Questions Flashcards
What makes you want to be an officer in the air force?
Military life is in my blood, (I’ve had 3 relatives fight in world war 2 and
Since I was little I’ve always known I wanted to continue the legacy
Now that I’m 25, finished my degree, and put myself through private flight training,
I am ready to be pushed, I’m ready to be challenged and ultimately do something meaningful with my life serving as the best officer and pilot that I can be.
How can you make sure you work well in a team environment?
First off I believe that being a good follower is just as important as knowing how to be a good leader, in fact I believe they are directly correlated.
Throughout my experiences with my own company and in my University business case competitions, I always tried to recognize the value that everyone brings to the table, although everyone in a team may be different. The best teams are able to fit everyone’s unique strengths together to get a far better result than what one may be able to achieve on their own. With the right humility, openness to new ideas and trust I believe that I can fit in wherever necessary in a wide variety of team environments, to give the team the best chance of success.
What qualities do you possess that make you a good fit for this role?
I’m given to understand, the Air Force is generally looking for
Candidates who have strong leadership potential, are quick learners and have high personal and professional standards
- This is really where I can provide the most value to the Air Force,
- Having grown up in a military family, having gone through flight training, and running my own company during university, I believe I have fostered a set of characteristics that would prove very beneficial in the Air Force. From my strong work ethic to my ability to learn quickly and my passion for serving as an officer
I strongly believe that I have the ability to make my friends and family proud and become exactly the kind of officer and pilot the Air Force needs me to be.
What Leadership Experience Do You Have?
- I have been fortunate to have gained leadership experience in 3 different areas of my life
The first area would be as a business owner: I created a marketing company that had a sales staff and facilitated over a dozen professional mortgage broker clients.
During University, I actively led 4-year wide business case competitions, which involved organizing and leading a group of my peers in a competitive academic setting
My last area of leadership would be in athletics, I actually hold a blackbelt in the martial art of taekwondo, and I have not only competed in full contact competitions myself, but I also trained and coached other athletes at the blackbelt level for over 2 years.
Overall these experiences helped me develop characteristics that I am very excited to continue developing as I continue down the path of becoming the best Air Force officer and pilot I can be.
How do you handle stress and pressure?
On an overall level I approach stressful situations by remaining calm and breaking things down into simpler and more manageable tasks and then prioritizing.
For instance, there was a time in my business when a client’s entire ad campaign was shut down due to a Facebook ad policy I was not aware of, what that meant for this particular client…..
By remaining calm and thinking clearly I first specified priorities, then methodically execute them. What I did was prioritize getting the ad live immediately, then I could focus on educating myself further to ensure future prevention.
Since I delegated based on importance, the ad was back up and running within the day, no profits were lost, then I could take the next couple of days to learn about why it happened and set up measures to prevent it from recurring.
Conflicts with a team member:
Generally, by staying task-focused and always remaining calm enough to see the other points of view, I find really helps to ensure I have a wide enough scope of the whole issue before making decisions.
During University I was leading a group of my peers for a school-wide business case competition. The student who was supposed to be submitting our reports each week for class progress reports kept missing his deadlines and got angry at me when I confronted him.
I was originally surprised by the reaction, but stayed calm and focused on the project. He eventually opened up to me about the fact that he had too many tasks relative to the other members, and I ultimately realized he was right.
I then met with the other team members and everyone was happy to be accommodating and take on a small amount of his work, so everything could be divided more equally and he could have the time to submit our reports without further issues.
How do you stay organized and manage your time effectively?
- I generally prefer to write as many things down as possible so as to not forget them and stay organized.
I also take advantage of scheduling calendars and reminders with regard to important deadlines and tasks.
If I am not sure what’s urgent or not I will immediately find out, so that I can rank to-do lists and calendar notifications with the highest priority items first and then filter down to lower priority items as I complete them.
Can you describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision and what the outcome was?
Leaders although don’t always get to make popular decisions, but if they have integrity and they give their followers the appropriate dignity at least they will still be respected throughout moments of tough decisions.
During a time as a business owner, I remember having to let go of one of my salesmen.
Essentially it came down to the fact that my salesman was on a hybrid commission/salary pay structure and this one particular employee was not delivering enough results to justify his continuing to work, and this situation had continued despite numerous attempts at solving the problem from both our perspectives.
What I tried to do was simply be straightforward and honest. It was a situation where I believed in treating him as I would want to be treated and I have always appreciated figures of authority who can be honest and straightforward even if the opinion is a negative one.
I ended up letting him go and overall there were no hard feelings or repercussions at the end of the day despite it being a difficult message to both convey and receive.
How do you stay motivated in challenging situations?
Personally, I always try to remind myself of the ultimate purpose or goal that a situation is supporting,
- By always keeping focused on that end objective, it helps provide a sense of direction and purpose and can make even the more difficult tasks feel manageable.
It’s all about breaking things down, not getting overwhelmed, prioritizing, and then executing.
What Leadership Skills Do You Have?
I have been fortunate to have gained leadership experience in 3 different areas of my life, first as a business owner, next as a team leader in numerous competitive business case study competitions, and lastly, my time coaching martial arts.
Overall these experiences helped me develop characteristics such as work ethic, motivating others, thriving in stressful high-pressure situations and I am very excited to continue developing my leadership capabilities as I continue further down the path of becoming the best Air Force officer I can be.
What Are Your Strengths?
- My biggest strengths I would bring to the table would include many of the characteristics I’ve fostered from having grown up in a military family. As well as my time going through flight training, and running my own company during university. I believe that my aptitude for learning, my strong initiative, and my passion for serving as an officer could prove very beneficial during my time in the Air Force.
Overall I strongly believe that I possess the ability to make my friends and family proud and become exactly the kind of officer and pilot the Air Force needs me to be.
What are your weaknesses?
I do not have the depth of military leadership experience that would be conducive to confident execution in the military setting.
But I do hold myself to a very high standard
In the future, I am planning on seeking as many opportunities to lead others and make mistakes in safe military training environments like….OTS and UPT so that this will not be an issue for very long.
Tell me about a time you encountered a challenge:
A time when I encountered a challenge could be back when I first started out as an entrepreneur, at that time I did not have any clients who could offer testimonials or vouch for my ability to help their business grow.
Whichever first clients I was going to sign would have had to work with a company that had no proof, and this was a definite hurdle to overcome.
So my solution was to gain their trust not by demonstrating results, but by accepting responsibility for the risks. I ended up offering my first 3 clients a 30 day money back…..plus….
It turned out they were very relieved to have me take responsibility for the risk involved, it helped gain their trust and I ended up having no issues signing them and then from that point on I had no issue gathering testimonials and reviews for future sales.
Going forward I remember the value of actively demonstrating the responsibility I’m willing to take, and the role that can play in building trust
How would you go about motivating a team?
Give example of leadership style
I would always lead by example, setting the highest standards for myself and demonstrating a strong work ethic
Whether I was occasionally conducting sales for my company, alongside the other salesman. Or even competing at the same martial arts tournaments that my students would later be competing at
I had a much easier time leading through difficult situations when my team saw me as someone who would never ask them to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.
Lastly, I would also place importance on being aware of each team member’s strengths and weaknesses.
It could help me tailor my approach to motivating and inspiring action if I can accurately play to each individual’s unique strengths.
What best describes your leadership style?
- I would describe myself as a lead-from-the-front kind of leader.
I generally place a lot of value on leading by example, setting high standards for myself, and demonstrating a strong work ethic, with a commitment to the mission.
I believe that by modeling the behaviors I expect from my team members, I can not only gain their trust but also most effectively inspire them to perform at their best.
