You need to collaborate with and get support from people in other groups, in particular:
Functional groups like IT, Finance, HR, Legal inside your company
Third party support groups under contract, including consulting firms
Employees who have specific expertise not in your group
All groups inherently have a range of talent, from the excellent to the mediocre (and hopefully not) to the incompetent.
Do what you can to ensure you get to work with the excellent people in these groups. You’ll get 5X more with 5X less effort, compared to working with the mediocre-skilled/experienced people.
You can’t always control this, but there are two consistent ways to influence situations in your favor:
- Develop good relationships with the people leading these groups. You want to be on good terms with them. You should be able to just pick up the phone or message them and they’ll be happy to respond to you.
- Provide feedback about your contact’s performance to these leaders. Make it plain where you’re pleased, where there are opportunities for improvement, and what’s been unacceptable.
