STEP 1 - WORKING IN A DIGITAL WORLD - COURSE 3 - INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

 COURSE 3 - INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

COURSE - 3

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

 

1.When you're speaking to someone face-to-face, which of the following elements is most influential?

The tone and pace at which you communicate

The non-verbal message of your body language

The words you use

 

2. Which communication style is characterized by the following statements:

• "The new reimbursement policy saves the company a lot of money."

• "You put more work in up front, but you get your reimbursement quickly."

• "In five minutes, I can show you how to master the procedure."

Relater

Driver

Expresser

Analyzer

 

 

 

 

3. What type of question should you use when you want to finalize an idea or need specific facts?

Open-ended question

Close-ended question

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Increasing influence Mini Quiz

Question 1 of 3

Extra Chance

1.      Which of the following is an example of an assertive statement?

"I can't take the guilt of refusing to work on the weekend."

"I don't hesitate to ask for help when I need it."

"I'm coming in late tomorrow because I don't like helping set up for team meetings."

"To gain people's respect, you must show them your strength."

 

2.What type of influence is based on your personality and depends on how you engage with people?

Personal influence

Eminence

 

 

3. Which of the following behavior types best matches this statement: "If I don't like my manager's decision, I'll implement it very slowly"?

Passive-aggressive

Passive

Assertive

Aggressive

 

 

 

 

 

Resolving workplace conflict Mini Quiz

Question 1 of 3

Extra Chance

1.      1.Which of the following conflict response styles is most appropriate for a situation where you want to combine diverse views, but is too important for a simple trade-off?

Collaborating

Competing

Compromising

Accommodating

 

2.      2.During the "Ask relevant questions" step of approaching conflicts, which of the following questions should you avoid when identifying aspects of the conflict?

Who?

Why?

What?

When?

 

 

 

3. Which of the following would provide the most helpful form of feedback?

Positive and directive

Positive and constructive

Positive and negative

Constructive and directive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show What You Know

Question 1 of 10

0 Strikes

2 Lifelines

1.      Kevin is attending a global workshop. In one of the sessions, a presenter discusses an interesting technique that he'd like the group to try. Eva, one of the participants, realizes that she has already tried this technique and it didn't work for her. She politely shares her concerns with the presenter and leaves the room to finish up an urgent task. As soon as she leaves the room, the other participants tune out of the presentation and begin to check their laptops. Later, Kevin tells Eva that he'd like to share some feedback about what happened in the morning.

How should Kevin start the feedback conversation?

Kevin should explain how Eva leaving the room signaled to others that the presentation was not worth their time.

Kevin should acknowledge that Eva had already tried the technique with no success and ask what did work for her.

Kevin should tell Eva that her behavior caused a problem and ask her to be more careful in the future.

Kevin should question why Eva left the room unannounced and suggest that she should have left only after letting the presenter know.

 

2.Nicole's team is under significant time pressure to complete a project. The team has come up with two approaches, but can't agree on which approach should be used. Nicole knows that there are different ways to deal with conflict and has to choose a style to address this conflict within her team.

Which of the following conflict styles is best suited for Nicole's situation?

Collaborating

Competing

Compromising

Accommodating

 

3. Jenna tends to use controlling and direct language in meetings. When she's on a team, she likes to take charge and wants to be measured on the results that are achieved. If you asked her, she would say that her favorite projects are those that are highly competitive and include some risk.

Which option best describes Jenna's communication style?

Relater

Driver

Analyzer

Expresser

 

4. Anthony has just joined a new team and wants to be more assertive in this new job. During the team's first brainstorming session, Anthony wants to contribute his ideas without appearing aggressive or rude. During the meeting, Anthony focuses on his behavior, language, and feelings. Anthony makes sure that his behavior is confident, and he is direct and honest about his feelings.

Which option best describes the kind of language Anthony should use?

Rude or derogatory

Ambiguous

Neutral or non-judgmental

Agreeing

 

5. Parker was just been promoted as a manager. His new team is made up of eight motivated individuals. From the start, Parker sees that there are some challenging interactions getting in the way of productivity. Parker talks to his mentor, Marissa, who tells him that there is no one way to deal with these kinds of interactions. She gives him some pointers on what to do.

