Okay- this is going to be a little 101...but I realize that I didn't really read the PERSMAN until I had to, so I think this could be valuable for others. Chapter 14 of the Personnel Manual covers in very thorough detail how we conduct boards. The first, and most valuable, nugget from it is this:
Selection for promotion "is not a reward for satisfactory service. It confirms an officer's demonstrated potential to serve the Coast Guard in a higher grade. "
What does that mean? It means getting promoted and continuing to promote is all about you...but it's about you as an individual unit of value to the Coast Guard. I know that sounds impersonal - and it doesn't mean that the Coast Guard doesn't appreciate all members of Team Coast Guard and whatever it is they do for the service. It means that, in general, jobs get harder, and we need people who have endured the challenges at their current paygrade, have overcome those challenges, and have started to orient themselves on other challenges at the next higher paygrade.
So how does a board decide if you have "demonstrated potential" to serve at the next paygrade? It reviews your record against a standard and a developed set of criteria. For this, your Officer Evaluation Reports (OERs) are of crucial importance. Over the next few weeks, I'll be blogging about the criteria used to evaluate records. Each board develops its own unique spin on what we call "the basic criteria", which has 4 main attributes: performance, professionalism, leadership, and education. Now it depends on what board you are up for as to how those criteria are applied (ie- performance for an officer before an O6 board is distinct from one before an O-3 board...same for education, etc), but in general, the board looks at what the Coast Guard expects from officers in the grade to which they are selecting, and then it compares the officers in the pool either against a standard (fully qualified boards), or against each other (best qualified boards), and works out how many to select based on the Opportunity of Selection, if the board is best qualified. Those officers who carry excess weaknesses in the "big 4" often end up in the non-select pile.
Next up - performance. ~jea
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2 comments:
Great info CDR! I'm glad you started this blog.
Thanks, anonymous! Please keep reading and let me know what questions you have. Most of all, take care of your people and mentor them well.
The strength of the Coast Guard is based on three important ingredients:
1) hire good people,
2) keep good people, and
3) make the good people we get & keep better and better.
~ jea
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