Leadership skills required

- Leading a cross-functional team presents some unique challenges. Leaders need to understand what each team member brings to the team and how to manage the performance of people with different skills. The leader also needs to be adept at managing and resolving conflict. To understand your team members at an individual level, try asking these questions. Does this person have any specialized skills? What are this person's goals for being on the team? Are they there for personal growth? Do they enjoy the topic? Is this a developmental opportunity for them? What's this person's style? Are they an introvert? Are they an extrovert? Do they prefer working alone, or do they like working in a group? Are they previously a high or low performer? That's going to dictate how they show up on that project. I had one consulting project where we put together a cross-functional team. It was built of all client personnel. At the beginning of the project, we sat down and we looked at the skill and will of each member of that client team. We had one individual on the team who was very high-skill. He was an expert in his area. He was very low-will. He did not want to be there. Another team member was very high-skill, really bright guy, and he was very willing to be a member of the team. We were going to use him as a champion in as many situations as we could. We had another team member who was pretty low-skill. He was new to the organization, but he had a ton of will. He was so excited to be on this high-visibility project. We had to make sure we gave him tasks that he was capable of doing. And we had one team member that was low-skill. They didn't really understand the business or the project. They were also low-will. They did not want to be there. We had to actively manage that person throughout the entire project. The important thing is we did this assessment at the beginning of the project, so we knew what we were getting into. The better you know the personalities and skills of the members of the cross-functional team, the more effectively you can lead that team and manage any conflict that arises.