Hello there, my name is Richard McMunn from the career recruitment website How2Become.com.
And in this tutorial, I'm going to give you 7 brilliant tips for passing the Royal Navy
Officer Admiralty Interview Board. If you are required to go to the AIB at any point
in the not too distant future, please do make sure you watch this tutorial from beginning
to end, because I have some BRILLIANT TIPS to help you prepare effectively and more importantly,
pass the Admiralty Interview Board. Now, before I do that, a very warm welcome to this Admiralty
Interview Board training tutorial. My name is Richard McMunn. That's me there in the
centre of the screen. I've been helping people to pass their interviews and their assessment
centres for about 20 years now. And I'm going to do that specifically in this tutorial by
giving you top tips for passing the Royal Navy Officer AIB. I am a former member of
the Royal Navy myself. I was also a Fire Officer for 17 years. So I have a lot of experience
of leadership and management. On that basis, please do make sure you SUBSCRIBE to my channel
by clicking the button below the video, and then you won't miss out on any of the weekly
training videos I'm uploading. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.com if you want
to. My LinkedIn.com link is in the description below the video. It's always good to connect
with like-minded professionals such as yourself. I would also very much appreciate your support
if you gave the video a LIKE, because that tells me you enjoy the content and I will
therefore spend time creating more for you. Thank you very much. OK. Let's get into those
7 Admiralty Interview Board tips to help you prepare effectively. I recommend you take
notes as I progress. Now, the first one, which is one of the most important tips for passing
the Royal Navy officer selection process, is to focus on demonstrating the assessable
LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES throughout the Admiralty Interview Board. I will tell you what those
leadership competencies are in a second. It's important to stress that throughout the AIB
and the entire Royal Navy officer selection process, the assessors are looking for your
POTENTIAL to become an outstanding leader within the Royal Navy. We need to think about
how we're going to demonstrate these throughout the AIB. So, what are those assessable leadership
competencies? Well, you are going to be assessed against your INTERPERSONAL COMPETENCIES, your
PROBLEM SOLVING COMPETENCIES and also CHARACTER COMPETENCIES. These are three very specific
competencies that form part of the selection criteria. What are those? Well, interpersonal
competencies. They basically assess your ability to interact with other people throughout the
AIB. They assess your ability to work as part of a team, because even though you are going
there to demonstrate your leadership capabilities, you are very much being assessed against your
ability to work with others as part of a team. Demonstrate effective teamwork at all times.
You also have to communicate clearly with everybody throughout the AIB, and also influence
them to follow your course of action. And as we progress through this tutorial, I'll
give you some great tips on how you can achieve the competency of interpersonal skills. Let's
move on to problem solving competencies. What does this mean? Well, problem solving competencies
assess your ability to basically gather, disseminate and then utilise resources and information
quickly.You have to act very quickly throughout all of the assessments. You want to get things
done with a SENSE OF URGENCY. Make sure you take a note of that. They are looking to see
whether or not you have the capacity to solve difficult and challenging problems. And in
particular, these will be assessed throughout the Practical Leadership Task and also the
Planning Exercise, which again, I will talk about in more detail in a second. And then
finally, those character competencies. This assesses your strength of character and in
particular, how you react in given situations and also your levels of integrity and self-motivation.
You have to really want this! OK. So they assess your strength of character and in particular
when things are not going well, which is going to happen during the AIB, you know, you're
not going to be able to breeze through everything! When things are going wrong, how do you react?
So let me have a look at 3 LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES TIPS to help you demonstrate the competencies
throughout the duration of the Admiralty Interview Board. Tip number one, make sure you communicate
loud and clear with the other candidates at the AIB. If you are in command of the Practical
Leadership Task, give your team a clear brief. Make sure you encourage them vocally throughout
the task. Make sure you praise them if they're doing well. So say to them, you’re doing
a great job there team! Keep going and support them. You can say: “If anyone's having any
problems with the task, put your hand up and let me know!” Support your team. Brief the
team. Encourage them. Praise them and support them. How do you brief the team at the start
of the Practical Leadership Task? Well, I recommend that you use a process which is
called SMEAC. That’s Situation. Mission. Execution. Asking questions. Clarification.
