CSJT Leadership and Influencing 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A colleague consistently ignores your suggestions during team meetings even though your ideas are later proven correct. What is the most effective response?
- Escalate the issue to your supervisor immediately
- Continue sharing ideas and build credibility through documented results (Correct answer)
- Stop contributing ideas to avoid conflict
- Confront the colleague publicly during the next meeting
Correct answer: Continue sharing ideas and build credibility through documented results
Building credibility through consistent, documented results is the most professional and effective long-term strategy for gaining influence.
Question 2: You are leading a project and discover a team member is significantly more knowledgeable than you in a critical area. What should you do?
- Avoid delegating tasks in that area to maintain authority
- Leverage that team member's expertise and give them appropriate responsibility (Correct answer)
- Transfer the team member to another project
- Conceal the knowledge gap from your supervisor
Correct answer: Leverage that team member's expertise and give them appropriate responsibility
Effective leaders recognize and leverage team members' strengths rather than feeling threatened by expertise.
Question 3: During a departmental change initiative, half the staff openly resist the new process. As the supervisor, what is your first priority?
- Enforce compliance through disciplinary warnings
- Identify and address the underlying concerns driving resistance (Correct answer)
- Proceed with implementation and ignore the resistance
- Delay the initiative indefinitely until all staff agree
Correct answer: Identify and address the underlying concerns driving resistance
Understanding and addressing the root causes of resistance is essential before enforcing compliance.
Question 4: A high-performing employee requests a schedule change that the rest of the team cannot receive. How should you respond?
- Grant it immediately to retain top talent
- Deny it to maintain uniform team policy
- Evaluate the request based on operational impact and fairness principles, then decide consistently (Correct answer)
- Offer it only if the employee agrees to take on additional duties
Correct answer: Evaluate the request based on operational impact and fairness principles, then decide consistently
Decisions must balance individual needs with team equity and operational requirements, applied consistently.
Question 5: You need to persuade senior leadership to approve a new program with significant upfront costs. Which approach is most effective?
- Emphasize your personal commitment to the program
- Present data-driven projections showing long-term return on investment (Correct answer)
- Minimize the costs in your presentation to ease approval
- Request approval verbally to avoid creating a paper trail
Correct answer: Present data-driven projections showing long-term return on investment
Leaders persuade effectively through evidence-based arguments that align with organizational goals and leadership priorities.
Question 6: A newly promoted supervisor finds that former peers are not following their directives. What is the most appropriate action?
- Immediately involve HR to address insubordination
- Hold a team meeting to clarify the new reporting structure and set expectations collaboratively (Correct answer)
- Report every instance of non-compliance to senior management
- Revert to a peer role to avoid conflict
Correct answer: Hold a team meeting to clarify the new reporting structure and set expectations collaboratively
Addressing the transition openly and setting clear expectations helps establish authority while maintaining positive relationships.
Question 7: You observe that two units in your agency have duplicated efforts on the same project, wasting resources. You have no authority over either unit. What is the best approach?
- Do nothing since it is outside your authority
- Bring the issue to a shared supervisor or propose a coordination meeting between the units (Correct answer)
- Inform only one unit without telling the other
- Document the waste and submit a formal complaint
Correct answer: Bring the issue to a shared supervisor or propose a coordination meeting between the units
Exercising informal influence by facilitating coordination is appropriate and effective when formal authority is absent.
CSJT Leadership and Influencing 2
A colleague consistently ignores your suggestions during team meetings even though your ideas are later proven correct.
What is the most effective response?