Which of the following best describes a productive way to deal with challenging interactions in this situation?

Be hard on the issue, not the person.

Use feedback to prevent problems from growing.

Spot problems early on.

All of these.

 

6. Christina notices that when she sends an email, she often gets a more positive response than when she talks to someone face-to-face, even if she uses the same words.

Which option is most important for Christina to focus on when she is having face-to-face conversations?

The words she uses

The non-verbal message of her body language

The tone and pace at which she communicates

All of these are equally important

 

7. Robert seems to always be in motion. He constantly looks for opportunities to work on projects where he can use his expertise and knowledge. He has an internal blog for the company and an external blog that customers frequently refer to for information. He often presents on his ideas at national and international conferences. While Robert can sometimes not be pleasant to work with, everyone agrees that he is an expert in his field.

Which option best describes the type of influence Robert has?

Eminence

Personal influence

Both eminence and personal influence

Neither eminence nor personal influence

 

8. Ana has just joined your team. You notice that Ana rarely contributes to the group discussions and hardly ever says "no" when asked if she can take a task. When you ask her for her opinion, she just agrees with what the majority of the team says. From what you can see, Ana doesn't have much self-confidence and avoids all confrontation or doing anything that might disturb her relationship with the team.

Which option best describes Ana's behavior?

Aggressive

Passive-aggressive

Passive

Assertive

 

9. A new procedure for claiming your time has been put into effect and you don't understand it. When you email Juan for help, he responds with the following note:

"Don't worry, there's plenty of help on the new procedure. In fact, there's an online session next week to help people learn how to follow the new rules. I'll get you on the list for the session. I know this new procedure seems complicated, but anything that makes putting in our time smoother in the long run makes me happy and I'm sure it will make you happy too! Let me know if you need any more help."

Which option best describes Juan's communication style?

Analyzer

Relater

Expresser

Driver

 

10. Marcia and James are working on a project together. Marcia is upset because James isn't doing his tasks, and this is delaying completion of the project. Worse, Marcia is afraid that when James does finish, his portions will have to be redone. Marcia decides to meet with James to discuss this.

How should Marcia approach this meeting to minimize conflict and maximize resolution?

She should ask why James is procrastinating.

She should identify specific issues.

She should point out that James is always late.

All of these.

 

11. Lucas has an exciting new idea on how to increase attention for the new product that his team is developing. He wants to get feedback on his idea from his manager—not just on his idea, but on his approach as well.

Which option contains the best communication channels for Lucas to use in this situation?

Face-to-face, phone, email, and chat

Face-to-face and phone

Phone and email

Email and chat

 

 

STEP 1 - WORKING IN A DIGITAL WORLD - COURSE 2 - COLLABORATE EFFECTIVELY

 COURSE 2 - COLLABORATE EFFECTIVELY

COLLABORATE EFFECTIVELY

QUESTION SET 1

1.     1.At what stage of team development does the team arrive at a unified goal and a mutual plan?

Performing

Norming

Storming

Forming

 

2. True or false: Collaboration is the act of working together toward a shared goal.

True

False

 

3. Which of the following behaviors hinders collaboration?

Think mutually.

Take control.

Be authentic

Be passionate.

 

 

4. Why is collaboration important in a corporate environment?

As an employee, you interact with one another around the world.

You depend more and more on social business, in your work environment and as part of your customer solutions.

You help customers address large and complicated issues.

All of these.

 

5. Which of the following is an extreme behavior that can damage collaboration?

Take responsibility.

Refuse to compromise.

Follow established procedure.

Behave according to principles.

 

 

QUESTION SET 2

 

 

1.     1.What's challenging about electronic communication?

Your message might be misunderstood.

Conference call conversations can be clumsy and difficult to hear.

You can't see people and read their body language when you talk to them.

All of these.

 

2. Which of the following is a problem in a virtual meeting?

Multitasking

People dropping off

Logistical issues

All of these

 

 

3. Which of the following is not a good use of chat?

Getting an immediate response

Communicating sensitive information or feedback

Asking colleagues if they are free for a phone call

Asking a quick question

 

4. True or false: One of the problems team members manage in a virtual environment is relational space, which consists of the social interaction challenges and opportunities.