You start off and you say to the team who you are briefing… “The situation is, we
are here at the Admiralty Interview Board. Our mission is that we have to get this object
over to that that position over there. This is how we're going to execute our mission.”
And then you would allocate the tasks and tell people what they are going to do. And
then the ‘A’ part of SMEAC is asking questions. “Does anybody have any questions?” And
then ‘C’ is to clarify… “Can everyone confirm that they understand exactly what
they are doing” Just to confirm, it’s SMEAC – Situation. Mission. Execution. Asking
questions and then Confirmation or Clarification. And if you remember that, it’s a great process
to follow, that you can communicate effectively. Tip number two, make sure you use as much
available information as possible to solve the problems you will encounter both during
the Planning Exercise, and also the Practical Leadership Task. Throughout those, if you
are unsure of what to do, there is nothing wrong with asking other people in the team
for their opinions, or whether somebody has got any ideas of how we can solve this problem,
because what you're doing there, is you are using your team's STRENGTHS. I would be saying
to people… “Have we got anybody here who is good at tying knots? OK. You're going to
be in charge of not tying.” You would say… “Who's good at keeping the time? Right,
you can keep the time.” So make sure you use as much available resources and information
as possible. You can still be in control and in command, even though you're going to be
using other people and their views and opinions on how to do things. And then tip number three,
when things are not going according to plan, which is going to happen during the AIB. Just
remember that things won't always go smoothly. This is when you are really being assessed.
So at this stage, make sure you show GRIT & DETERMINATION! Don't blame people if things
go wrong. Take ownership of situations. Don't give in and keep going until the very end.
You do not have to necessarily achieve the Practical Leadership Task or the Planning
Exercises within the allocated time. But if you keep going, and you’re self-motivated
and you show real grit and determination. “Come on, we can do this. Let's explore
other options!” Have a sense of urgency. Communicate with everybody throughout each
of the planning exercises and the PLT. You can still pass. So remember that you've got
to show grit and determination. Three really good tips there. Take a note of them and remember
them throughout the Admiralty Interview Board. OK. Let's move on to Admiralty Interview Board
Tip Number 2, make sure you carry out lots of planning exercise practice before you go
to the AIB. Now, I believe that the planning exercise is one of the toughest elements of
the AIB. In my opinion, it's the hardest part. The planning exercise is a written exercise
where you have to decide how you're going to complete a task and solve a problem based
on the information that you are given. You are under pressure. Okay. There'll be a time
limit that you have to complete this by. The only way that you will gain confidence with
the Planning Exercise is try out lots of them before you attend the AIB. Don't go anywhere.
Don't go off the video, but if you CLICK THAT LINK when you're ready in the top right hand
corner of the video, it will take you through to my website here where you can download
15 GREAT PLANNING EXERCISES! I have personally written these Planning Exercises. They are
of varying degrees of difficulty, and they literally cost £15 for 15! So they are only
£1 each. My advice is to get a copy of those because you can start practicing them at home
and they’re in PDF format. You don’t have to wait for them to be delivered in the post,
but they are great practice for your Admiralty Interview Board. My next tip… Admiralty
Interview Board Tip Number 3 is to really get good at SPEED, DISTANCE AND TIME. Now
you're going to need speed, distance and time calculations throughout the planning exercises.
So what you want to do, is again, carry out lots of practise of speed, distance and time.
