Team Leadership

• Topic 01

  Conflict Management Techniques

  15 questions
• Topic 02

  Servant Leadership and Facilitation

  15 questions
• Topic 03

  Situational Leadership Styles

  15 questions
• Topic 04

  Motivating and Recognising Team Members

  15 questions
• Topic 05

  Building High-Performing Teams

  15 questions
• Topic 06

  Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers

  15 questions
• Topic 07

  Coaching and Mentoring

  15 questions
• Topic 08

  Team Ground Rules and Collaboration Norms

  15 questions
• Topic 09

  Managing Diversity and Inclusion

  15 questions
• Topic 10

  Removing Blockers and Impediments

  15 questions

A few questions from this unit, with the answer and a full explanation. The complete bank is available when you start practising.

1. A PM is managing a new team member who began at D1 and has been progressing through development levels over three months. The PM has consistently applied S2 (Coaching). The team member now performs complex tasks independently and has grown in confidence — except when presenting to senior stakeholders, where they revert to seeking excessive reassurance. What does situational leadership say the PM should do?

   • A
     The regression to seeking reassurance for stakeholder presentations indicates a personal anxiety issue that cannot be addressed through leadership style adjustment
   • B
     The team member is D3 overall due to the confidence gap; the PM should switch to S3 (Supporting) for all interactions
   • C
     The PM should continue applying S2 uniformly since the team member has not yet fully demonstrated D4 behaviour across all tasks
   • D
     Assess the team member's development level as task-specific: they may be D4 for technical work but D2 or D3 for stakeholder presentation, requiring different leadership styles for each task type simultaneously
     Correct answer
   Explanation

   Situational leadership's most important insight is that development level is task-specific, not a global property of the person. This team member is genuinely D4 for their technical work but is likely D2 or D3 for stakeholder presentations — an unfamiliar, high-stakes context. The PM should apply S4 (Delegating) for technical tasks while simultaneously applying S2 (Coaching) or S3 (Supporting) for stakeholder presentation preparation. Development level must be assessed per task, not globally. This is also an example of development level regression when a high-performer takes on a new type of challenge.

2. A PM has a high-performing Performing-stage team. After six months without issues, the PM notices velocity beginning to decline, team members seem less engaged in retrospectives, and small tensions are emerging. No new members have joined and scope has not changed. The PM is unsure whether this is temporary variation or a concerning trend. What is the most appropriate PM intervention?

   • A
     Immediately schedule a team-building event to boost morale and reset team dynamics
   • B
     The decline is natural and will self-correct as the team has demonstrated resilience — no PM intervention is needed
   • C
     Increase oversight and supervision to address the declining velocity before it impacts project milestones
   • D
     Investigate through individual conversations and retrospective facilitation to understand the root cause before intervening; possible causes include motivation decline in a long-running project, emerging interpersonal tensions, or early Adjourning signals if the project is nearing completion
     Correct answer
   Explanation

   Even high-performing teams require ongoing PM attention. Declining velocity and emerging tension in a stable Performing-stage team could indicate: motivational decline in the 'messy middle' of a long project (common, addressed through recognition and meaning reconnection); early signs of Adjourning as team members begin to disengage as project completion approaches; or previously suppressed interpersonal tensions surfacing. The PM should diagnose before prescribing. Individual one-to-one conversations and a carefully facilitated retrospective will surface the root cause without making assumptions. Premature or incorrect interventions (e.g., increasing oversight when the cause is motivational) can worsen the situation.

3. An agile PM spends two days navigating internal procurement processes to obtain a software licence the team needs to continue sprint work. A colleague questions whether this is a good use of the PM's time. What is the PM's most appropriate justification?

   • A
     The PM's time would be better spent improving the team's technical practices rather than navigating administrative processes
   • B
     Removing organisational impediments is a primary servant leadership responsibility; every day the team is blocked by a bureaucratic barrier is lost velocity that the PM has the authority to recover
     Correct answer
   • C
     The PM should have delegated the procurement task to the team's most experienced member rather than handling it personally
   • D
     The procurement could have been avoided if the PM had planned the licence requirement in the project initiation phase
   Explanation

   PMI's Agile Practice Guide and the Scrum Guide both identify removing impediments as a primary servant leadership accountability. Organisational bureaucracy is specifically cited as an impediment category that the PM/Scrum Master is uniquely positioned to address — team members generally lack the authority and organisational relationships to navigate procurement processes. Every sprint day the team is blocked represents lost value. This is precisely the kind of impediment the servant leader should take ownership of, not delegate back to the team.