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January 31, 2025
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Cross-Functional Leadership Model: Key Components

Dr. Ash Brockwell
LIS
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The cross-functional leadership model requires the collaboration of a group of people from various departments rather than leadership from one designated person or department. 

Businesses benefit from this approach as they can integrate diverse knowledge and perspectives to solve complex problems. 

At LIS, we offer many short courses, including our course for aspiring cross-functional leaders. Our interdisciplinary courses, taught by academics and practitioners from various backgrounds, help students break away from siloed thinking.

This guide explores the cross-functional leadership model and its key elements. 

people brainstorming talking about leadership

Table of Contents

The cross-functional leadership model is a style of leadership that distributes responsibilities to a collection of people from different departments rather than management from one designated department. 

This method highlights that leadership does not rely on one person but on the behaviours of the group that completes tasks. Rather than focusing on who leads an organisation, this model focuses on how leadership occurs. 

Unlike traditional leadership, the cross-functional model empowers all stakeholders to encourage team members, achieve organisational success, and prioritise leadership development. 

Cross-functional leadership diagram

Cross-functional leadership has become more common in today's business environments. While traditional leadership has many benefits, implementing cross-functional leadership has more significant advantages for high-growth businesses. In these fast-paced settings, placing the responsibility of leading an entire organisation on one department isn't sustainable. 

Companies can leverage cross-functional leadership and establish collective responsibility among their stakeholders. 

An infographic of the importance of cross-functional leadership

Here are some of the top advantages of effective cross-functional leadership in modern workplaces and why this model is so imperative to success:

  • Improved Productivity: The typical employee is only productive for less than three hours in an eight-hour workday. In other words, organisations must implement solutions to increase productivity. Establishing effective cross-functional leaders is the answer. This method relies on collaboration and knowledge-sharing, which results in more efficiency and reduces process bottlenecks. 
  • Experimentation and Innovation: Cross-functional collaboration pushes teams out of their comfort zones and encourages different departments to collaborate to find unique solutions to complex problems. Pooling ideas from cross-functional team members will help businesses gain a competitive edge. 
  • Stronger Work Relationships: Employee turnover will always remain an issue for businesses. However, with cross-functional team leadership, improving employee morale by fostering better workplace relationships is easier. Team members from different departments can collaborate and connect, which is only possible through this model. 
  • Improve Communication Skills: Successful cross-functional leaders must encourage open communication so team members feel valued. This approach allows employees to improve how they interact with each other, as they will be exposed to different communication styles. 
An infographic of the key components of cross-functional leadership

Successful cross-functional leadership takes time to develop. To achieve this, leaders must use these key elements. 

1. Prioritised Needs

To become successful cross-functional leaders, organisations must ensure their models meet three requirements:

  1. The group's needs
  2. The project's needs
  3. Each individual's needs

These three factors must be satisfied to maintain positive group dynamics. Doing so gives each group member a comprehensive understanding of their shared goals and objectives. Effective leadership using the cross-functional model requires each team member to be on the same page and understand what is needed to complete the project. This approach encourages strategic leadership practices and guides outstanding team performance.

2. Action-Focused

While no single person or department is responsible for all the leadership functions, someone may be appointed to keep the group organised and ensure everything is on track. However, each person in the group must implement action-centred leadership by maintaining responsibility for their tasks and handling their designated priorities.

One key element of cross-functional leadership is the actions of every team member rather than delegation from a single person or group. It is easier to promote ownership and accountability, ensuring every team member completes their tasks and works collaboratively with the entire team. 

3. Communication

Effective communication is critical in cross-functional leadership models. Leaders must know how to convey ideas, strategies, project timelines, and other related information to external stakeholders and board members. For organisations to understand how their cross-functional leadership model works, they must receive clear and constructive communication on project progress.

At the same time, cross-functional leadership involves managing relationships with external stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, creditors and government agencies. Knowing how to navigate these relationships are crucial to maintaining leadership success. 

4. Team Motivation and Support

Experienced leaders understand the importance of motivating and supporting the team. The group must be encouraged and empowered to complete their respective tasks, work together and achieve overall organisational success. The cross-functional leader must keep the team aligned with the project goals and maintain open communication, a positive culture and opportunities for feedback.

While the cross-functional approach is practical, lacking motivation and support can harm success. As teams don't rely on a single leader but rather on each other, it can be easy to lose momentum if all members aren't encouraging each other. 

