SEI Self-Management 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: On the SEI, someone who scores low on 'Engage Intrinsic Motivation' is MOST likely to:
- Set ambitious personal goals without external prompting
- Persist through tasks even when they are challenging
- Require frequent external rewards to maintain effort (Correct answer)
- Regularly reflect on how their work connects to their values
Correct answer: Require frequent external rewards to maintain effort
Low intrinsic motivation means the person relies heavily on external incentives rather than internal drive to sustain effort.
Question 2: A project leader uses consequential thinking before deciding to cut corners on quality. The MOST useful question she would ask herself is:
- How quickly can we complete this to impress leadership?
- What are the likely short- and long-term effects on all stakeholders? (Correct answer)
- Who is responsible if this decision goes wrong?
- Have we done this before and survived?
Correct answer: What are the likely short- and long-term effects on all stakeholders?
Consequential thinking requires systematically examining effects on all parties across time, not just immediate gains.
Question 3: The 'Choose Yourself' pursuit in the Six Seconds EQ framework is directly tied to self-management because it emphasizes:
- Accurately identifying your emotional state in the moment
- Intentionally selecting how to respond rather than reacting automatically (Correct answer)
- Understanding how others perceive your behavior
- Aligning your actions with a higher organizational mission
Correct answer: Intentionally selecting how to respond rather than reacting automatically
'Choose Yourself' is about authoring your own responses — replacing reactivity with deliberate, values-based action.
Question 4: Which scenario demonstrates effective emotion navigation in a high-stakes situation?
- A doctor ignores her anxiety before a difficult procedure to focus on technique
- A negotiator notices his frustration and uses it as a signal to slow down and listen more carefully (Correct answer)
- A teacher avoids discussing controversial topics to prevent emotional discomfort
- A salesperson hides disappointment after a lost deal by celebrating with the team
Correct answer: A negotiator notices his frustration and uses it as a signal to slow down and listen more carefully
Effective navigation uses the emotion's signal — frustration here signals a need to re-engage — rather than suppressing or avoiding it.
Question 5: Exercising optimism, as defined in the SEI, differs from toxic positivity because it:
- Encourages ignoring negative feedback
- Requires acknowledging challenges while choosing a constructive interpretive framework (Correct answer)
- Promotes positive affirmations regardless of circumstances
- Focuses only on what has gone well in the past
Correct answer: Requires acknowledging challenges while choosing a constructive interpretive framework
SEI optimism is reality-aware and action-oriented — it acknowledges difficulty but reframes it productively rather than denying it.
Question 6: A person with strong self-management per the SEI model would MOST likely respond to a major personal failure by:
- Ruminating on the failure to ensure it is never forgotten
- Dismissing the failure as unimportant to protect self-esteem
- Analyzing what happened, extracting lessons, and adjusting their approach (Correct answer)
- Blaming external factors to maintain their sense of competence
Correct answer: Analyzing what happened, extracting lessons, and adjusting their approach
Strong self-management involves balanced reflection — neither catastrophizing nor deflecting — and converting experience into growth.
Question 7: In the Six Seconds model, self-management competencies are grouped under which pursuit?
- Know Yourself
- Give Yourself
- Choose Yourself (Correct answer)
- Lead Yourself
Correct answer: Choose Yourself
'Choose Yourself' is the second pursuit in the Six Seconds model and contains the four self-management competencies.
SEI Self-Management 3
On the SEI, someone who scores low on 'Engage Intrinsic Motivation' is MOST likely to: