Three stakeholder management strategies that work time and time again

Effective stakeholder management is critical for success of any initiative and smooth delivery of any project. The fact of the matter is, it doesn't matter what your end product is if you are 'burning' your stakeholders through lack of involvement or shutting them out. Every time you are delivering something new into your organisation or you are running a project, effective stakeholder management is a MUST!

Here are the three fail-safe strategies to put into place when working on projects or working with teams across an organisation to deliver an outcome:

1) Take the time to make sure you are involving the right people. This may sound silly but if you haven't taken the time to note down exactly who you consider your stakeholders to be, you need to put a pen to paper or finger to your keyboard right now and get to it.

Why? Often we forget who we need to involve or who need to know about your initiative. This results in complaints or 'white-anting' your initiative.  Listing out who should be involved and why, will allow you to proactively manage the relationships. It will also add value to your end product if you have the right stakeholders involved at the right time.

A great rule of thumb is to involve more people rather than less initially.

Then give people the choice to not be included from there. Be aware that some stakeholders don't see why they should be included so be prepared to explain why you think they should be and then let them decide. Whatever you do - don't exempt stakeholders because they are 'difficult'. This is irrelevant when you are looking to see who should be involved. Then ask the question of your stakeholders - who else should be involved?

2) Understand the motivations of your stakeholders and work with them. Everyone who is sitting around any decision making table or reference group table has their own reasons and motivations to be there. This may include the motivation to be able to deliver the best product for the organisation. Another stakeholder may be motivated by simply wanting to make sure they get a say and have their point heard. Typically frontline staff are motivated by the end result for customers or clients. 

Some common motivations are:

'I want to look good to my Manager'

'I want to be seen as an expert in my area'

'I want to do right by our customers'

'I want to deliver well in this project'.

Everyone has a motivation, and I recommend you take the time to listen and understand what everyone wants to achieve individually, so you can find the common ground and have everyone be motivated to succeed. The misperception of a difficult stakeholder is that they are a blocker to progress, often they are trying to let you know that there is a better way, or they could also feel threatened if you aren't understanding their motivations. So take the time to understand the perspective of difficult stakeholders especially. Your efforts will be rewarded in the end.

3) Engage in the right way with your stakeholders.

Always engage with your stakeholders the way in which they want to be engaged, not the way you want to engage with them. To stick to the way you want to engage is a rookie mistake and you will pay a price for it in the long term.

The world is full of the need to compromise and one of the reasons I don't have stakeholder management issues often is because my aim is to engage with stakeholders on their terms. Especially my more important stakeholders.

Why do I care if I go the extra mile, when that means I get what I need to be successful? If a particular member of my reference group or stakeholder group  cannot attend any meetings I will always send them email updates so they are aware of what is happening. If I really need them there I make sure they know this, and I will give them ways in which they can participate. I will change the time of day the meetings are on for my critical stakeholders. Keeping in mind that I have already identified through my stakeholder analysis how important their participation is for the success of my change plan or project.

There are always bigger issues that arise so if I give a little when it comes to being flexible for stakeholders, I can often ask for favours in return based on a strong stakeholder relationship that has formed as a result.

You will notice that above all there is no manipulation techniques here, just straight forward, simple respectful engagement practices. These will put you in good stead on any project or initiative.