Let me just give you a quick tip before I give you some useful FREE RESOURCES to help
you practise SDT questions. Accuracy with speed, distance and time and your agility
with regards to speed, distance and time calculations is really important during specific aspects
of the Royal Navy officer selection process. If you are good at speed, distance and time,
it will help you to perform well in the planning exercise, and it's essential that you learn
and master the different calculations. My advice is to be good at writing them down,
and also be able to answer them in your head. So these are the formulas for speed, distance
and time. To calculate speed, it’s distance divided by time. To calculate distance, it’s
speed multiplied by time. To calculate time, it’s distance over speed. Now, if you take
a note of this triangle and where the distance, speed and time are, if you remember that before
you go to the Admiralty Interview Board, it will help you. If you are trying to work out
SPEED, all you do is put your thumb over SPEED and then that gives you the calculation, which
is distance over time. If you're trying to work out DISTANCE, you put your thumb over
that and you can see its speed multiplied by time. And then finally, if you want to
know the TIME, it's distance over speed. That it's a great triangle to help you learn these
speed, distance and time calculations! Let me give you a FREE RESOURCE to help you. If
you go to the website www.SpeedDistanceTime.info, I'll just let you take a note of that. Then
I have a free website where you can practise lots of these questions, both in written format
and also in your head. I believe strongly that if you get really good at speed, distance
and time calculations in your head, you will be at a greater advantage than the majority
of candidates. Most candidates will learn how to carry out speed, distance and time
calculations by writing them down, but they won't be able to do them out loud in their
head. So if we just head over to this speed, distance and time website. This is my website
here. Here is the test: speed, distance and time. And here's a question. What speed covers
90 miles in 11 hours? You can put your answers in there, and then click submit. It will take
you through to the home page where you go through. I've created it specifically for
RAF officer selection process, but it's perfect for AIB as well. And all you need to do is
click that part: SPEED, DISTANCE AND TIME TEST. There are also some BUNDLE PACKS there
on the page if you want to download and you know, really take your preparation to the
next level. But that's a great website to use. Okay. The next Admiralty Interview Board
Tip Number 4. Make sure you improve your current affairs knowledge. So current affairs, is
your knowledge of what's going on in the world right now. And my advice is to really think
about what's been going on around the world and also locally in the UK within the last
12 months, but really drill down on current affairs subjects in the last six months. What
questions could you get asked at the interview about current affairs? They might say to you:
“How do you keep up to date with current affairs? And I'll give you a couple of resources
in a minute, which I recommend you study. The other question that I want you to prepare
for is: “Tell me about three current affairs topics from overseas, and three from home,
and in particular, give me your opinion on each of them?” And you have to make sure
that you have an opinion and stick with it! Because they will try and sway you from your
opinion. Now, you're not going to be arguing with the assessors, but stick by your opinion
and give them reasons why you believe you know the choices that you do with regards
to the current affairs topics. There are a couple of websites I recommend you look at.
The first one is the TheWeek.co.uk, which is an appraisee down of what's been going
on in the last week. And the other one is the Economist.com. I recommend you look at
those two websites. If I quickly take you to those, you can see here the TheWeek.co.uk,
you can see it is a daily brief every day. If you read this every day, then your current
affairs will soon get up to speed! And also the economist, which is Economist.com, if
you scroll down, there's loads of great information and you don’t need to necessarily go out
and buy a newspaper. I would be subscribing to The Week and The Economist. If I was personally
going to choose a newspaper, I would read The Times, but those would be the three resources,
The Times, The Week, and the Economist.com. You'd need to subscribe to these. But they
are great websites in your preparation for Royal Navy officer Admiralty Interview Board
selection. That's my recommended current affairs reading. Let's move on now to Admiralty Interview
Board Tip Number 5! Don’t forget, if you are enjoying these tips, please SUBSCRIBE
and hit the LIKE button. Thank you. Make sure you have examples ready of when you have previously
demonstrated LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL. You could get asked an interview question that goes:
“Can you give me an example of when you previously demonstrated leadership skills?”
