Deck 15: Leadership Development and Succession

Question 1

Of the following, the most likely to be emphasized in a personal growth program of leadership development is

A)career planning.
B)personal investment strategies.
C)the contingency approach.
D)who you need to be.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

A survey about mentoring in large companies found that

A)the vast majority of executives perceived mentoring to be an important developmental method.
B)the vast majority of executives perceived mentoring to be an insignificant developmental method.
C)minority group members perceived mentoring to be of negligible developmental value.
D)majority group members perceived mentoring to be of negligible developmental value.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

A major purpose of assigning managers to cross-functional teams to work on an important problem is to

A)give them a promotion.
B)keep them thinking in terms of functional silos.
C)make them a little more humble.
D)give them experience in working with other disciplines.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

An important way for leaders to capitalize on challenging experiences is for them to be given

A)leeway in choosing how to resolve the problem.
B)careful guidance in how to resolve the problem.
C)the opportunity to delegate the problem to someone else.
D)a policy and procedures manual for resolving the problem.

Question 5

A major reason that leadership talent can be developed is that it involves

A)behaviors that can be translated into doable tasks.
B)traits that can be quickly modified for leadership effectiveness.
C)behaviors that can be translated into effective traits.
D)genetic factors that can be readily modified.

Question 6

Keith is a lopsided leader, so he best fits the category of being too

A)forceful and too enabling.
B)operational and too enabling.
C)operational and too strategic.
D)strategic and too visionary.

Question 7

The opposite end of the leadership dimension forceful is

A)assertive.
B)operational.
C)strategy.
D)enabling.

Question 8

The support in a feedback-intensive management development program relates to

A)a company paying all the costs of the program for participants.
B)assessing the strengths and weaknesses of program participants.
C)providing program participants with the right amount of challenge.
D)helping participants cope with the challenge of receiving feedback.

Question 9

A key element of behavioral role modeling involves

A)reading about the accomplishments of great leaders.
B)participating in simulations of company problems.
C)role-playing behavior that the learner has observed.
D)creating scenarios of potential future problems.

Question 10

A distinguishing characteristic of a mentoring relationship is that

A)the mentor recommends the protégé for promotion.
B)an emotional relationship exists between the mentor and the protégé.
C)a newcomer learns from a more experienced person.
D)the protégé is being groomed for the mentor's job.

Question 11

Multiple online role playing fantasy games are now in use in leadership development as a type of

A)simulation.
B)socialization program.
C)feedback intensive program.
D)conceptual knowledge program.

Question 12

A major aim of the socializing approach to leadership development is for participants to

A)understand and accept the company vision and values.
B)get to know other leaders in the company.
C)enhance their interpersonal skills.
D)learn how to shape the behaviors of group members.

Question 13

According to Richard Branson, the top executive of Virgin Atlantic, the best developer of a leader is

A)working for his company.
B)accumulating a bunch of easy victories.
C)failure.
D)taking small risks.

Question 14

Shay works for PricewaterhouseCoopers where she participates in action learning for leadership development.Shay is therefore

A)invited to shadow a member of the executive team.
B)demoted to a position of lesser responsibility for a short term.
C)placed on two client teams at once.
D)sent abroad to work on a volunteer project.

Question 15

Executive coaching can be part of leadership development because

A)management is really a team sport.
B)most managers have severe emotional problems.
C)most coaches are former CEOs.
D)managers receive advice and encouragement about leadership skills.

Question 16

After receiving negative feedback about her company, the CEO showed double-loop learning by saying,

A)"Maybe we are not in the right business."
B)"You cannot please everybody."
C)"I must tell the customer service department about this problem."
D)"This feedback is so important, it's worth hearing twice."

Question 17

Self-discipline plays an important role in leadership development because

A)most leaders have a tendency to be undisciplined.
B)many forms of personal development require self-discipline.
C)most leaders have the need to punish themselves from time to time.
D)most forms of leadership development require double-loop learning.

Question 18

To use the shadowing form of mentoring, the protégé

A)follows the mentor around for a stated period of time.
B)stays out of the spotlight so he or she can learn.
C)keeps others in the dark about his or her developmental opportunities.
D)alternates between mentors for a defined time period.

Question 19

Online mentoring works by essentially

A)finding mentors on Facebook or LinkedIn.
B)holding video conferences with potential mentors.
C)using search engines to find mentors in other companies.
D)matching mentors and mentored employees via websites

Question 20

To achieve multifunctional managerial development, a leader would have to

A)gain experience in various organizational units.
B)serve multiple functions in his or her organizational unit.
C)alternate between line and staff departments.
D)work for a series of firms.

Question 21

Because individual differences exist among leaders, before conducting a leadership development and training program, first

A)identify universal training needs.
B)conduct a needs analysis.
C)assign people to programs based on preference.
D)conduct an organizational analysis.

Question 22

It has been observed that when a founder leaves a business,

A)a well-planned retirement party usually takes care of any potential emotional problems.
B)the business often experiences considerable trauma.
C)a spirit of joyfulness spreads throughout the firm.
D)he or she should cut off all future contact with the new leader.

