The 3 Challenges of Leading a Cross-Functional Team

Leading a cross-functional team involves learning how to deal with competing demands and conflicts.

Cross-functional teams can be really challenging to lead. There are three major challenges you’ll face when leading these teams. But if you plan for them, you can overcome all of them. 

First, team demands compete with the day-to-day demands of the team member’s day job. It’s pressure they’re going to face from their own department. Their daily responsibilities don’t go away. Their project responsibilities on the cross-functional team typically get added to those day-to-day responsibilities. Their reviews, in terms of their end-of-year review, are more about their day job than their participation on your cross-functional team. So the project might not get as much attention or priority from that person.

The second challenge you’ll face is that the team will have natural conflict in its structure due to competing goals, perspectives, styles, and personalities. Some people may be driving one function in their day job while your cross-functional team is trying to drive another. I led a major cost cutting project. On that cross-functional team, we had some people from sales and marketing. They were responsible for driving revenue. We were focused on cutting costs. There was a lot of conflict inherent in that situation. Different perspectives, styles, and personalities are going to be challenging. Any time you get a bunch of people working together, especially in a high-stress environment, there’s going to be conflict. And you’re going to have to resolve it.

Finally, the team leader has to rely on influence more than direct control. Your team members on a cross-functional team typically don’t formally report to you. You don’t write their annual review. You don’t determine their bonus. They have their daily responsibilities that are higher priority and you’ll have to influence them to contribute to the team. Just getting the right people involved, getting their attention and making sure they work well with the rest of the team to achieve your goals is a full-time job. But if you invest time in it and focus on it, you’re going to make that team work well together.

The better you recognize these challenges going into the project, the more effectively you can mitigate them by setting proper expectations at the beginning of the project and getting agreement with the person’s manager in terms of how much time you’re going to get from that person and the relative priorities of the cross-functional teams’ work and their day-to-day responsibilities. 

Think about these challenges if you’re asked to set up a cross-functional team. If you think about them, document them, and then actively work to resolve them, that team is going to be that much more successful.

Want to learn more about managing cross-functional teams? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to manage a cross-functional team. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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