As always, leadership is about working with others to achieve a goal. In a company, that becomes particularly true. People have varying duties and responsibilities. To achieve something, you'll need to involve other employees. The more complex and ambitious the goal, the more people, representing a wider aspect of the company, you'll require.

Individuals

You always start on the individual level. Whether someone is in the same part of the company as you or in another division, you face the same underlying challenge of getting her interested in what you're trying to accomplish. There may be a natural affinity between the goal and the person's job responsibilities, in which case your task might be a little easier.

Whatever the situation, you must demonstrate how your goals as a leader connect to other people's responsibilities as employees. If you cannot make that case in a reasonable fashion, then you're effectively asking people to help you and disregard those duties, which is unfair to them and to the company. Assuming that you've picked goals that are in keeping with the company's interests, showing that connection shouldn't be difficult.

Even so, the person may still have actual conflict with other duties. Use power sharing and see if the employee can help work out a possible solution. The more you involve those people in the process, the more buy-in you get, and the greater your chance of getting the help that you need.

Departments

Getting the aid of other employees is easier if you are in a position of authority and they are working for you. It's more difficult if they work for someone else, and it gets even more complicated if the people work in other departments. The person might need to get permission to help, or you might first need to make the case to a supervisor. Even if the person in charge is sympathetic to what you are trying to achieve, the department will have other demands, as well as limited resources.

Another approach is to go up the chain of command. Find someone higher up whom you might convince of the necessity of this project. That person could then direct a re-evaluation of department goals or even underscore the importance to the first supervisor. There are few things as motivating — at least on the surface — as a memo from someone in higher authority.

One effective way to get help is to create an ad hoc multidepartmental team to address the initiative. You'd need to get permission from your supervisor. Once that is done, you go to the other appropriate people in the organization — now with the support of someone in authority — and lay out the idea. Because of the official backing, this becomes a company undertaking. People will generally feel an obligation to make someone available, if for no other reason than to prevent themselves from being surprised by something that is to involve them and their departments. Congratulations! You're now leading an official undertaking of the entire corporation.