Cross-functional team leadership is a skill that requires finding and managing people with different backgrounds, expertise, and perspectives. How do you find cross-functional team members who add value and diversity to your project? Here are some tips to help you.
Before you start looking for cross-functional team members, you need to have a clear idea of what your project goals are and what skills, knowledge, and resources you are missing. This will help you narrow down your search and avoid duplication or overlap. You can use tools like SWOT analysis, skill matrix, or stakeholder mapping to identify your goals and gaps.
Unified Vision: Ensure team members share a common understanding of the team's goals and objectives. Lack of a unified vision can lead to misalignment and confusion. Consultant Mentality: Team members should not feel like consultants detached from the project. They should have a sense of ownership and commitment to the team's success Trust: Building trust among team members is crucial for effective collaboration. Trust deficit can hinder communication and cooperation. Outcome Orientation: Team members should be focused on driving outcomes and achieving results. Failure to drive outcomes can lead to inefficiencies and a lack of progress.
One of the benefits of cross-functional teams is that they can bring fresh insights, ideas, and solutions from different areas of the organization. To find cross-functional team members who add value and diversity, you need to look beyond your own department or function and explore other units, teams, or networks that might have relevant or complementary skills, experience, or interests. You can use tools like organizational charts, intranet, or social media to find potential candidates.
By definition itself, ‘cross functional teams’ are formed of individuals belonging to different functions within an organization, so they will not be from the same department. This ensures diversity of backgrounds and enhances the team's ability to address complex challenges and achieve realistic solutions.
In my experience determine the skills and expertise required for the project or task at hand and look for team members who possess those skills, regardless of their department or function.
Once you have a list of possible cross-functional team members, you need to evaluate their fit and potential for your project. Fit refers to how well they align with your project vision, values, and culture, as well as how they communicate and collaborate with others. Potential refers to how much they can contribute to your project outcomes, learning, and innovation, as well as how they can grow and develop from the experience. You can use tools like interviews, assessments, or references to evaluate fit and potential.
I’d prioritize value alignment and culture add. Alignment of values ensure you have shared why though your approach can be different. Often we hire folks that think and act like us. However when you hire people that thinks like you, you miss on diversifying your team. Your team can also benefit from bringing in folks that have new and different skills and experiences.
Finding cross-functional team members who add value and diversity also means seeking diversity and inclusion in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, and other dimensions of identity and difference. Diversity and inclusion can enrich your team's creativity, problem-solving, and performance, as well as foster a sense of belonging and respect. You can use tools like diversity audits, surveys, or feedback to seek diversity and inclusion.
Seeking diversity is hard as what you are seeking is unlike what you have or are familiar with. Creating diverse recruiting approaches and panel helps. Fostering inclusion is harder as it may require you to rethink and adapt your current ways of working. Cultivating cultural humility can go a long way in creating diverse, inclusive and thriving teams.
Finally, finding cross-functional team members who add value and diversity is not enough. You also need to involve and empower them in your project planning, execution, and evaluation. Involving and empowering means giving them a clear role and responsibility, providing them with the necessary support and resources, soliciting their input and feedback, recognizing their contributions and achievements, and celebrating their successes and failures. You can use tools like team charter, project plan, or performance review to involve and empower them.
A well-functioning CFT can be a powerful tool as it brings together individuals with diverse expertise and creates a single team with the ability to implement practical solutions that can be executed across various functions. Empowering CFT members for execution necessitates endorsement from functional heads. Thus, to make CFTs truly impactful, obtaining buy-in from these leaders is essential. Ensuring transparent communication with both functional heads and team members regarding the CFT's purpose, necessity, expected outcomes, and required support/resources is of utmost importance.
Most often, CFTs are formed as a means to addressing a complex issue that needs collaboration from multiple functions within an organization and members are nominated by the respective functional heads. So, a designated CFT leader’s initial responsibility involves briefing functional heads on the technical and soft skills sought in team members to ensure the selection of the best-fit candidates.