The answer is to encourage the team to make decisions about their technical approach and task assignments, paired with allowing them to resolve their own interpersonal conflicts. This is correct because empowering a self-organizing agile team hinges on granting them full autonomy over both the “how” of their work and their internal dynamics; when a project manager steps in to mediate disputes, it erodes the team’s ownership and self-organization, which are foundational to agile frameworks like Scrum. On the PMP exam, this tests your grasp of the Agile Practice Guide’s emphasis on servant leadership and trust—a common trap is choosing actions that involve the project manager facilitating or deciding, which undermines empowerment. Remember the memory tip: “Let them own the work and the friction” to recall that empowerment means trusting the team with both technical decisions and conflict resolution.
PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
This PMP practice question tests your understanding of people — leading projects. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A project manager is leading an agile team that has been self-organizing for several sprints. Recently, the team's performance has declined, and the project manager suspects the team is not fully empowered to make decisions. The project manager wants to empower the team. Which TWO actions should the project manager take?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Trust the team to resolve their own conflicts without intervention
Option A is correct because empowering a self-organizing agile team requires trusting them to handle their own interpersonal dynamics, including conflict resolution. When the project manager intervenes in conflicts, it undermines the team's autonomy and can reduce their sense of ownership, which is critical for sustained high performance in agile frameworks like Scrum.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
Trust the team to resolve their own conflicts without intervention
Why this is correct
Trust is a key element of empowerment.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Step in to make decisions when the team is struggling with a difficult issue
Why it's wrong here
This undermines self-organization.
✓
Encourage the team to make decisions about their technical approach and task assignments
Why this is correct
Empowerment includes decision-making authority.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Assign a senior team lead to oversee team decisions
Why it's wrong here
This reduces team autonomy.
✗
Provide additional training on agile practices
Why it's wrong here
While helpful, training does not directly empower decision-making.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'helping the team' with 'making decisions for the team,' leading them to choose Option B, which seems supportive but actually disempowers the team by removing their autonomy.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In agile frameworks like Scrum, the project manager (often acting as a Scrum Master) is a servant-leader who facilitates rather than directs. The team's empowerment is formalized through the Sprint Backlog, where the team self-assigns tasks and determines the technical approach. When a team is not fully empowered, velocity often drops due to decision bottlenecks, and the project manager must actively remove impediments—including their own tendency to intervene—rather than adding oversight or training that doesn't address the authority gap.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A practitioner preparing for the PMP exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this PMP question in full detail.
People — Leading Projects — This question tests People — Leading Projects — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Trust the team to resolve their own conflicts without intervention — Option A is correct because empowering a self-organizing agile team requires trusting them to handle their own interpersonal dynamics, including conflict resolution. When the project manager intervenes in conflicts, it undermines the team's autonomy and can reduce their sense of ownership, which is critical for sustained high performance in agile frameworks like Scrum.
What should I do if I get this PMP question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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