True

False

 

5. Which of the following is not a typical problem associated with your relational space in a virtual environment?

Culture

Time zone

Language

Body language

 

 

Show What You Know

Question 1 of 10

 

 

1.      Yesterday, your team lead Ari commented that he feels the team is functioning smoothly—people are doing their jobs well. However, he knows of several areas where the team is silently falling behind schedule and one where the quality of work has not been good.

Based on the six collaborative behaviors, which action do you think would help your team move forward successfully?

Share the lead's feedback with the team so that team members can take corrective actions.

Ask the team lead to change tasks for those members who are struggling with work.

Offer to work with the lead to look into the project schedule and goals, and volunteer to help move things forward where they are slipping.

Make sure your team lead knows you can be relied on because you are completing your work in a timely manner and it is of high quality.

 

2. Deepak is a software developer working on project. On a client call, Martin, a key stakeholder of the project, shares glowing feedback for Deepak's work. For this project, Deepak had used templates from his colleague Lisa, who's not part of the project team. A couple of thoughts are going through his mind.

Which one promotes collaborative teamwork?

Deepak must not tell Lisa about the client's feedback.

Deepak must let the project manager know that the client appreciated the work he did.

Deepak must let his manager know that he worked toward achieving his development goal of getting positive client feedback.

Deepak must inform the client about Lisa's contribution to the project.

 

3. Mario has been asked to make a presentation to the team, made up of members who are located globally. Mario creates a detailed, written PowerPoint. He sends the deck to his team and sets up a call to go over it. On the conference call, his team members can't understand his explanations or see any visuals. As a result, the team doesn't understand the presentation. Think about what might have gone wrong with Mario's presentation.

What feedback would be least helpful for Mario?

He should use visuals instead of content-heavy slides made up of bullet points.

Mario should familiarize himself with the organization's virtual meeting tools.

He should speed up his speech so that participants, for whom English is not a first language, can understand him better.

He should identify the right delivery tool that works best for team members given their location differences.

 

4. Ravi, an architect, is working on a project with Pooja, the project lead. Pooja is a perfectionist, and Ravi likes to try new ideas. Lately, Ravi has noticed that Pooja is questioning his ideas and asking him to revise the app. Ravi feels that making enhancements and exceeding requirements will delight customers; however, Pooja feels that sticking to the requirements is essential to meet timelines. Pooja is reviewing one of the app's features.

What approach should Pooja use to share her feedback with Ravi?

She should share that it might look like she's overly concerned about unimportant details, but that's okay. She's doing this so they can push the product out and meet the deadline.

She should request Neha (another team member) to make these revisions. Neha has some free time, and she's worked on a similar app. She should be able to easily make these revisions.

She should say that she doesn't want to compromise on quality and upset the client. She should push Ravi to stick to the client-specified guidelines.

She should share her concerns with Ravi and explain why she's asking for revisions.

 

 

5. Your team has been working together for a few weeks but doesn't always agree on how to proceed. Recently, you suggested an idea you'd worked on. Before you finished presenting it, a team member, Natasha, started criticizing and presenting her idea. You're angry about this, and it's harder for you to work in the team. Meanwhile, other team members are developing a completely different concept, and they're not involving you or Natasha.

Based on the six collaborative behaviors, which action do you think would help your team move forward successfully?

Request your team lead to transfer you to another team.

Keep working on your suggestion even if other team members are not being collaborative and present your idea to the team lead.

Keep your feelings to yourself and help with the third proposal.

Give feedback to Natasha that her competitive behavior was hurtful and not helpful and have a conversation with her about ways to move forward.

 

6. Matthew, a product specialist, receives a sign-off note from the customer approving the latest product release. He's drafting an email to his team members to thank them for their hard work. While adding their email addresses, he remembers the two developers who had worked for three out of the 10 days it took to develop. He's wondering if he should copy them on the email or not.

What would you recommend?

Contact the developers by a chat app and thank them.

