Northouse, Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
Discussion Questions
Chapter 6: Developing Leadership Skills
1. Why do you believe that research on leadership has increasingly shifted from traits to
skills in the past 10 years?
2. Which is the most important leadership skill group in your opinion (administrative,
interpersonal, or conceptual)? Why?
3. In the administrative skill group, what is the most important characteristic capability for a
leader to possess (showing technical competence, managing resources, managing
people)? Why?
4. Why might administrative skills be considered the most fundamental of all leadership
skills?
5. How do you think leaders can improve on their interpersonal skills if it is not their strong
suit?
9. Are leadership skills exhibited the same way by men and women? By older and younger
workers? By people from different cultures?
10. How do leadership skills relate to leadership styles? In other words, how do
11. Are all the skills equally important in every leadership situation? Explain how their
12. Are there key leadership skills you would add to the ones discussed in this chapter?