Who are the Cross-functional leaders?

Cross-functional leadership is being responsible for the accomplishment of a common goal by individuals.

Where do you meet such leaders in the daily life?

They are most of the cases Project Managers, appointed to lead a project internally or externally.

Why their situation is so much specific?

Because they have no hierachical powerover individuals they work together.
The project members are often experts in fields that the Project Leader has never mastered before.
It can happen that members are on the same level of hierarchy than the Cross-functional leader.

What are usually those issues they need support to cope with?

They struggle with managing the project to meet the scope deadline becaues of different priorities of other areas where project members also contribute. Therefore they often need to manage tensions and conflicts.

Cross-functional leaders need to influence their colleagues without power.

During the whole project cross-functional leaders have to negotiate with all stakeholders to accomplish the common goal within the given conditions.

Handling the operation of the project in matrix-like structure, dealing with top-down and cross-functional hierarchic relaionships.