PMP · Question #1041
Some project teams are voicing frustration because of conflicting priorities between agile and predictive work in a complex project. Which leadership style would effectively promote collaboration…
The correct answer is B. Servant leadership. When project teams face conflicting priorities between agile and predictive work, servant leadership effectively promotes collaboration by focusing on supporting the team and removing impediments.
Question
Some project teams are voicing frustration because of conflicting priorities between agile and predictive work in a complex project. Which leadership style would effectively promote collaboration across the project teams?
Options
- ADirective leadership
- BServant leadership
- CDelegative leadership
- DLeadership by example
How the community answered
(50 responses)- A10% (5)
- B84% (42)
- C2% (1)
- D4% (2)
Why each option
When project teams face conflicting priorities between agile and predictive work, servant leadership effectively promotes collaboration by focusing on supporting the team and removing impediments.
Directive leadership focuses on issuing commands and making decisions, which would likely exacerbate, rather than resolve, conflicts between teams with different working priorities.
Servant leadership prioritizes the needs of the team, fostering an environment of trust and empowerment where individuals feel supported to collaborate and resolve conflicts. This style helps bridge gaps between different methodologies by facilitating understanding and shared goals among diverse project teams.
Delegative leadership involves handing over tasks and responsibilities, but it may not actively address or resolve the underlying conflicting priorities that require cross-team collaboration.
While leadership by example is beneficial, it is a broad concept and less directly addresses the specific challenge of actively promoting collaboration and resolving conflicting priorities than servant leadership does.
Concept tested: Leadership styles for collaboration and conflict resolution
Topics
Community Discussion
9
Ingrid P.Feb 12, 2026B is correct. Servant leadership is the PMI-preferred approach for mixed agile and predictive environments because it focuses on removing impediments and helping teams self-organize rather than imposing top-down direction. Directive leadership, option A, tends to clash with agile principles where teams own their process. I made a card for this one with the cue mixed agile and predictive, conflicting priorities, which leadership style, and the answer servant leadership. My retention on leadership style questions improved noticeably once I stopped overthinking the context and just mapped collaboration and team empowerment to servant leadership every time.
Wei W.Feb 14, 2026Agree on B, but be careful not to auto-pilot it: PMI does throw in situations where the team genuinely lacks agile experience or a crisis demands decisive direction, and in those cases the empiricism principle still holds but the style shifts.
Orla P.Mar 10, 2026B is correct. Servant leaders remove blockers and help teams self-organize across approaches.
Anjali D.Mar 12, 2026Agreed on B, and worth adding that servant leadership in hybrid environments also means coaching the team on when to flex between approaches, not just clearing obstacles after the fact.
Wei W.Mar 18, 2026B is correct here. Servant leadership is the PMI go-to when teams are struggling with conflicting priorities and need collaboration, because the leader removes impediments and creates conditions for self-organization rather than imposing top-down decisions. In a mixed agile and predictive environment, a servant leader helps teams negotiate priorities themselves and shields them from external noise so they can focus on delivering value. The other options either over-control or step back too far, neither of which addresses the root friction.
Carlos M.Feb 18, 2026Going with B. Servant leadership is the PMI go-to for agile or hybrid environments where teams need support clearing blockers and aligning priorities, not someone barking orders. A is tempting because conflicting priorities make you want to just step in and decide, but directive leadership kills collaboration and ownership. The key phrase is "promote collaboration" which points you straight to servant leadership every time. Saw this one on my exam prep last month, it is almost a freebie if you catch that wording.
Wei W.Feb 20, 2026Agree on B, and worth adding that servant leadership is also the empiricism play here: the team owns inspect-and-adapt, and the leader's job is to protect that loop, not short-circuit it by deciding for them.
Anjali D.Feb 24, 2026Our group leaned D because leadership by example directly addresses the friction point, you model the collaborative behavior you want teams to replicate across both agile and predictive work. A few people pushed back for B, so I would love to hear how others are reading this one.
Orla P.Feb 27, 2026B is correct here because the friction is structural, not behavioral. A shared accountability framework gives both agile and predictive teams a common mechanism for ownership, whereas leadership by example relies on individual influence that does not scale reliably across mixed delivery models.