Deck 10: Skills That Contribute to Leader Effectiveness

Question 1

Which of the four elements of communication skills is considered the most prominent?

A) Oral
B) Written
C) Listening
D) Nonverbal

Answer 1

Oral

Question 2

Because listening is an act of respect it often:

A) Provides information about performance
B) Provides nonverbal information
C) Builds on the ideas of others
D) Provides a stronger bond than speaking or writing

Answer 2

Provides a stronger bond than speaking or writing

Question 3

Physical alertness and attention to tasks often say more than words. This is a good tip for improving communications skills in the area of:

A) Informal communications
B) Nonverbal communications
C) Listening
D) Formal communications

Answer 3

Nonverbal communications

Question 4

Which of the following is not a recommended technique for improving your listening skills?

A) Paraphrase others' ideas
B) Take a genuine interest
C) Build off of others' ideas
D) Focus on how you will respond

Question 5

The three major elements of social skills include all of the following, except:

A) Ambiguity tolerance
B) Personal likeability
C) Expressiveness
D) Social perceptiveness

Question 6

Which of the following is an overstatement of the importance of social skills?

A) They lead directly to personal power
B) They enhance communication
C) They reduce unnecessary problems due to negative personality traits
D) None of the above

Question 7

An aspect of __________ is being sure that the right thing is said or done at the ideal time.

A) Ambiguity tolerance
B) Personal likeability
C) Expressiveness
D) Social perceptiveness

Question 8

Influence skills include eight strategies. __________ tactics emphasize the consistency of an influence attempt with established policies, procedures or past practices.

A) Legitimating
B) Pressure
C) Exchange
D) Rational persuasion

Question 9

__________ is/are the use of facts and logic to convince the target that a request or proposal is likely to successfully achieve an objective.

A) Exchange tactics
B) Legitimizing tactics
C) Consultation
D) Rational persuasion

Question 10

Emotional appeals, personal appeals, and friendliness stem largely from __________ power.

A) Reward
B) Referent
C) Expertise
D) Position

Question 11

__________ are a method of influence that is based primarily on position power.

A) Exchange tactics
B) Consultation
C) Emotional appeal
D) Rational persuasion

Question 12

The major elements of analytical skills include all of the following except:

A) Ambiguity tolerance
B) Discrimination
C) Memory
D) Creativity

Question 13

The ability to distinguish and use different conceptual dimensions is referred to as the analytical skill of __________.

A) Cognitive complexity
B) Discrimination
C) Memory
D) Ambiguity tolerance

Question 14

Managers who are more willing to pay attention to anomalies in order to determine new or contradictory patterns are exercising the element of __________ relating to analytical skills.

A) Ambiguity tolerance
B) Discrimination
C) Cognitive complexity
D) Good memory

Question 15

Technical skills involve all of the following elements with the exception of:

A) Skills of the profession
B) Information about the organization
C) Basic knowledge management skills
D) The ability to expand knowledge

Question 16

Knowledge and skills relating to leading teams, problem solving, and operations planning are the __________ subsets of technical skills.

A) Skills of the profession
B) Information about the organization
C) Basic knowledge management skills
D) Ability to expand knowledge.

Question 17

Advanced learning involves creating new knowledge that leads to innovation or invention. This relates to __________ skills.

A) Continual learning
B) Technical
C) Analytical
D) Influence

Question 18

Continual learning contains the subsets of the ability to glean and use new information and the ability to expand knowledge. The guidelines for improving this skill include all of the following except:

A) Enhance reflectiveness
B) Focus on the benefits of learning
C) Learn from surprises and problems
D) Find ways to challenge assumptions and mental models

Question 19

Listening is an act of respect; therefore, it often provides a stronger bond than do speaking and writing.

Question 20

Immense stores of information are conveyed nonverbally, through eye movement, facial expression, posture, gestures, and body movement.

Question 21

The ability to understand and productively harness one's own and others' personality structures is an important influence skill.

Question 22

Critical observation to improve social skills can include reviewing patterns of responses from other people, anonymous feedback instruments, and personality assessment seminars.

Question 23

More than any other influence strategy, legitimating tactics emphasizes punishment.

Question 24

Exchange tactics involve mutual trading of favors, either in explicit agreements or in implicit understandings of rewards.

Question 25

Rational persuasion is the act of involving the target in the process of planning, in providing substantive feedback, or in making changes.

Question 26

A common example of leadership discrimination is the ability to resist contamination of personal and professional arenas.

Question 27

Cognitive complexity is the ability to suspend judgment while new data are being gathered.

Question 28

Leaders who want to have a significant impact on operations frequently have strong technical skills and involvement; however this can also be a career derailment.

Question 29

In military organizations management knowledge skills like the planning of meetings, teams, operations, etc. are considered a critical craft of the trade.

Question 30

Cognitive complexity is required to develop better mental models, and it is also required to learn from mistakes.

Question 31

The ability to expand knowledge is advanced learning, or creating new knowledge that leads to innovation.

Question 32

A cogitatively well-trained, well-disciplined person of mediocre mental acuity will generally out perform an untrained genius.

Question 33

Economic and social connections are more important now than in the past on the likelihood of being in a senior leadership position.

Question 34

Discuss the importance of the passive communication skills-listening and nonverbal.

Question 35

Discuss the relationship of social skills to communication and influence skills.

Question 36

Effective leaders are very careful to guard against the corrosive effects of power and influence. Describe the influence tactics that can most easily be abused.

Question 37

Discuss the relationship between ambiguity tolerance (analytical skills) and the ability to expand knowledge (continual learning).

Question 38

Describe the connection between social background and leadership.