You're leading a cross-functional team. How can you ensure every member contributes equally?

To ensure equal contribution in a cross-functional team, focus on creating an inclusive environment that values every member's input: Set clear expectations: Define each role and responsibility early on, so everyone knows their value and contribution. Encourage open communication: Actively invite quieter team members to share ideas, giving them space to speak without being overshadowed. Leverage strengths: Assign tasks based on each person’s unique skills, ensuring they feel empowered to bring their best. Balancing contribution fosters a sense of ownership and motivates all team members to engage fully in the project.

Creating team norms to support equal contribution is something that comes to mind for me — if the team is remote, you can have a norm of staying off-mute to encourage a variety of voices during calls. Monitoring air time is also an important practice. If you’re leading the meeting and someone is speaking more than others, intentionally invite those quieter individuals into the conversation — which could also mean participating in the chat if that supports their communication preferences.

The KEY is to align your team member's STRENGTHS with your PROJECT deliverables. - Have regular 1-1 meetings with your team to identify and coach/mentor them on enabling their strengths. - Make it DELIBRATE to delegate tasks that align with their strengths. - Encourage everyone on the team to LEVERAGE each other's strengths. Finally, LEAD the team with CONTEXT and educate them to IDENTIFY and REALIZE the impact of their work towards PROJECT. DO NOT measure the impact ONLY with arbitrary numbers.