HBR Presents.

I'm Muriel Wilkins and this is Coaching Real Leaders, part of the HBR Presents Network.

I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful leaders is coaching real leaders part of the HBR Presents Network.

I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful leaders who've hit a bump in the road.

My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying their goals and figuring out a way to reach them.

I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show, we have a one-time coaching meeting, focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing.

Today's guest, who will call Fatima to protect her confidentiality, is in a cross-functional

role. She's lived in five different countries,

and she credits that with some of her success in her career thus far, especially in her new role,

which is in a matrixed organization. Have I worked in a matrix environment before? No. But what I have

found is I actually grew up in, quote unquote, a developing country.

So I find that a lot of the skills that you develop there are very, very similar to what happens here.

Whereas here, most organizations are very structured.

I would say growing up in a place that's not as structured gives you a lot of skill sets to be able to navigate

an ambiguous environment.

That said, Fatima is struggling to increase her level of influence and leadership within

such a complex organization.

You get to this point where you can't have the same level of depth that other people can reach, but at the same time, there's an expectation of you need to show value.

So you're dealing with multiple industries where you want to still show value,

but at the same time, you're dealing with multiple personalities, right?

So being in a cross-functional role, you have to kind of understand each layer and how they are all playing together.

So she's facing a few challenges here. She's transitioned from working with the company as an external partner to now being part of the team.

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