CTL Leadership & Communication Skills 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which type of power is a team leader using when they influence others through their expertise and specialized knowledge?
- Coercive power
- Referent power
- Expert power (Correct answer)
- Legitimate power
Correct answer: Expert power
Expert power derives from a person's knowledge, skills, or experience that others respect and rely upon.
Question 2: A team leader wants to build trust within a newly formed team. Which action is MOST effective?
- Establish strict rules and monitor compliance closely
- Consistently follow through on commitments and be transparent about decisions (Correct answer)
- Avoid sharing personal information to maintain professional distance
- Delegate all decision-making to avoid showing favoritism
Correct answer: Consistently follow through on commitments and be transparent about decisions
Trust is built through consistent reliability, transparency, and integrity — following through on commitments is foundational.
Question 3: During a team meeting, one member dominates the conversation. What should the leader do?
- Let the dominant member continue to maintain meeting flow
- Interrupt sharply and tell the person to stop talking
- Politely redirect by saying 'Let's hear from others on this point' (Correct answer)
- End the meeting and hold one-on-ones instead
Correct answer: Politely redirect by saying 'Let's hear from others on this point'
Polite redirection invites broader participation without embarrassing the dominant speaker, maintaining a positive team environment.
Question 4: What is the primary purpose of a team charter?
- To document individual performance reviews
- To establish shared norms, goals, roles, and working agreements for the team (Correct answer)
- To outline the leader's authority and disciplinary procedures
- To serve as a legal contract between team members
Correct answer: To establish shared norms, goals, roles, and working agreements for the team
A team charter aligns members on expectations, working norms, and objectives, serving as a foundational reference document.
Question 5: Which of the following BEST describes the difference between a leader and a manager?
- Leaders focus on processes; managers focus on people
- Leaders inspire and influence direction; managers plan and control resources (Correct answer)
- Managers have more authority than leaders
- Leaders and managers perform identical functions with different titles
Correct answer: Leaders inspire and influence direction; managers plan and control resources
Leadership involves inspiring vision and change, while management focuses on planning, organizing, and controlling systems and processes.
Question 6: An employee comes to a team leader with a personal problem that is affecting their work. The leader's BEST response is to:
- Ignore it — personal issues are not the leader's concern
- Solve the problem for the employee immediately
- Listen empathetically and connect them to available resources such as an EAP (Correct answer)
- Share the situation with the rest of the team for support
Correct answer: Listen empathetically and connect them to available resources such as an EAP
Empathetic listening followed by directing the employee to professional resources (like an Employee Assistance Program) balances care with appropriate boundaries.
Question 7: The term 'emotional intelligence' (EI) as it applies to team leaders primarily refers to:
- The ability to memorize large amounts of information quickly
- The capacity to recognize, understand, and manage one's own emotions and those of others (Correct answer)
- Scoring high on standardized IQ tests
- The ability to suppress all emotion in professional settings
Correct answer: The capacity to recognize, understand, and manage one's own emotions and those of others
Emotional intelligence, as defined by Goleman, encompasses self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
CTL Leadership & Communication Skills 3
Which type of power is a team leader using when they influence others through their expertise and specialized knowledge?