Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Discussion Questions
Chapter 16: Team Leadership
1. What are some of the reasons that work teams have become more prevalent in today’s
organizations? How do they provide a competitive advantage?
2. What are some ways teams can be “technology–enabled?”
3. What technologies have you found useful in your academic work or paid employment (e.g.,
social media, e-mail, conference calls, video chats, etc.)? How have they been beneficial?
4. What are the challenges of virtual teams? How can leaders make virtual teams more effective?
5. Explain how lateral decision-making works. When is this method preferable to vertical
decision-making? When is it not preferable?
7. Define/describe Hill’s team leadership model. What is a leader’s mental model? What
behaviors by leaders are most effective for teams and what responsibilities does the leader have
to meet team needs? Give a personal example that you observed or personally performed in a
8. What are the three decisions a leader needs to make to determine whether or how to intervene
to improve team functioning? Discuss the elements necessary to determining monitoring or
9. Come up with examples of when a leader should not take action and instead let a situation take
care of itself.
10. What are the three leadership actions described in Hill’s model for team leadership?
Define/describe each of these actions. How do they affect a team’s success? Have you
experienced any of these actions being taken in teams or work groups? Describe your
11. What are the two critical functions of team effectiveness? Define and then describe the
12. Using Hill’s model, what leadership behaviors would you recommend for each of the stages
of group development: forming, storming, norming, and performing?
14. How do virtual teams differ from face-to-face teams? How do the leadership needs of virtual
teams differ from face-to-face teams?
15. What types of environmental factors might indicate the need for a team intervention by the
leader?
16. In what instances would the team leader negotiate with upper management according to this
model?
17. Rate a team you belong to and provide leadership for, using the team excellence and
collaborative team leader questionnaire. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of the
team and its leadership? Are there changes, problematic norms, or issues that need to be