Leadership and Management Essentials
What the exam expects
This domain tests the difference between leadership (vision, influence, direction) and management (planning, organizing, controlling). Know the functions of management, leadership styles, delegation, communication, decision-making, and team development.
Concepts to master
- Functions of management: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling.
- Leadership styles: autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, and situational leadership (adapt style to follower readiness).
- Situational leadership: telling, selling, participating, delegating.
- Motivation and engagement: recognition, empowerment, and clear expectations.
- Communication: upward, downward, and lateral; the importance of feedback loops.
- Decision-making: identify the problem, gather information, generate alternatives, choose, implement, evaluate.
- Change management: communicate the why, involve stakeholders, and monitor resistance.
Traps questions set
Questions love to blur leadership and management-leadership inspires, management controls. Another trap is presenting a scenario where a manager delegates a task but not the authority, or where a laissez-faire style is applied to an inexperienced team. Watch for questions that ask for the first step in a process; the answer is usually to define or diagnose the problem, not to act.
Worked example
A new front-desk team is unfamiliar with the PMS. A situational leader uses telling (clear instruction) early, then shifts to selling, participating, and finally delegating as competence grows. Matching style to readiness is the rule of thumb.
Study tip
When a question asks for the best leadership action, ask: what does this team's readiness level require right now?