People: Leading Teams, Conflict, and Stakeholders
What to know
The People domain tests how you lead, not how you administer. Expect questions on servant leadership and the shift from directing work to removing obstacles; Tuckman stages (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning) and what a PM does at each; conflict resolution modes (collaborate/problem-solve, compromise, accommodate, avoid, force); team development, ground rules, co-located versus virtual teams, and training needs; motivational theory (Herzberg hygiene factors versus motivators, Maslow, McGregor X/Y, McClelland nAch/nAff/nPow, Vroom expectancy); emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management); negotiation; and stakeholder engagement.
Traps
- What should the PM do first questions usually reward assessing, gathering facts, or speaking with the person - not escalating or documenting.
- Escalation to the sponsor is a last resort, used after direct resolution has failed.
- Forcing is acceptable mainly for safety, regulatory, or genuinely irreversible time pressure.
- A PM who personally does the technical work, or hoards information, is failing servant leadership.
- Conflict is not inherently bad; unaddressed conflict is.
- Recognition should be timely and specific, not saved for project close.
Worked example
Two senior engineers publicly disagree over a design approach and the argument is slowing the whole team. Tempting answers: escalate to the functional manager, impose your own decision to save time, or reassign one engineer. Better: meet each privately to understand underlying interests, then facilitate a problem-solving session in which the team selects a technically sound option. Collaboration fixes the cause; forcing treats the symptom.
Rule of thumb: when two answers both seem to solve the problem, choose the one that preserves the team's ability to solve the next one.