Copy them on the email message even if they were just helping.

Leave them out of the email message because they were just helping. Also, Matthew's team did most of the work.

Send a separate email and thank them for their contribution.

 

 

7. Yesterday, your team lead Ari commented that he feels the team is functioning smoothly—people are doing their jobs well. However, he knows of several areas where the team is silently falling behind schedule and one where the quality of work has not been good.

Based on the six collaborative behaviors, which action do you think would help your team move forward successfully?

Make sure your team lead knows you can be relied on because you are completing your work in a timely manner and it is of high quality.

Offer to work with the lead to look into the project schedule and goals, and volunteer to help move things forward where they are slipping.

Ask the team lead to change tasks for those members who are struggling with work.

Share the lead's feedback with the team so that team members can take corrective actions.

 

8. Martha is working on an important customer presentation. Her manager, Christian, wants the presentation to be ready in three days because the kick-off meeting with the customer is on day four. He knows that the presentation is crucial to secure the deal.

What would be the best way for him to find out Martha's progress on the presentation?

Christian should check with Martha and discuss what works for both of them.

Christian knows he's responsible for the success of the presentation, so he should schedule two status calls a day to ensure things are on track.

Keeping in mind the significance of the presentation, Christian should set up one status call every day.

Christian trusts Martha's work, so he should set up a status call on day three.

 

9.Jay's team is creating marketing collateral. The brochures are due for client release in two days. Before they are made available, Jay wants to ensure the content is accurate. He contacts a few subject matter experts, and they agree to review the brochures. Jay's challenge is that they are in different countries and it will be difficult for him to schedule calls with each expert to gather feedback, given the approaching deadline.

Which tool should Jay use to efficiently gather feedback?

He could create a channel on a tool such as Slack and ask the experts to post their feedback on it.

He could stay online on chat to contact the experts as and when they are available.

He could email the experts and track each response to ensure he gathers all the feedback.

He could ask the experts to upload their feedback on cloud-based storage applications such as Google Drive or Dropbox.

 

10. You've been assigned to a new project and the team lead gave out the assignments. You don't care for your assignment, but you can and will complete it on time. Your teammate Karina is very unhappy with her assignment. She thinks it's an area that you should work on rather than herself, and she's told you that she wants to transfer to another team. In meetings, Karina refuses to complain or explain herself; only you know that she's unhappy.

Based on the six collaborative behaviors, which action might seem like a solution, but could be dangerous as your team moves through the Forming stage?

Encourage Karina to be authentic and communicate her feelings, in a supportive fashion, to the team lead.

Work with Karina to exchange appropriate sections of each other's assignments.

Communicate to the team lead that you're unhappy with your assignment but will be a team player.

Accept your work assignment this time, but decide that next time you're given an unfavorable assignment, you'll let the lead know.

 

11. Anthony, a project manager, is working on a proposal that is due in five days. He's pressed for time. He contacts Juan, a software developer, who has experience working on similar requirements. He asks Juan to share data on the effort estimate. Juan promises to send his input within the next three days. However, it's day three and Juan couldn't work on the estimate as he was caught up with his work commitments.

What should Juan do in this situation?

Juan should keep his promise and prioritize Anthony's request over his current work.

Juan should manage his schedule in a way that it's possible for him to make time to work on Anthony's request.

Juan should request another developer to prepare the estimate, which he can send to Anthony.

Juan should inform Anthony immediately that he will be unable to share his input.

 

12. Your team has been working together for a couple of months. The team has managed to resolve some, but not all, differences. You can't complete your assignment because your teammate Koji hasn't chosen and purchased a software tool that you need. Koji hasn't had time to do this task, and he might be annoyed with you because you're doing work that Koji wanted assigned to himself.

Based on the six collaborative behaviors, which action is least likely to help your team move forward successfully?

Complete the procurement yourself so that work is not stalled.

Offer to help Koji with other parts of his assignment in exchange for his completion of the software procurement.

Offer feedback to Koji about how his behavior is affecting your ability to complete the assignment.

Build trust with Koji by suggesting to the team lead that your assignments be adjusted to suit each of you better.