5. Goal-Driven

Whether the team completed the project and achieved the defined goals determines the success of their cross-functional method. Organisations implementing cross-functional leadership prioritise the project's outcome rather than specific actions from the group. That makes it imperative to always work toward a shared goal.

Teams must have a clear vision of what they must achieve. They must also maintain effective communication to guide the project to completion. Cross-functional leadership projects must ensure team members can contribute new ideas, provide feedback, and share their concerns when necessary.

6. Organisation and Structure

Successful cross-functional leadership lies in organisation and structure. Once every team member understands their duties and responsibilities, cross-functional leaders must establish a structure for progressing the project. Leaders must create records of how tasks were assigned because once team members begin working, the project is highly autonomous.

After recording each team member's tasks, team leaders can measure their success at the end of the project. This proactive approach ensures businesses develop effective teams to identify their strengths and weaknesses and improve each project. 

7. Resource Controlled

At the start of each project, when each team member understands their responsibilities throughout the project, successful leaders will identify and outline the resources the team needs. This element is imperative to help the team efficiently complete the project while saving time, energy and money for the entire business. 

Likewise, determining and controlling the resources invested in each project prevents teams from exceeding their budgets and wasting organisational resources. 

8. Continuous Improvement

Ongoing improvement is one of the most significant elements of successful cross-functional leadership. Leaders must track their progress, strategies, and outcomes to determine what works. 

Organisations implementing this approach for the first time will likely experience many setbacks, pinpointing the importance of tracking and analysing project performance and cross-functional leadership strategies. This approach makes it easier for companies to reflect on projects and determine how to improve their cross-functional leadership. 

Leverage transformational leadership skills for cross-functional teams through LIS's cross-functional leadership (CFL) course. You can complete this as a three-day programme or a three-month course. 

Throughout their learning, students will learn how interdisciplinary methods can help them solve complex problems in cross-functional teams. Here is what you can expect to learn from LIS's CFL programme;

  • Understanding the Opportunities: Discover how interdisciplinary methods can solve organisational problems and leverage opportunities. 
  • Zooming In and Out: Understand the importance of communicating on different levels in cross-functional teams. 
  • Visual Storytelling: Explore the role of visual communication in successful cross-functional teams. 
  • Working with Experts: Hone communication skills through understanding how to collaborate with experts. 
  • Global Thinking: Find out how to look beyond your immediate culture and leverage the power of global thinking. 
  • Collective Decision-Making: Work in groups to understand the advantages of this approach and how cross-functional teams operate. 
  • Synthesis and Application: Synthesise the course content and determine how these concepts apply to your organisation. 

“The most original and interesting training in management I've ever taken.” – Chiara, Head and Coordinator

These interdisciplinary skills equip you with valuable skills to excel in cross-functional leadership roles.  

An infographic on key takeaways for cross-functional leaders

Cross-functional leaders are imperative to organisational success. To excel in this field, students should consider these key tips:

  • Promote Team Accountability: Cross-functional leaders must keep teams on the same page and ensure each team member is clear on their tasks and responsibilities. This approach maintains accountability and forces employees to take ownership of their work. 
  • Build and Maintain Trust: Working with multiple teams requires trust. Establishing trust between team members is critical, making supporting and motivating each other easier. 
  • Leverage Diverse Perspectives: Working with various teams exposes leaders to expertise and skills from different fields, helping them think outside the box. 
  • Optimise Conflict Resolution: Conflict often occurs between team members during cross-functional projects. Leaders must have the skills to resolve conflict and maintain a positive work environment for the entire team. 
  • Clarify Team Goals and Expectations: From the start of each project, each team member must know exactly what the project entails and what they must achieve. Leaders must clarify team goals and expectations and ensure everyone is on the same page. 
  • Encourage Collaboration: Working in groups is the basis of cross-functional projects. Cross-functional leaders must motivate team collaboration and help different departments work toward shared goals.

Achieve Cross-Functional Leadership Success with LIS

Cross-functional leadership is an innovative approach that thrives on team collaboration. Successful cross-functional leadership is built on a series of factors:

  • Prioritised needs
  • Action-focused teams
  • Team motivation and support
  • Organisation and structure
  • Resource management

This leadership model helps organisations improve productivity, develop a positive work environment, maintain agility and develop and retain employees. And if you’re looking to further your interdisciplinary skills beyond cross-functional leadership, complete our Systems Thinking for Sustainability course. You can learn how systems thinking can be applied to sustainability!

Ready to leverage the cross-functional leadership model? Contact LIS today.

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March 20th 2023

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