue.

Answers:
A: Reply to the email chain with an explanation of the reason for the policy.

B: Reply to the email chain advising that questions about the policy should be addressed to you directly.

C: Meet with the staff sergeant to discuss the email. Explain to him the reason for the policy. Then require him to send out a revised email to subordinates explaining the reason for policy.

D: Meet with the staff sergeant and subordinates as a group to brief them on the policy and reasoning behind it.”

There’s no study guide for good judgment, the Air Force said, but airmen can consider leadership qualities like communication and accountability when picking their answers.
Military Times

Part of the problem NCOs are going to have with questions like the one above is often what they are taught on Professional Military Education courses and what is practiced in the work environment are different. People use different management skills depending upon factors such as mission requirements, time constraints, level of subordinate training, pressure from superiors, etc...

So my question to you is "How would you answer the above scenario?"

I'll withhold my choice for the time being because I'd like to see the opinion of civilians.
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sam lefthand
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Re: Using Good Judgement - New AF Test Questions

Post by sam lefthand »

Number6 wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:13 pm The AF is adding 20 questions to one of it's enlisted promotion tests that will test their decision making skills. NCOs will read a short scenario and then have four answers to choose from. While any of the four answers could be subjectively supported, there is only one "correct" answer. Here's an example of the type of decision making questions and answers:

Scenario: “You have told your staff sergeant to not let subordinates go home early without permission from you first. Later that day, one of your subordinates shows you a forwarded email from the staff sergeant to others telling you it ‘was not his fault’ but yours that they can no longer go home early. Responses to the initial email showed that the unit was divided over the issue.

Answers:
A: Reply to the email chain with an explanation of the reason for the policy.

B: Reply to the email chain advising that questions about the policy should be addressed to you directly.

C: Meet with the staff sergeant to discuss the email. Explain to him the reason for the policy. Then require him to send out a revised email to subordinates explaining the reason for policy.

D: Meet with the staff sergeant and subordinates as a group to brief them on the policy and reasoning behind it.”

There’s no study guide for good judgment, the Air Force said, but airmen can consider leadership qualities like communication and accountability when picking their answers.
Military Times

Part of the problem NCOs are going to have with questions like the one above is often what they are taught on Professional Military Education courses and what is practiced in the work environment are different. People use different management skills depending upon factors such as mission requirements, time constraints, level of subordinate training, pressure from superiors, etc...

So my question to you is "How would you answer the above scenario?"

I'll withhold my choice for the time being because I'd like to see the opinion of civilians.
I find it surprising that the the scenario and answers are gendered male like as if everyone in the unit, and the person taking that test is a male.

An officer would ignore it. But an officer wouldn't have overstepped their sergeant such that they would be placing themselves in a position that day by day they would be making a decision at that level.
Last edited by sam lefthand on Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Number6
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Re: Using Good Judgement - New AF Test Questions

Post by Number6 »

sam lefthand wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:41 pm I find it surprising that the the scenario and answers are gendered male like as if everyone in the unit, and the person taking that test is a male.
The Staff Sergeant was identified as being male but the person who put out the policy is the gender of the person taking the test.
An officer would ignore it. But an officer wouldn't have overstepped his sergeant such that they would be placing themselves in a position that day by day they would be making a decision at that level.
I've worked for a number of officers that did just that but most left it up to me.
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sam lefthand
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Re: Using Good Judgement - New AF Test Questions

Post by sam lefthand »

Number6 wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:56 pm The Staff Sergeant was identified as being male but the person who put out the policy is the gender of the person taking the test.


I've worked for a number of officers that did just that but most left it up to me.
That gendered bit is difficult as you can see by my edit I gendered my response in spite of at the time trying to not gender it.

I'm not surprised that you met a number of officers who made that kind of mistake with you.
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Number6
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Re: Using Good Judgement - New AF Test Questions

Post by Number6 »

sam lefthand wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 1:03 pm That gendered bit is difficult as you can see by my edit I gendered my response in spite of at the time trying to not gender it.

I'm not surprised that you met a number of officers who made that kind of mistake with you.
I worked for one officer who was a Staff Sergeant in my career field before he got his commission. I was in charge of sending out 10 medical war material (WRM) packages to different bases because we were being drawn-down. I put a young NCO in charge of sending out the first project and after that was done I told our Capt. how well she had done and that I was assigning the next project to another young NCO nicknamed "Spike." The Capt. told me not to let Spike do it but I told him this is how he learns to do things and if he's going to be an NCO he needs to learn responsibility, accountability, and how to lead people. That was at the end of the day and he finally relented to my judgement. When I got to work the next morning, Spike was coming out of the Capt's office and Spike told me the Capt. assigned him to ship out the next project. I had an old-fashioned "talk"with the Capt. letting him know what he did undermined my authority. He didn't understand so I had to explain it to him in simple terms which he finally got. He didn't make that mistake again.
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