Leadership and Team Management Flashcards

Question 1

What is the difference between a manager and a leader?

Accepted Answer

A manager focuses on planning, organizing, and controlling work to produce reliable results, while a leader focuses on setting direction, inspiring people, and influencing them to pursue a shared vision. The two roles overlap, and one person can do both, but they emphasize different activities. Strong teams usually benefit from both kinds of attention.

Question 2

What is a team, and how does it differ from a simple group of workers?

Accepted Answer

A team is a group of people who share a common goal, depend on one another to achieve it, and hold themselves accountable for the result. A collection of workers may share a location or a manager without sharing those interdependent goals. Interdependence is the key feature that separates a true team from a simple group.

Question 3

Why does the concept of psychological safety matter for leaders?

Accepted Answer

Psychological safety is a belief that people can speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes, and raise concerns without fear of embarrassment or punishment. Leaders shape it through their responses to bad news and their willingness to admit their own errors. When it is present, team members share information sooner, which improves learning and problem solving.

Question 4

What are the core responsibilities a leader holds toward a team?

Accepted Answer

Leaders are generally responsible for setting a clear purpose, establishing roles and expectations, securing needed resources, removing obstacles, and developing people's capabilities. They also model the behavior they want to see. These responsibilities apply whether the team is formal, such as a department, or temporary, such as a project group.

Question 5

What is the difference between authority and influence in leadership?

Accepted Answer

Authority is the formal right to make decisions and direct work, usually granted by an organization's structure or job title. Influence is the ability to affect others' thinking and actions regardless of title, built through trust, expertise, and relationships. Effective leaders often rely more on influence, because authority alone rarely produces commitment.

Question 6

What does it mean to lead by example, and why is it important?

Accepted Answer

Leading by example means that a leader's own conduct demonstrates the standards, work habits, and values expected of the team. Team members observe what leaders do under pressure and treat those actions as the real rules. Consistency between words and actions builds credibility, which makes future requests easier to accept.

Question 7

What is servant leadership, and what is its central premise?

Accepted Answer

Servant leadership is an approach in which the leader's primary purpose is to support the growth, well-being, and success of team members. The central premise is that leaders earn authority by serving the people they lead, removing barriers and providing what others need to perform well.

Question 8

How do leaders decide how much to delegate to team members?

Accepted Answer

Leaders decide delegation based on the task's importance and risk, the team member's skill and experience, and how much time the leader has to coach. Clear delegation specifies the outcome expected, the decision rights granted, and the check-in points. Delegating well develops people and frees the leader for work that only they can do.

Question 9

What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

Accepted Answer

Intrinsic motivation comes from within a person, such as enjoyment of the work, curiosity, or a sense of meaning. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside sources, such as pay, promotions, recognition, or avoiding penalties. Both can drive performance, but leaders should understand which type is active, because it shapes how people respond to rewards and goals.

Question 10

What does self-determination theory propose about basic psychological needs?

Accepted Answer

Self-determination theory proposes that people are most motivated when three basic psychological needs are satisfied: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy means feeling a sense of choice, competence means feeling capable of mastering tasks, and relatedness means feeling connected to others. Leaders can support motivation by providing meaningful choices, useful feedback, and genuine respect.

Question 11

What is expectancy theory, and what three elements does it describe?

Accepted Answer

Expectancy theory explains motivation as a function of how much effort people believe will lead to performance, how much performance they believe will lead to a desired reward, and how valuable that reward is to them. These three elements are expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. Leaders can strengthen motivation by making the links clear and fair.

Question 12

Why is recognition an important tool for building team engagement?

Accepted Answer

Recognition tells people that their contributions are noticed and valued, which strengthens their connection to the team and to its goals. It works best when it is specific, timely, and sincere, because vague praise can feel empty. Leaders who recognize effort as well as outcomes encourage behaviors that others can learn from.

Question 13

What is employee engagement, and how is it usually described?

Accepted Answer

Employee engagement describes the degree to which people are emotionally and mentally invested in their work and committed to helping the organization succeed. It is described as a combination of commitment, energy, and willingness to go beyond minimum requirements. Engagement is not the same as satisfaction, since someone can be content yet not invested.

Question 14

How can goals be set so that they motivate team members effectively?

Accepted Answer

Goals motivate most effectively when they are specific, challenging but achievable, and understood as meaningful by the people who pursue them. Clear targets focus attention and effort better than vague instructions such as do your best. Involving team members in setting goals often increases their commitment to them.

Question 15

What role does meaningful work play in sustaining motivation over time?

