Leadership Essentials Practice Exam

Question 1 Leadership Essentials

What is empathy?

From observe-only to full autonomy. Understanding and sharing the feelings of others. Leading through clear rewards and consequences. Job is tasks; role is broader expectations.

Question 2 Leadership Essentials

What is decision rights?

Achieving outcomes through persuasion when you don't manage people. Values guide decisions, especially under pressure. Mentally disengaging from work during off-hours. Clarity on who decides what.

Question 3 Leadership Essentials

What is referent power?

Situation, Behavior, Impact — feedback framework. Acting on values despite difficult thoughts/feelings. Adapting to cultural differences effectively. Influence based on others wanting to identify with you.

Question 4 Leadership Essentials

What is ruinous empathy?

Conviction updates with evidence; stubbornness resists it. Type 1: irreversible, deliberate; Type 2: reversible, can be fast. Connection to meaningful goals. Caring too much to give honest feedback.

Question 5 Leadership Essentials

What is the ADKAR model?

Recovery enables sustained performance. Inspiring change through vision and personal influence. Leading predict; lagging report results. Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement.

Question 6 Leadership Essentials

What is "Type 1" vs "Type 2" decisions (Bezos)?

Competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating. Focus on self; reduces trust. Adapting to cultural differences effectively. Type 1: irreversible, deliberate; Type 2: reversible, can be fast.

Question 7 Leadership Essentials

What is trust?

Vision is where; mission is why. Decisions made unilaterally by the leader. Belief in another's reliability, competence, and character. A description of high-quality outcomes used to align teams.

Question 8 Leadership Essentials

What is Kotter's 8-step change model?

Urgency, coalition, vision, communicate, empower, wins, sustain, anchor. Continuous learning is essential for sustained leadership. Slows execution, demoralizes team, blocks learning. Drives learning, innovation, and connection.

Question 9 Leadership Essentials

What is the SBI model?

A climate where team members can take risks without fear. Situation, Behavior, Impact — feedback framework. Fair access and opportunity, recognizing different starting points. Connection to meaningful goals.

Question 10 Leadership Essentials

What is conflict?

A review of what went well, what didn't, what to change. Disagreement between parties about ideas, interests, or relationships. Questions inviting expansive responses. Leaders inspire and empower; bosses direct via authority.

Question 11 Leadership Essentials

What is compassionate empathy?

Consistency between values and actions. Understanding others and being moved to help. Edmondson's "learning zone" — high on both. OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.

Question 12 Leadership Essentials

What is psychological flexibility?

Acting on values despite difficult thoughts/feelings. Linear follows cause-effect chains; systemic considers feedback loops. Workload, lack of control, insufficient reward, unfairness, values misalignment. Important messages need repeating to land.

Question 13 Leadership Essentials

What is stakeholder mapping?

When quick, decisive action is vital; on important issues where you're right. Strategy decides; execution implements. Adapting to cultural differences effectively. Identifying and analyzing stakeholders.

Question 14 Leadership Essentials

What is leaving a legacy?

An employee with capacity to grow into broader roles. Job is tasks; role is broader expectations. Clear expectations and direction reduce friction. The lasting impact of your leadership on people and outcomes.

Question 15 Leadership Essentials

What is delegation?

An occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition. Assigning responsibility while retaining accountability. Big Hairy Audacious Goal — long-term ambitious target. Work expands to fill the time available.

Question 16 Leadership Essentials

What is sponsorship?

Drives learning, innovation, and connection. Advocating for someone's career advancement. Important messages need repeating to land. Decisions involve team input.

Question 17 Leadership Essentials

What is transformational leadership?

Understanding interactions within complex systems. Leading congruent with one's values and self. Inspiring change through vision and personal influence. Questions inviting expansive responses.

Question 18 Leadership Essentials

What is storming stage?

Not strongly validated; useful as conversation, not diagnostic. When teams resolve conflict and establish productive routines. Conflict and competition emerge. It enables learning, innovation, and high performance.

Question 19 Leadership Essentials

What is a "feedback sandwich"?

A brief daily team meeting on progress and blockers. Influence based on others wanting to identify with you. Team works effectively toward goals. Praise-criticism-praise structure; often patronizing.

Question 20 Leadership Essentials

What is the difference between vision and mission?

Vision is where; mission is why. A framework emphasizing courage, vulnerability, values, trust, resilience. Adapting style to follower readiness. Personality is enduring; style can be adapted.

Question 21 Leadership Essentials

What is self-awareness?

Understanding one's own emotions, strengths, and limitations. Progress in valued skills. Recovery enables sustained performance. Accountability is owning outcomes; blame is assigning fault.

Question 22 Leadership Essentials

What is the difference between explicit and implicit communication?

A learning stance for growth. Cohesion develops and norms form. Explicit states directly; implicit relies on context. OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.

Question 23 Leadership Essentials

What is the role of focus?

Mentally disengaging from work during off-hours. Choosing what NOT to do is as important as what to do. Situation, Behavior, Impact — feedback framework. Personality is enduring; style can be adapted.

Question 24 Leadership Essentials

What is the importance of consistency?

Analyzing failures without assigning personal blame. Building mutually beneficial relationships. The lasting impact of your leadership on people and outcomes. Predictable behavior builds trust.

Question 25 Leadership Essentials

What is the Big Five personality model?

OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. Favoring information confirming existing beliefs. Hands-off; delegating extensively. High-context relies on shared understanding; low-context is direct.

Question 26 Leadership Essentials

What is the difference between leadership style and personality?

