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PMP Practice: Determine an appropriate leadership style

Question 4 of 7 in Lead a Team

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Ravi Sundaram is managing a predictive project to upgrade the security infrastructure for Cascade Biotech Labs across fifteen global offices. During a team meeting, two senior engineers—Miles Okafor-Lindgren and Deepika Venkatesh—present conflicting technical approaches. Dante, who has twenty years of experience with the firm, advocates for a vendor solution the company has used successfully before. Maya, recently hired from a cutting-edge cybersecurity startup, proposes an open-source framework she claims will provide superior flexibility. The debate becomes heated, with Dante questioning Maya's understanding of the firm's legacy systems and Maya suggesting Dante is resistant to innovation. Other team members have stopped contributing and appear uncomfortable. The project is currently on schedule, but this decision must be made within three days to avoid delaying the procurement phase. What should Ravi do to most effectively address this situation?
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Correct answer: Facilitate a collaborative session where both engineers present the technical merits, risks, and costs of their approaches to the full team, then guide the team toward a consensus decision based on objective project criteria

Explanation

This scenario tests the project manager's ability to lead a team through conflict while supporting varied experiences and perspectives. The most effective approach is to facilitate a collaborative decision-making process that leverages both engineers' expertise while depersonalizing the conflict. By structuring a session focused on objective criteria—technical merits, risks, costs, and alignment with project requirements—Lila transforms a personality-driven dispute into a professional technical evaluation. This approach respects both perspectives, engages the broader team, maintains Lila's leadership role, and models the collaborative behavior expected on the project. The scenario provides key context: the project is on schedule, there are three days available, and both engineers have legitimate expertise from different backgrounds. These facts support taking time for a facilitated collaborative approach rather than rushing to a unilateral decision or escalating prematurely.

**Why not A:** Meeting separately with both engineers and then deferring to the more experienced one introduces bias based on tenure rather than merit. While organizational knowledge matters, dismissing the newer engineer's proposal without objective evaluation would stifle innovation and potentially overlook a superior technical solution.

**Why not B:** Escalating the technical decision to the project sponsor is premature when the PM can facilitate resolution. The sponsor may lack the technical expertise to evaluate the approaches, and escalation before attempting collaborative resolution fails to leverage the team's collective knowledge.

**Why not D:** Making an immediate unilateral decision removes the team's expertise from the evaluation process. The PM is not the technical subject matter expert, and deciding alone would alienate whichever engineer's approach is rejected, failing to address the interpersonal conflict that has silenced other team members.

Key Concept

This question covers Determine an appropriate leadership style under Lead a Team (People).

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