CBC Leadership & Executive Development 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An executive coach is working with a leader who consistently micromanages their team. According to situational leadership theory, what should the coach help the leader recognize first?
- The developmental readiness level of each team member (Correct answer)
- The need to delegate all tasks immediately
- That micromanagement is always effective for new hires
- The importance of increasing team meeting frequency
Correct answer: The developmental readiness level of each team member
Situational leadership requires matching leadership style to each follower's competence and commitment level rather than applying one style universally.
Question 2: A business coach notices their executive client attributes all team failures to external factors. Which coaching approach best addresses this pattern?
- Using powerful questions to explore the leader's own contribution to outcomes (Correct answer)
- Agreeing with the client to maintain rapport
- Recommending the client replace underperforming staff
- Ending the engagement due to lack of coachability
Correct answer: Using powerful questions to explore the leader's own contribution to outcomes
Powerful questioning helps clients examine their own accountability and shift from an external to an internal locus of control.
Question 3: Which leadership style is characterized by inspiring followers through a compelling vision and appealing to higher-order values?
- Transformational leadership (Correct answer)
- Transactional leadership
- Laissez-faire leadership
- Autocratic leadership
Correct answer: Transformational leadership
Transformational leaders motivate through vision, inspiration, and appeals to values rather than exchanges of rewards for performance.
Question 4: During a 360-degree feedback debrief, an executive becomes defensive about critical peer comments. What is the coach's most effective response?
- Acknowledge the emotional reaction and explore what feels most challenging about the feedback (Correct answer)
- Skip the negative feedback and focus only on strengths
- Tell the executive the feedback is objectively correct
- Reschedule the session until the executive is calmer
Correct answer: Acknowledge the emotional reaction and explore what feels most challenging about the feedback
Acknowledging emotion while gently exploring the reaction keeps the client engaged and turns defensiveness into insight.
Question 5: A coach is helping a newly promoted executive transition from a functional role to an enterprise leadership role. Which shift is most critical for this transition?
- Moving from deep technical expertise to strategic, cross-functional thinking (Correct answer)
- Increasing hours spent on operational details
- Maintaining direct control over former team responsibilities
- Focusing exclusively on external stakeholder relationships
Correct answer: Moving from deep technical expertise to strategic, cross-functional thinking
Executive transitions require letting go of technical depth in favor of strategic breadth and enterprise-wide perspective.
Question 6: In Daniel Goleman's emotional intelligence framework, which competency involves accurately recognizing one's own emotions and their impact on others?
- Self-awareness (Correct answer)
- Relationship management
- Social awareness
- Self-regulation
Correct answer: Self-awareness
Self-awareness is the foundational EI competency of recognizing one's own emotions, strengths, limitations, and their effects.
Question 7: An executive client wants to develop their leadership pipeline. Which practice best supports sustainable leadership development in their organization?
- Creating stretch assignments paired with coaching and feedback for high-potential employees (Correct answer)
- Sending all managers to a single annual training seminar
- Promoting only external hires into leadership roles
- Relying solely on self-directed online courses
Correct answer: Creating stretch assignments paired with coaching and feedback for high-potential employees
Experiential stretch assignments combined with coaching and feedback follow the 70-20-10 development model and build leaders most effectively.
CBC Leadership & Executive Development 2
An executive coach is working with a leader who consistently micromanages their team.
According to situational leadership theory, what should the coach help the leader recognize first?