Leadership practice questions

Mentoring is a longer-term relationship in which an experienced person shares their own experience, perspective and advice.

The tester wants regular meetings, the senior's own story of what helped and advice on future choices. Those three features are what distinguish mentoring: it is relationship-based, long term and draws on the mentor's experience. Coaching is the near-twin, but a coach asks rather than advises and needs no experience of the role. Training and facilitation solve different problems.

1. Look at what the person is asking to receive: experience and advice.
2. Note the time frame: an ongoing relationship over years.
3. Match those to mentoring rather than coaching's question-led approach.
4. Rule out options aimed at skills or group outcomes.

Exam tip: A mentor shares what they have done; a coach helps you find your own answer.

Choosing between training, coaching and mentoring depends on whether the knowledge exists and what kind of help the person needs.

Training fits when knowledge is missing (the new hires and the pipeline). Coaching fits when the ability exists but is not being used (the developer who knows estimation). The Kanban team lacks knowledge, so coaching comes too early; the retrospective team already has the knowledge, so training misses the real problem of follow-through; career guidance from a former lead is mentoring, not training.

1. For each need, ask: does the person already have the knowledge?
2. Missing knowledge points to training.
3. Existing knowledge that is not applied points to coaching.
4. A request for someone's experience and long-term advice points to mentoring.

Exam tip: Diagnose the gap first: knowledge gap, application gap or experience gap.

Emotional intelligence models (e.g. Goleman) have four domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.

The question is about controlling a reaction. Self-awareness is recognising your own emotions and triggers; self-management is choosing how you act on them. The scrum master shows both, but holding back defensiveness is self-management. Social awareness and relationship management concern other people's emotions and interactions.

1. Identify whose emotion is involved: the scrum master's own.
2. Separate recognising an emotion from controlling the response.
3. Controlling the response is self-management.

Exam tip: Recognising your own emotion is self-awareness; controlling what you do with it is self-management.

Social awareness and empathy mean noticing a change in someone's mood or behaviour and seeking to understand it before judging it.

A sudden change in a usually upbeat person is a signal that something may be wrong, at work or outside it. The emotionally intelligent first step is a private, non-judgemental check-in. Raising it in a retrospective, citing the working agreement or escalating all treat the behaviour as a problem to correct before anyone knows its cause.

1. Notice that the behaviour is a change from the person's norm.
2. Seek to understand before correcting or escalating.
3. Choose a private setting to respect the person.
4. Decide on next steps only after hearing them.

Exam tip: When someone's behaviour changes, check in privately and listen before acting.

Relationship management, the fourth domain of emotional intelligence, includes influencing people you have no authority over.

The lead's objection is emotional: a feeling of being blamed. Positive influence starts by acknowledging that concern and then connecting the request to what the other person values, for example earlier warning of release risks. Escalation produces compliance at best, data alone ignores the feeling that blocks agreement and going ahead without ops abandons the goal.

1. Identify the real objection: fear of blame, not lack of information.
2. Address the emotion before the argument.
3. Connect the request to the other person's interests.
4. Prefer influence over authority when you have none.

Exam tip: To influence without authority, understand the other person's concern and connect your request to their goals.

Non-verbal cues such as posture and silence are signals to explore, especially when they contradict what is being said aloud.

Words and body language disagree, and the person showing doubt holds most of the work. The scrum master should open space for concerns without singling the person out, before the commitment is final. Ignoring the cue risks a failed goal; calling it out publicly risks embarrassment; handing it to the product owner avoids the conversation.

1. Notice the mismatch between the verbal yes and the body language.
2. Note who shows it: the person with the most at stake.
3. Check the signal before relying on the agreement.
4. Do it in a way that does not embarrass the person.

Exam tip: When words and body language disagree, check in before relying on the words.