Accepted Answer

Meaningful work gives people a sense that their effort matters to a purpose beyond their own tasks, which helps sustain energy during difficult periods. Leaders can reinforce meaning by connecting daily tasks to customer outcomes, team goals, or shared values. When people lose sight of that connection, motivation often declines even when pay stays the same.

Question 16

How should a leader respond when a team member's motivation suddenly drops?

Accepted Answer

A leader should seek to understand the cause through an open conversation rather than assume a flaw in character. Possible causes include unclear expectations, workload strain, personal circumstances, a lack of growth opportunities, or a conflict with a colleague. Once the cause is known, the leader can adjust tasks, resources, or support with them.

Question 17

What is active listening, and what behaviors does it involve?

Accepted Answer

Active listening is a focused way of hearing that aims to fully understand the speaker's meaning before responding. It involves giving full attention, avoiding interruptions, paraphrasing key points, asking clarifying questions, and noticing nonverbal cues. Leaders who listen actively often learn about problems earlier and build stronger trust.

Question 18

What are the main channels teams use to communicate, and how do they differ?

Accepted Answer

Teams typically use synchronous channels, such as meetings and calls, where people respond in real time, and asynchronous channels, such as email and project boards, where responses can come later. Synchronous channels suit urgent or emotionally complex conversations, while asynchronous channels suit detailed information and work that spans time zones.

Question 19

What makes feedback in a team constructive rather than harmful?

Accepted Answer

Constructive feedback is specific, focused on behavior and its effects rather than on personality, and offered with the goal of improvement. Harmful feedback tends to be vague, personal, or delivered publicly without a path forward. Asking the recipient for their perspective and agreeing on next steps makes feedback far more useful.

Question 20

What is a shared mental model, and why do teams need one?

Accepted Answer

A shared mental model is a common understanding among team members about the task, the goals, the roles, and how the work fits together. Teams need one because people who hold different assumptions tend to make conflicting decisions and miscoordinate their actions. Leaders build them by repeating priorities and documenting decisions.

Question 21

What is a communication breakdown, and what commonly causes it?

Accepted Answer

A communication breakdown occurs when the message a sender intends differs from the message the receiver actually understands, often without either party noticing. Common causes include unclear wording, unstated assumptions, too many handoffs, information overload, and differing terminology across functions. Leaders reduce breakdowns by confirming understanding and using written summaries for important decisions.

Question 22

How can a leader run a meeting so that it produces useful decisions?

Accepted Answer

A useful meeting starts with a clear purpose, an agenda, and a defined decision to be made or problem to be solved. Invite only people who contribute to that purpose, keep discussion focused, and summarize decisions, owners, and deadlines before closing. Follow-up notes shared after the meeting help turn talk into action.

Question 23

What is the difference between assertive and aggressive communication?

Accepted Answer

Assertive communication states needs, opinions, and boundaries clearly and respectfully, while still considering the views and dignity of others. Aggressive communication pushes those needs at the expense of others, often through threats, dominance, or humiliation. Leaders who communicate assertively can disagree openly without damaging relationships or silencing colleagues.

Question 24

Why is nonverbal communication important for team leaders to understand?

Accepted Answer

Nonverbal communication, including tone of voice, facial expression, posture, and timing, often carries emotional meaning that accompanies or even contradicts spoken words. Leaders who notice these signals can sense confusion, stress, or disagreement before it is voiced directly. Because people read nonverbal cues closely, leaders should keep their own signals consistent with their message.

Question 25

What are the four classic stages of team development in Tuckman's model?

Accepted Answer

The four classic stages are forming, storming, norming, and performing. In forming, members get acquainted and rely on the leader for direction. Storming involves conflict over roles and approaches, norming brings agreed working norms, and performing is when the team works effectively toward its goals. Leaders adapt their style to match each stage.

Question 26

Why should a leader not rush a team through the storming stage?

Accepted Answer

Storming surfaces disagreements about roles, priorities, and methods that would otherwise remain hidden and undermine later performance. Teams that avoid this conflict often reach a fragile agreement that breaks under pressure. A leader can help by creating structured ways to discuss differences and by keeping debate focused on issues rather than people.

Question 27

What are group norms, and how do they shape team behavior?

Accepted Answer

Group norms are the shared, usually unwritten expectations about how members behave, communicate, and handle work. They shape behavior by signaling what is acceptable, such as whether people admit uncertainty, how quickly they respond to messages, or whether they challenge ideas openly. Teams can set norms deliberately through explicit working agreements.

Question 28

What is social loafing, and how can leaders reduce it?

