Reference no: EM132018364

Write a reponse paper about the given discussion post.

Discussion 1

APA respond to both 200 words or more and REF

I am currently a member of a cross-functional team and there are times where we are at odds with each other. My team consists of a program manager, a financial/accounting manager, engineering, and human resource manager. Our team's goal is to maximize customer satisfaction while maximizing profit for the company.

The typical issues that our team encounters are salaries of employees, ensuring the customer is happy with support and performance, and ensuring providing the best IT services available that ensures a good CPARS from the government customer. Most of the issues encountered include alignment of goals, insight into other members priorities, and the adoption of new ways of handling business.

Leaders should have the following skills to lead cross-functional teams: technical expertise, project management skills, interpersonal skills, cognitive skills, and political skills (Yukl, 2013). As a leader of a cross-functional team, being a technical expert means having the ability to communicate technical matters with other team members from different backgrounds (Yukl, 2013).

The leader should be able to manage all aspects of the project management to include budgeting, financial, and labor responsibilities (Yukl, 2013). Next, the leader must develop political skills which include the ability to develop coalitions and gain resources from top management and stakeholders (Yukl, 2013). If a cross-functional team leader possesses the above-mentioned skills he/she will be able to properly manage the team.

Discussion 2

Yes I have been on a cross functional team and it didn't work out well because everybody could never be in the same room at one time because everybody could not get along. Cross functional allows for lack of communication because some people in the group don't want to talk to certain people.

One thing that needs to happen when in a group like that is the leader needs to be somebody that everybody gets along and communicates with so that they can able to get in contact with everybody and facilitate all meetings. In an article Millard stated that if the information is not communicated well and everybody is not in the loop deadlines can be missed (Millard, 2015).

One thing the leader can do to work out difficulties is make sure they communicate to everybody the deadlines and remind the group when things are coming up. Another way to keep the problems down with in the group is to set individual expectations so that everybody knows what they are doing. James Nicholson said establish what is expected and revisit those expectations as often as needed (Nicholson, 2015).