Management and supervisory judgment: applied practice: open practice pack: learner worksheet

1. management-judgement-applied-s01-q01

Three things land on the same morning: a board paper due tomorrow, a two-minute approval that two colleagues are waiting on before they can start, and a routine monthly report due Friday. What do you do first?

1. The board paper, because it has the most senior audience
2. The monthly report, because clearing the quickest item frees your day
3. The approval, because it is short and two people are idle until it exists, then the board paper
4. Delegate the board paper and start on the report

Answer:

2. management-judgement-applied-s01-q02

You have just been promoted to lead the team you worked in. You can still do most of the technical work faster and better than anyone reporting to you.

1. Delegate the work with the outcome, the constraints, and a check-in point, accepting that it will be slower at first
2. Keep the most critical pieces yourself and delegate the rest
3. Delegate only the low-value tasks so quality is never at risk
4. Do it yourself and explain afterwards how you approached it

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3. management-judgement-applied-s01-q03

You delegated a task. The person is taking an approach different from yours. It is not how you would do it, but it will meet the requirement.

1. Ask them to use your approach so the team's work stays consistent
2. Take the task back and finish it yourself
3. Say nothing now and rework it quietly once they hand it over
4. Let their approach run, make sure you both agree what a finished result looks like, and review the outcome

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4. management-judgement-applied-s01-q04

A strong performer asks for a development opportunity that you cannot fund this financial year.

1. Tell them it will happen next year so they stay motivated
2. Say clearly what is and is not possible now, and offer the parts you can give: scope, exposure, or mentoring
3. Avoid the topic until the budget position is clearer
4. Refer them to HR to discuss development options

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5. management-judgement-applied-s01-q05

A task can go to a colleague who has done it many times, or to one who needs the experience. The schedule has genuine slack this month.

1. Give it to the person who needs the experience, with support and a checkpoint, because the slack can absorb the learning
2. Give it to the experienced colleague; it will be done properly and quickly
3. Split it between them so both are involved
4. Do it yourself, since both of them are busy

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6. management-judgement-applied-s02-q01

A reliable team member's output has dropped noticeably over three weeks. Nothing about their role has changed.

1. Start a formal performance improvement plan
2. Talk to them: describe what you have observed factually, ask what is going on, and agree next steps together
3. Quietly move some of their work to other people
4. Wait until the next scheduled review to raise it

Answer:

7. management-judgement-applied-s02-q02

You need to give a team member feedback they will not enjoy hearing.

1. Place it between two genuine compliments so it is easier to receive
2. Put it in writing so the wording is precise and there is a record
3. Ask a peer they trust to mention it informally
4. Describe the specific behaviour, its effect, and what you want instead: in person, and soon after it happened

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8. management-judgement-applied-s02-q03

An employee misses a target because a supplier they do not control delivered late. They flagged the risk early.

1. Record the miss without qualification; the target was the target
2. Remove the target retrospectively so the record is not distorted
3. Record the outcome accurately including the dependency, and assess their performance on what they controlled, including that they raised it early
4. Award the rating they would have received had the supplier delivered

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9. management-judgement-applied-s02-q04

Two team members deliver comparable results. One is highly visible in meetings and updates; the other works quietly and says little.

1. Assess both against the same written criteria and evidence, and separately help the quieter one make their work visible
2. Rate the visible one higher; influencing others is part of the job
3. Rate them identically to avoid any appearance of bias
4. Ask the wider team which of them contributed more

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10. management-judgement-applied-s02-q05

Your highest producer is increasingly abrasive with colleagues. Two people have now mentioned it separately.

1. Tolerate it; their results are exceptional and results are what count
2. Address it as a performance issue in its own right, with specific examples and a clear expectation
3. Move them into a role with less contact with the rest of the team
4. Ask the colleagues to make allowances for how they work

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11. management-judgement-applied-s03-q01

You have to make a decision that will clearly disadvantage one member of your team relative to the others.

1. Announce it to the whole team at once so nobody feels singled out
2. Let it emerge naturally; they will hear it from colleagues
3. Delay the decision until a better option appears
4. Tell the affected person first and privately, with the reasoning and what alternatives you considered

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12. management-judgement-applied-s03-q02

A grievance is raised against someone you get on well with and rate highly as a performer.

1. Deal with it informally to keep it proportionate
2. Remove yourself from any involvement immediately
3. Follow the defined process exactly, disclose your relationship with the person, and let the process decide who should handle it
4. Investigate quickly yourself so it is resolved before it spreads

Answer:

13. management-judgement-applied-s03-q03

Reviewing an old decision, you realise you treated one team member unfairly compared with another.

1. Tell the person, put right what can be put right, and change whatever produced the inconsistency
2. Correct the outcome without drawing attention to the earlier error
3. Explain why the original decision was reasonable on what you knew then
4. Leave it; reopening it will unsettle the whole team

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14. management-judgement-applied-s03-q04

A team member says: 'Can I tell you something in complete confidence?', before telling you anything.

1. Agree; being someone the team can confide in matters
2. Say you will keep it private unless it is something you are obliged to act on, explain briefly what that covers, and let them decide before they speak
3. Decline to hear anything that comes with conditions
4. Agree, and decide afterwards whether you can honour it

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15. management-judgement-applied-s03-q05

You must announce an unpopular decision made above you, which you privately think is wrong.

1. Deliver it, and make clear you argued against it
2. Deliver it as though it were your own decision
3. Explain the decision and its reasoning accurately, own your part in implementing it, and carry the team's concerns back up the line
4. Ask someone else to deliver it

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16. management-judgement-applied-s04-q01

Your team ships a defect that reaches customers and causes visible disruption.

1. Take responsibility for the outcome publicly, run a blameless review of how the process allowed it, and change the process
2. Establish who made the error and address it with them directly
3. Explain to stakeholders how much pressure the team was working under
4. Add an additional approval step before anything ships in future

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17. management-judgement-applied-s04-q02

Your team is evenly split on a technical decision. Continuing to debate is now costing more than either option would.

1. Put it to a vote so the outcome is the team's own
2. Set a decision deadline, ensure each case is stated once, then decide and record who decided and on what reasoning
3. Escalate the decision to your own manager
4. Adopt the view of the most senior person in the discussion

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18. management-judgement-applied-s04-q03

A senior stakeholder asks you to commit your team to a date you believe is roughly half the time the work needs.

1. Commit to the date and drive the team hard to meet it
2. Refuse the date
3. Commit to the date with a verbal caveat that it may slip
4. Give the estimate you actually believe with the assumptions behind it, and offer the real options: reduced scope, more people, or a later date

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19. management-judgement-applied-s04-q04

A project you personally championed is clearly not delivering what you predicted. Substantial money has already been spent.

1. Push harder; stopping now wastes everything already invested
2. Wind it down quietly over the coming months
3. State plainly what has changed, present the option to stop or redirect with the evidence, and let the decision be made on today's facts
4. Explain that the constraints imposed on it made success impossible

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20. management-judgement-applied-s04-q05

You need your team to adopt a change you are confident they will dislike. The decision itself is not reversible.

1. Present it as non-negotiable and move on quickly
2. Ask the team to vote on whether to adopt it
3. Introduce it gradually, without announcing that it is a change
4. Explain what problem it solves, say what is genuinely open to input, gather that input, then confirm the decision and what changed because of it

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