Accepted Answer

Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to put in less effort when their contributions are pooled into a group and not individually visible. Leaders can reduce it by assigning clear individual responsibilities, making each person's contribution visible, and emphasizing how the work matters to the group's success.

Question 29

How does team cohesion influence performance, and what can cause it to be misleading?

Accepted Answer

Cohesion is the strength of the bonds and commitment among team members, and it often supports performance by improving coordination and willingness to help. However, high cohesion can also encourage groupthink, where members avoid challenging ideas to preserve harmony. Leaders should value both warmth and healthy debate rather than equating harmony with effectiveness.

Question 30

How does role clarity affect team performance?

Accepted Answer

Role clarity means that each team member understands their responsibilities, decision rights, and how their work connects to others. When roles are clear, people spend less time duplicating effort or waiting for answers, and accountability becomes easier to see. Role confusion often produces missed tasks, friction, and frustration, even among capable people.

Question 31

What is task interdependence, and how does it affect how a leader should structure work?

Accepted Answer

Task interdependence describes how much team members must rely on each other's inputs to complete their work. High interdependence requires more coordination, shared planning, and frequent communication, while low interdependence allows people to work more independently. Leaders should structure teams and workflows to match the level of interdependence the work actually requires.

Question 32

How can a leader help a team recover after a major conflict?

Accepted Answer

A leader can start by acknowledging the conflict openly and giving each side a chance to describe its concerns without interruption. Next, the leader should separate the issues from the personalities involved and agree on shared goals and a process for future decisions. Rebuilding trust takes consistent behavior over time, not a single meeting.

Question 33

How should a leader set performance expectations so people can meet them?

Accepted Answer

Performance expectations should be stated in clear, observable terms, agreed upon in advance, and connected to the role's key responsibilities. The leader should explain how success will be measured, what resources are available, and what the timeline is. Revisiting expectations regularly lets both sides adjust when priorities or circumstances change.

Question 34

What is the difference between coaching and mentoring?

Accepted Answer

Coaching is a focused, short-term process in which a leader helps a person build a specific skill through questions and guided practice. Mentoring is usually a broader, longer-term relationship in which a more experienced person shares perspective and career guidance. Both develop people, but coaching targets specific outcomes while mentoring supports overall growth.

Question 35

What is a one-on-one meeting, and what is its main purpose?

Accepted Answer

A one-on-one meeting is a regular, private conversation between a leader and an individual team member. Its main purpose is to build trust and maintain an ongoing dialogue about progress, obstacles, development, and well-being rather than to report status alone. Consistent one-on-ones help leaders notice problems early and help people feel heard.

Question 36

What is the GROW model, and what does each step represent?

Accepted Answer

The GROW model is a coaching framework that structures conversations around four stages: goal, reality, options, and will. The goal stage clarifies what the person wants to achieve, reality explores the current situation, options generates possible actions, and will commits to specific next steps. Coaches use its sequence to keep discussions focused and forward-moving.

Question 37

Why should a leader evaluate team performance using both results and processes?

Accepted Answer

Results show whether the team reached its goals, but they can hide problems such as unsafe shortcuts, burnout, or dependence on a few heroic individuals. Process measures, such as quality of collaboration, planning habits, and how work flows, reveal how outcomes are being produced. Considering both gives leaders a fuller picture.

Question 38

What is the purpose of a performance review, and what should it avoid?

Accepted Answer

A performance review assesses past results and behaviors against agreed expectations, and it plans future development. Its purpose is to inform decisions about growth, support, and recognition, not to surprise people with judgments they have not heard before. Effective reviews avoid vague ratings, recency bias, and comparisons that ignore the context of each person's role.

Question 39

How can leaders reduce bias when evaluating team members?

Accepted Answer

Leaders can reduce bias by defining criteria in advance, collecting evidence across the review period, and documenting specific examples for each rating. Structured evaluation, ideally with input from several observers, helps counter tendencies such as halo effects, similarity bias, and recency bias. Regularly reviewing decisions for patterns across the team can reveal unfair outcomes.

Question 40

How should a leader handle a team member who consistently underperforms?

Accepted Answer

The leader should first confirm that expectations were clearly communicated, then review the situation with the person through direct, documented conversations. If the gap persists, the leader can introduce a formal improvement plan with support and clear milestones. Decisions about continued employment should follow fair procedures and organizational policy.

Leadership and Team Management Flashcards

1Foundations of Leadership

2Motivation and Engagement

3Communication in Teams

4Team Development and Dynamics

5Performance and Coaching

Learning Resources