If you are applying to become an officer in the Royal Navy, which is an amazing organisation,
I loved my time in there. You have to be able to show that you are a LEADER. If they are
going to take you on board as an officer, they're not going to gamble on anybody who's
got no prior leadership skill potential. Now, you don’t have to have held a leadership
role as a manager in an organisation to prove that you have leadership potential. Let me
give you 4 examples of leadership potential. Number one: you might be encouraging your
work colleagues to embrace change positively within an organisation, for example, where
you say to everyone… “Come on, everybody, let's embrace the change. You know, let's
work as part of a team to take on board these changes that have come through.” Most people
don't like change in an organisation, but you could be that person who encourages them.
Second example of leadership potential is remaining calm under pressure. When you've
been confronted with a stressful situation, for example, like many a time when I was working
in the Fire Service, I would take control of large incidents, and I had to remain calm
under pressure. Now, of course, you won’t have been in those kind of situations. However,
you may have come across a road traffic accident before where you took control and allocated
resources, called 999 and helped out by giving first aid, for example. That's showing LEADERSHIP
POTENTIAL. Number three, being the person who STEPS UP AND TAKES RESPONSIBILITY to sort
out a problem at work, throughout your education, or at home. And number 4, influencing someone
to choose your course of action or your recommendation. Now, those are four examples of demonstrating
leadership potential. You could also read leadership books! Go on to Amazon, have a
look for some leadership books. And if you haven't got much experience of leadership,
you can say… “I've not got much experience, but I'm reading up on it. I've been reading
a number of leadership books and these are the ones that I've read, and this is what
I took from it.” Because that shows that you’re self-motivated. Let's have a look
at Admiralty Interview Board tip number 6. This is really important as well. Be strong
on your Royal Navy and military knowledge. Make sure you include NATO in your research
and also the Royal Marines. If you're applying to become a Royal Navy officer, don't neglect
the Royal Marines in your research. And these are the things that I recommend you practice.
Here's a checklist with some links. Study the Royal Navy website in detail and in particular,
learn the following: the History of the Royal Navy, Royal Navy ships, organisational structure,
aircraft, even if you're not applying to join the Fleet Air Arm, still learn about aircraft…
Location of Naval airbases and stations. The Senior Staff within the Royal Navy, and Latest
News. Make sure you also find out about Royal Navy Operations. So they might say… “Where
is the Royal Navy operating right now? What are we doing around the world?” Now, what
I've done is, in the description below the video, I've put all of THESE LINKS for you
so you can go straight through to them. Those are the things that I would concentrate the
majority of my research on in regard to Royal Navy and Military knowledge. So that's a checklist
for you. Admiralty Interview Board Tip Number 7. Prepare for the following Royal Navy officer
interview questions. Why do you want to join the Royal Navy and not the Royal Air Force
or the Army? Why do you want to join the Royal Navy and not the Royal Air Force or the Army?
Why do you want to become an officer in the Royal Navy? What's the difference between
leadership and management? Tell me what you know about Royal Navy officer training, and
which aspects will you find the most challenging? Describe a situation in which you have shown
moral courage. There are a few questions there I want you to prepare for. To help you, I've
created another video here on YouTube. If you CLICK THAT LINK in the top right hand
corner of the video, it takes you through to where that video is. And I give you suggested
answers to those exact interview questions. It's a great video. Make sure you watch that
as well, during your preparation. I've put the link to all of the suggested links and
recommended resources I cover in this video, in the description below here for you. Make
sure you check it out! If you would like to ACCELERATE your learning, I do have an Online
Royal Navy Officer training course that will help you throughout the AIB. If you CLICK
THAT LINK in the top right corner, it takes you through to that page where you can get
access to it. I hope you've enjoyed that quick whistle-stop tour of my tips for passing the
Admiralty Interview Board. The Royal Navy is a great career, but make sure you prepare
for it fully. Give it your all during your preparation. Don't leave any stone unturned.
It will be worth the extra effort! Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE. Please hit the LIKE button.
Thanks for watching and I wish you all the best for passing Royal Navy officer selection
process. Thank you.