Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) Facilitation, Coaching, and Servant Leadership Syllabus

Facilitation, Coaching, and Servant Leadership syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Facilitation, Coaching, and Servant Leadership in Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Servant Leadership in Practice

   3 topics

   • Principles of Servant Leadership
     • Putting team needs first
     • Growing people and capability
   • Building High-Performing Teams
     • Tuckman stages of team development
     • Fostering self-organization
   • Psychological Safety
     • Creating an environment for openness
     • Encouraging healthy conflict
2. 2

   Facilitation Skills

   3 topics

   • Facilitating Scrum Events
     • Neutral facilitation stance
     • Keeping events purposeful and timeboxed
   • Facilitation Techniques
     • Liberating Structures
     • Dot voting and silent brainstorming
     • Working agreements
   • Decision-Making Approaches
     • Consensus versus consent
     • Fist of five
3. 3

   Coaching the Team and Organization

   3 topics

   • Coaching Stances
     • Coaching versus mentoring versus teaching
     • Powerful questions and active listening
   • Coaching the Product Owner
     • Backlog management coaching
     • Value-focused conversations
   • Coaching the Organization
     • Shifting organizational culture
     • Influencing without authority
4. 4

   Conflict and Communication

   3 topics

   • Conflict Resolution
     • Sources of team conflict
     • Thomas-Kilmann conflict modes
   • Effective Communication
     • Active listening techniques
     • Giving and receiving feedback
   • Stakeholder Engagement
     • Managing expectations
     • Transparent communication of progress

Facilitation, Coaching, and Servant Leadership flashcards for Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

19 of 51 cards from the Facilitation, Coaching, and Servant Leadership deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is servant leadership in the Scrum context?

   A leadership philosophy where the leader's primary goal is to serve others—the Scrum Master serves the team, Product Owner, and organization by removing impediments, fostering growth, and enabling self-management rather than commanding and controlling.

2. Who coined the term 'servant leadership' and in what work?

   Robert K. Greenleaf, in his 1970 essay 'The Servant as Leader.'

3. Name the ten characteristics of a servant leader identified by Larry Spears.

   Listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community.

4. What is the central question Greenleaf uses to test servant leadership?

   Do those served grow as persons—do they become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become servants?

5. How does servant leadership differ from traditional command-and-control leadership?

   Command-and-control directs people with authority and top-down decisions; servant leadership inverts the pyramid—the leader supports and empowers the team, facilitating rather than dictating, and influences through persuasion rather than positional power.

6. Why is the Scrum Master described as a 'leader who serves'?

   The Scrum Master holds no authority over the team but leads by serving—coaching, facilitating, teaching, and removing impediments so the team can self-manage and continuously improve.

7. What are the five stages of Bruce Tuckman's team development model?

   Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and (added later) Adjourning.

8. In Tuckman's model, what characterizes the 'Storming' stage and how should a Scrum Master respond?

   Conflict and competition emerge as members assert ideas and roles; the Scrum Master should facilitate healthy conflict resolution, encourage open communication, and help establish working agreements.

9. What is a high-performing team in Scrum terms?

   A self-managing, cross-functional team that consistently delivers valuable increments, has high trust and psychological safety, shared goals, and continuously improves—often producing results greater than the sum of individuals.

10. What does 'cross-functional' mean for a Scrum Team?

    The team collectively has all the skills necessary to create a valuable, usable Increment each Sprint without depending on people outside the team.

11. What does 'self-managing' mean for a Scrum Team?

    The team internally decides who does the work, how the work is done, and what to work on, rather than being directed by someone outside the team.

12. According to Google's Project Aristotle, what was the single most important factor for team effectiveness?

    Psychological safety—it was the most significant of the five key dynamics identified.

13. List the five dynamics of effective teams from Google's Project Aristotle.

    Psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact.

14. What is psychological safety?

    A shared belief, defined by Amy Edmondson, that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking—members feel they can speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes, and challenge ideas without fear of punishment or humiliation.

15. Who is the researcher most associated with the concept of psychological safety?

    Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School.

16. Name behaviors a Scrum Master can use to build psychological safety.

    Model vulnerability and admit own mistakes, frame work as a learning problem, invite participation, respond productively to failure, treat mistakes as learning opportunities, and ensure everyone has a voice.

17. What are the five Scrum events (events that can be facilitated)?

    The Sprint (container event), Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective.

18. What is the purpose of the Sprint Retrospective and who facilitates it?

    To plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness by inspecting how the last Sprint went regarding individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and Definition of Done; it is typically facilitated by the Scrum Master, though the whole team participates.

19. What is the recommended timebox for each Scrum event in a one-month Sprint?

    Sprint Planning: up to 8 hours; Daily Scrum: 15 minutes; Sprint Review: up to 4 hours; Sprint Retrospective: up to 3 hours; the Sprint itself: one month or less.

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