Leadership & Strategic Management Flashcards

An executive director is building a high-performance leadership team. Which team characteristic is MOST predictive of sustained high performance?

Answer: Clear shared purpose, complementary skills, and mutual accountability

Katzenbach and Smith's research identifies shared purpose, complementary skills, and mutual accountability as the three hallmarks of true high-performance teams.

Which strategic concept describes a firm's ability to compete through lower operational costs than rivals while maintaining acceptable profit margins?

Answer: Cost leadership strategy

Porter's cost leadership strategy involves achieving the lowest cost structure in an industry to enable competitive pricing or superior margins.

A nonprofit executive director is managing a major organizational change. According to Kotter's 8-Step Model, which step comes IMMEDIATELY after establishing a sense of urgency?

Answer: Creating a guiding coalition

Kotter's model prescribes forming a powerful guiding coalition as Step 2, immediately after Step 1's urgency-building phase.

In strategic management, a 'core competency' is BEST defined as:

Answer: A unique combination of skills and knowledge that provides competitive advantage and is difficult to imitate

Prahalad and Hamel define core competencies as unique bundles of skills that deliver customer value, are rare, and are hard for competitors to imitate.

An executive director notices declining employee engagement scores over three consecutive quarters. The MOST strategic response is to:

Answer: Conduct root cause analysis before designing targeted interventions

Root cause analysis ensures interventions address the actual drivers of disengagement rather than applying generic or misdirected solutions.

Which governance principle requires that an organization's executive director avoid situations where personal interests conflict with organizational interests?

Answer: Duty of Loyalty

The Duty of Loyalty requires directors and executives to prioritize the organization's interests over personal gain or competing interests.

A strategic leader wants to apply 'design thinking' to solve a complex organizational challenge. Which phase comes FIRST in the design thinking process?

Answer: Empathize

Design thinking begins with Empathize — deeply understanding stakeholder needs and experiences before defining the problem or generating solutions.