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PMP lesson · People & Team Leadership · Building the team · lesson 3 of 6 · about 6 minutes

Servant leadership

Agile and hybrid (also good practice in predictive)Free preview
Goal: After this lesson you can describe what a servant leader does and does not do, and pick the servant-leadership answer in exam situations.

1The situation

Who is the boss here?

On the robot cell's software side, stakeholders keep walking up to developers with “quick requests” during the sprint. The test hardware purchase has been stuck in approvals for two sprints. And at the release party, the sponsor thanks only the PM.

Three situations, one question: what does a leader do when the team, not the leader, does the work?

The answer is servant leadership: the leader's job is to make the team successful.

2Leading by serving

A servant leader puts the team's needs first so the team can deliver value. Authority is used to remove obstacles, not to control every task.

Remove
Impediments
Clear blockers the team can't clear itself, especially organisational ones.
Protect
Focus
Redirect interruptions and new requests to the product owner.
Grow
People
Coach, develop skills, build confidence; give credit to the team.
Exam pattern: the servant-leader answer helps the team succeed (removes a blocker, coaches, facilitates) rather than doing the work or deciding for them.

3The inverted pyramid

Customers and valueThe team (does the work, decides how)Servant leaderremoves obstacles · protects focusdevelops peoplesupports from below
The leader supports the team, which serves the customer.

4How it looks on the exam

Exam-style question 1. Stakeholders keep interrupting agile team members during the sprint with new requests. What should the project manager do?
A. Ask the team to handle the requests in their spare time
B. Redirect the stakeholders to the product owner and protect the team's focus
C. Add the requests to the current sprint
D. Ban stakeholders from contacting the team
Show the answer and the decode
Answer: B.
In simple English
Interruptions are disrupting the sprint.
What is the question really asking?
The servant-leader response.
Key words / trigger
“interrupting … with new requests”
PMP logic
New requests go to the product owner, who manages the backlog; the leader protects focus.
Why the wrong answer looks attractive
A total ban damages relationships; redirecting keeps stakeholders engaged properly.

5Remember this

Your memory card

  • Servant leader = remove impediments, protect focus, develop people
  • New requests → product owner; blockers → leader removes them
  • Give credit to the team
  • Servant ≠ passive: decide in emergencies, hold people accountable
The full lesson in the PMCLEAR app also has:
  • the rest of the lesson (Servant ≠ passive)
  • a worked example
  • the common traps (wrong vs right)
  • 2 exam-style questions with the decode
  • a 3-question quick check
Open the full lesson → Create a free account
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