Personal Dev Leadership¶
12 cards — 🟢 3 easy | 🟡 5 medium | 🔴 4 hard
🟢 Easy (3)¶
1. What is situational leadership and what are its four styles?
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Situational leadership (Hersey & Blanchard) adapts your style to the follower's competence and commitment. The four styles are: S1 Directing (high task, low relationship — for enthusiastic beginners), S2 Coaching (high task, high relationship — for disillusioned learners), S3 Supporting (low task, high relationship — for capable but cautious performers), S4 Delegating (low task, low relationship — for self-reliant achievers). The key insight is that no single style works for all people or all situations.2. What is the delegation spectrum and why do most managers under-delegate?
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The delegation spectrum ranges from "do exactly as I say" to "act on your own, tell me later." Levels: 1) Wait to be told, 2) Ask what to do, 3) Recommend then act, 4) Act then report, 5) Act independently. Most managers under-delegate because they fear loss of control, believe they can do it faster, or worry about quality. Under-delegation creates bottlenecks, prevents team growth, and burns out the manager. Effective delegation requires matching the level to the person's skill and the task's risk.3. Why is specific recognition more motivating than generic praise, and what are effective recognition practices?
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Specific recognition ("Your documentation of the migration runbook saved us 3 hours during last night's incident") reinforces the exact behavior you want repeated, while generic praise ("great job!") is forgettable. Effective practices: recognize in public (if the person is comfortable), be timely (within days, not months), tie it to team values or goals, vary the channel (Slack, 1:1, team meeting, written note), and recognize effort and learning, not just outcomes. Avoid: recognition that creates unhealthy competition, praising only visible work (ignoring behind-the-scenes contributions), or reserving recognition for exceptional events while ignoring consistent reliability.🟡 Medium (5)¶
1. What is the SBI feedback model and why is it more effective than generic praise or criticism?
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SBI stands for Situation-Behavior-Impact. Situation: describe the specific context ("In yesterday's sprint review..."). Behavior: describe the observable action ("you interrupted the PM three times..."). Impact: describe the effect ("which made it hard for the team to hear the updated priorities"). SBI works because it is objective (observable behavior, not character judgment), specific (not "you're always..."), and actionable (the person knows exactly what to change). Generic praise ("great job!") fails because it does not reinforce the specific behavior you want repeated.2. What is servant leadership and how does it differ from traditional command-and-control?
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Servant leadership (Robert Greenleaf) inverts the hierarchy: the leader's primary role is to serve the team by removing obstacles, providing resources, and enabling growth. Command-and-control assumes the leader has the answers and directs execution. Servant leaders ask "what do you need to succeed?" rather than "do what I say." Key practices: active listening, empathy, stewardship, commitment to people's growth, and building community. Risk: servant leadership without boundaries becomes people-pleasing. You still need to make hard decisions, set standards, and hold people accountable.3. What is psychological safety and why does Google's Project Aristotle consider it the top factor for team effectiveness?
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Psychological safety is the shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking — speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes without fear of punishment. Google's Project Aristotle studied 180 teams and found psychological safety was the #1 predictor of team effectiveness, above dependability, structure, meaning, and impact. Without it, people self-censor, hide mistakes, and avoid experimentation. Leaders build it by modeling vulnerability, responding constructively to bad news, framing failures as learning, and never punishing someone for raising concerns.4. What is the difference between positional authority and earned influence, and why does influence scale better?
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Positional authority comes from your title — people comply because they have to. Earned influence comes from competence, trust, and relationships — people follow because they choose to. Influence scales better because: 1) it works across organizational boundaries where you have no authority, 2) it survives role changes, 3) it creates genuine buy-in rather than compliance, 4) it compounds as your reputation grows. Build influence by delivering results consistently, helping others succeed, sharing knowledge generously, and being reliable in commitments.5. What is the GROW coaching model and when should you coach rather than direct?
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GROW: Goal (what do you want to achieve?), Reality (what is happening now?), Options (what could you do?), Will (what will you do?). Coach rather than direct when: the person has the skills but is stuck, you want to develop their problem-solving ability, or the situation is not time-critical. Direct rather than coach when: there is an active incident, the person lacks fundamental skills, or safety is at risk. Coaching is slower short-term but builds autonomous teams long-term. The biggest coaching mistake is asking leading questions that are really disguised instructions.🔴 Hard (4)¶
1. How should you structure effective one-on-one meetings and what mistakes do most managers make?
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Effective 1:1s are the employee's meeting, not the manager's status update. Structure: 10 min on their topics (blockers, concerns, growth), 10 min on your topics (feedback, alignment), 10 min on development (career goals, skill gaps). Common mistakes: canceling or rescheduling frequently (signals they are low priority), turning them into status reports (use standups for that), doing all the talking, never giving constructive feedback, and not following up on commitments. The best 1:1s build trust over time. Keep running notes and track action items across sessions.2. How do you handle a difficult performance conversation without damaging the relationship?
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Preparation: gather specific examples (SBI format), identify the pattern, clarify the expected standard, and decide the consequence if no change. During: state the purpose directly ("I need to discuss concerns about X"), describe the pattern with examples, listen to their perspective, collaborate on an action plan with measurable goals and a timeline. After: document the conversation, follow up at agreed intervals, acknowledge improvement. Key mistakes: sandwiching criticism between praise (dilutes the message), being vague ("you need to step up"), making it personal ("you're lazy"), and waiting too long so examples are stale.3. What is a RACI matrix and how does it prevent the "too many cooks" problem in team decisions?
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RACI assigns four roles per decision or deliverable: Responsible (does the work), Accountable (owns the outcome — exactly one person), Consulted (provides input before the decision), Informed (notified after the decision). It prevents "too many cooks" by making explicit who decides versus who advises. Common problems it solves: decisions stalling because no one owns them, everyone thinking they have veto power, people feeling excluded from decisions that affect them, and the same decision being relitigated. Rule: exactly one A per task. If you have two As, you have zero.4. How do you shape team culture intentionally rather than letting it form by default?