About to pull squad up in front of exasperated leader and their personnel (7)
I believe the answer is:
retinue
'personnel' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'about to pull squad up in' is the wordplay.
'about' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'to pull' becomes 'eer' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'squad' becomes 'unit' (both can mean a group of soldiers).
'up' says the letters should be written in reverse (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'eer' written backwards gives 'ree'.
'unit' backwards is 'tinu'.
'ree' enclosing 'tinu' is 'RETINUE'.
'front of exasperated leader and their' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for retinue that I've seen before include "Group of servants with important person" , "Personal staff" , "Group of attendants for VIP" , "Group of followers" , "Body of aides" .)