Question 23

Self-help is an important part of leadership development.

Question 24

Brenda has just assumed her first leadership position at her company.She is likely to face all but which of the following challenges?

A)Uncertainty over how much time to spend leading versus doing individual tasks
B)Overcoming the resentment of people who wanted her position
C)Having realistic expectations about how much she can accomplish right away
D)Building relationships and fostering teamwork quickly enough

Question 25

One approach to self-awareness in leadership is to find the right balance between being strategic versus being enabling.

Question 26

A leader who engages in double-loop learning might ask, "Is what I am doing making a contribution to the firm?"

Question 27

Leadership development can take place by using the boss as a positive or negative model of leadership.

Question 28

Developing a pool of leadership successors combines evaluating potential with giving high-potential candidates the

A)compensation they need to feel like executives.
B)right type of developmental experiences.
C)right type of opportunities for failure.
D)amount of stock options they need to stay motivated.

Question 29

Barry gets promoted to the CEO position partly because he is perceived to be an inside-outside leader, meaning that he

A)has experience at the company but also has an outside perspective.
B)worked for the company a while, left, and then returned.
C)had access to company secrets but never revealed them.
D)has worked in both manufacturing and sales.

Question 30

One approach to self-awareness in leadership is to find the right balance between being forceful versus enabling.

Question 31

Self-awareness in relation to leadership development refers primarily to projecting a powerful and forceful image.

Question 32

Education differs from training because education is less concerned with the immediate application of knowledge and skills.

Question 33

The purpose of psychotherapy as leadership development is to

A)decrease sources of stress that lower productivity.
B)help managers become more charismatic.
C)overcome emotional problems that could be blocking leadership development.
D)help company leaders more ethical.

Question 34

A learning experience that creates pressure to show others that you can get the job done is particularly valuable for development.

Question 35

A strongly recommended approach for the board to use in choosing a new CEO is for the board members to

A)select candidates who are part of the "good old boy" or "good old girl" network.
B)minimize social contact with the candidates and thus maintain objectivity.
C)have extensive email contact with the candidates.
D)have direct and extensive contact with the candidates.

Question 36

Cindy is hired to replace a well-liked leader.As a result Cindy is likely to

A)be well accepted immediately.
B)experience a surge in productivity within the group.
C)have some difficulty exerting her authority.
D)experience low turnover within the group.

Question 37

The two most important outcomes of a training and development program are

A)participant and top-management satisfaction.
B)skill acquisition and organization performance.
C)staying within budget and evaluation of the instructor.
D)skill acquisition and participant satisfaction.

Question 38

A corporate environment characterized by survival of the fittest tends to contribute the best to leadership development.

Question 39

Assigning managers to cross-functional teams to work on an important problem has become a useful form of leadership development

Question 40

An important approach to succession planning is to

A)recruit most key jobs from the outside.
B)conduct perform evaluations only at two-year intervals.
C)give all managers a 10 percent annual salary increase.
D)develop enough strong leaders throughout the company.

Question 41

A typical approach to online mentoring is to access a company database that describes the problems, weaknesses, and performance evaluations of the company's worst potential mentors.

Question 42

An important part of the personal growth approach to leadership development is reflection about one's own values and desires.

Question 43

Samantha is an inside-outside leader at her company based on fact that she has been in charge of both information technology and customer service.

Question 44

Learning who you need to be would most likely be incorporated into a personal growth type of leadership development program.

Question 45

Some research and analysis with 1,800 leadership successions indicated that companies tend to perform better when an insider is appointed as CEO.

Question 46

One of the forces in the outside world compelling companies to develop leaders is the world economy's shift from dependency on financial capital to human capital.

Question 47

Action learning for leadership development sometimes takes the form of an overseas assignment to work on long and complex volunteer projects.

Question 48

Using the shadowing approach to mentoring, the protégé directly observes the work activities of the mentor by following the person around for awhile.

Question 49

A feedback-intensive program of leadership development helps participants identify the reasons for their behavior.

Question 50

A recent development in simulations for leadership is the use of multiple online role playing fantasy games in which the leaders practice leadership skills.

Question 51

Psychotherapy is a recommended program of leadership development because leaders typically have stressful jobs.

Question 52

When choosing a new CEO, the modern-day board attempts to avoid such subjective criteria as personal chemistry between the board members and the candidates.

Question 53

The evidence suggests that conceptual knowledge makes only a minor contribution to leadership development.

Question 54

One of the least of your concerns as a new leader is building relationships quickly with group members because you now have position power.

Question 55

A challenge noted of being a new leader is overcoming the resentment of your direct reports who want to be chosen as leader.

Question 56

If you as a leader are given an assignment for which you lack the appropriate experience, a recommended approach would be to consult with people with the necessary expertise, yet still appear self-confident.

Question 57

The highest commitment to multifunctional managerial development is to give a manager complete mobility across functions.

Question 58

The recommended approach to keeping a relationship vibrant with a mentor is to exchange Webcam images from time to time.

Question 59

A recommended way of capitalizing on failure in a management experience is to reflect on what you would do differently in the future.

Question 60

A person's mentor can sometimes be a staff professional or coworker.