Personality is enduring; style can be adapted. Doing what's right despite risk or fear. Accepting outcomes that meet the bar without over-optimizing. When stakes are high and relationship matters.

Question 27 Leadership Essentials

What are causes of burnout?

Urgency, coalition, vision, communicate, empower, wins, sustain, anchor. Workload, lack of control, insufficient reward, unfairness, values misalignment. Focused practice on weaknesses with feedback. High-performing teams have ~5:1 positive-to-negative interactions.

Question 28 Leadership Essentials

What is the role of rest?

Regular feedback supports growth; rare feedback erodes trust. People may need to hear something seven times to absorb it. Work expands to fill the time available. Recovery enables sustained performance.

Question 29 Leadership Essentials

What is the role of a leader in DE&I?

Achieving outcomes through persuasion when you don't manage people. Caring too much to give honest feedback. Setting tone, holding standards, ensuring opportunity. Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed — clarifying roles.

Question 30 Leadership Essentials

What is the difference between mentor and sponsor?

Adapting to cultural differences effectively. Awareness of the limits of one's knowledge. Mentors advise; sponsors actively promote. Trusting team to do work, even imperfectly at first.

Question 31 Leadership Essentials

What is the "good enough" mindset?

Important messages need repeating to land. Not strongly validated; useful as conversation, not diagnostic. Accepting outcomes that meet the bar without over-optimizing. A person or group affected by or interested in a decision.

Question 32 Leadership Essentials

What is the difference between OKR and KPI?

Guiding people through transitions. OKRs are aspirational outcomes; KPIs are ongoing metrics. Process used to make decisions, not just outcomes. Reduced quality of decisions after many in a short time.

Question 33 Leadership Essentials

What is the difference between competence and confidence?

Exhaustion, cynicism, reduced effectiveness. A structure for developing leaders at each organizational level. Destructive disagreement focused on personalities. Competence is capability; confidence is belief in it.

Question 34 Leadership Essentials

What is norming stage?

Detachment, relaxation, mastery, control during off-time. Cohesion develops and norms form. Understanding one's own emotions, strengths, and limitations. Edmondson's "learning zone" — high on both.

Question 35 Leadership Essentials

What is active listening?

Trust + accountability + commitment + clarity of goals. Not strongly validated; useful as conversation, not diagnostic. The lasting impact of your leadership on people and outcomes. Fully focusing on the speaker, understanding, responding thoughtfully.

Question 36 Leadership Essentials

What is the rule of seven?

Ensuring people understand and pursue shared goals. Implicit expectations between employer and employee. Continuous learning is essential for sustained leadership. People may need to hear something seven times to absorb it.

Question 37 Leadership Essentials

What is allyship?

Vulnerability builds trust and connection. Passion and perseverance for long-term goals. Values guide decisions, especially under pressure. Active support of underrepresented groups.

Question 38 Leadership Essentials

What is anchoring bias?

A single key metric reflecting product/customer value. From observe-only to full autonomy. Low-ability people overestimate their ability. Over-relying on first information received.

Question 39 Leadership Essentials

What is purpose?

Connection to meaningful goals. Strong, well-considered belief. Caring too much to give honest feedback. Being clear is kind; being unclear is unkind (Brown).

Question 40 Leadership Essentials

When is collaborating best?

The fundamental purpose of an organization. Open debate, admitting mistakes, asking for help, dissent without retaliation. Active support of underrepresented groups. When stakes are high and relationship matters.

Question 41 Leadership Essentials

What is the say-do gap?

Difference between stated values and lived behavior. A climate where team members can take risks without fear. Team members orient and seek direction. Accountability is owning outcomes; blame is assigning fault.

Question 42 Leadership Essentials

What is a north star metric?

Acknowledging effort and contribution. Management directs work; leadership inspires direction. Big Hairy Audacious Goal — long-term ambitious target. A single key metric reflecting product/customer value.

Question 43 Leadership Essentials

What is the difference between strategy and execution?

Process used to make decisions, not just outcomes. Group consensus suppressing dissent. Express disagreement openly, then commit fully to the decision. Strategy decides; execution implements.

Question 44 Leadership Essentials

What is functional conflict?

Difference between stated values and lived behavior. Edmondson's "learning zone" — high on both. Continuous learning is essential for sustained leadership. Productive disagreement focused on issues.

Question 45 Leadership Essentials

What is the most important leadership skill?

Being clear is kind; being unclear is unkind (Brown). Listening — followed closely by clarity and integrity. Mentally disengaging from work during off-hours. Focus on self; reduces trust.

Question 46 Leadership Essentials

What is cognitive vs emotional empathy?

Ensuring people understand and pursue shared goals. A brief daily team meeting on progress and blockers. Cognitive: understanding feelings; emotional: feeling them too. Feedback informs; coaching develops.

Question 47 Leadership Essentials

What is the difference between motivation and engagement?

When stakes are high and relationship matters. Direct, specific feedback delivered with care. Motivation is internal drive; engagement is sustained connection to work. Open debate, admitting mistakes, asking for help, dissent without retaliation.

Question 48 Leadership Essentials

What is the difference between performance and potential?

Caring too much to give honest feedback. Inspiring change through vision and personal influence. Performance is current results; potential is future capacity. Influence through personal charm and conviction.

Question 49 Leadership Essentials

What is the importance of diversity?

Diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams on complex tasks. Underestimating time required for tasks. Work expands to fill the time available. Caring too much to give honest feedback.

Question 50 Leadership Essentials

What is executive presence?

A 2×2 sorting tasks by urgency and importance. Values guide decisions, especially under pressure. When teams resolve conflict and establish productive routines. Communicating credibility and confidence at senior levels.