People · 22 min read
People: Leading Without Command
42% of the exam. Conflict, coaching, motivation, virtual teams, emotional intelligence and building a team that no longer needs you.
Conflict resolution, ranked
The exam has a strict hierarchy for conflict. Collaborating is almost always the best answer; withdrawing is almost always the worst.
- Collaborate / problem solve — best. Combines perspectives, uses facts, produces commitment.
- Compromise / reconcile — lose-lose but sometimes practical under time pressure.
- Smooth / accommodate — emphasizes agreement areas; temporary at best.
- Force / direct — win-lose; only for emergencies or safety.
- Withdraw / avoid — worst; postpones and lets damage compound.
Servant leadership in practice
Servant leaders put the team's ability to deliver first. Concretely, that means removing impediments, shielding from interruption, coaching rather than directing, and making progress visible.
- Ask, don't tell. 'What do you need?' beats 'Here is your assignment.'
- Protect focus: no mid-sprint scope injection, no unnecessary meetings.
- Grow capability: delegate decisions with clear boundaries and back the outcome.
- Make work visible so the team can self-correct without you.
Motivation theories worth memorizing
Expect one or two direct questions and several disguised ones.
- Maslow — needs hierarchy: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization.
- Herzberg — hygiene factors (salary, conditions, policy) prevent dissatisfaction; motivators (achievement, recognition, growth) create satisfaction.
- McGregor Theory X/Y — X assumes people avoid work and need control; Y assumes they are self-directed.
- McClelland — need for achievement, affiliation or power drives individuals differently.
- Vroom expectancy — effort leads to performance leads to a reward the person actually wants.
Tuckman and team formation
Forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning. Teams regress when membership changes.
- Forming — polite, dependent. Provide direction, roles, a team charter.
- Storming — conflict over approach. Facilitate, don't suppress.
- Norming — norms and trust settle. Reinforce agreements.
- Performing — self-organizing and high output. Step back, remove impediments.
- Adjourning — release, celebrate, transfer knowledge.
Virtual and cross-cultural teams
Distributed teams fail at handoffs and belonging, not at typing. Design communication deliberately.
- Agree overlap hours that share the burden fairly across time zones.
- Default to asynchronous, written, searchable updates; keep synchronous time for decisions and relationships.
- One source of truth for status; information radiators over status requests.
- Adapt to cultural norms around disagreement, hierarchy and directness rather than forcing one style.
Key terms
- Psychological safety
- The shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking — the strongest predictor of team performance.
- Team charter
- Team-authored working agreements: values, communication, meeting norms, decision-making and conflict process.
- Emotional intelligence
- Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill.
- Expert power
- Influence earned through demonstrated competence — the most effective power form for PMs.