Effective stakeholder management has no one face. For each project, a handful of stakeholder groups have all kinds of requirements at all times. You’ll have those with high levels of power and interest who want to know everything. You’ll have the opposite. Then, you’ll see stakeholders who have very specific needs and reject every attempt at negotiation or compromise.
Even subtle differences in personality and position can mean that your management process changes dramatically. And that’s okay.
In this post, we discuss the more human differences in stakeholders and how each one—in their own right—should be handled, mentored, and influenced. We will cover
- What stakeholder management is
- What the benefits of stakeholder management are
- Each way stakeholder management can look different
- Why you should not ignore this practice
What is Stakeholder Management?
Before we explain the details of effective stakeholder management, we need to explain what stakeholder management even is.
Most in management will understand this practice as organizing, managing, and improving the relationships and expectations of stakeholders, which is anyone with a vested interest in the project. The term is broad and sometimes misleads users because it stretches to touch every single person impacted by the project. To be thorough, we also like to add that stakeholder management includes communicating, influencing, and mentoring stakeholders.
It includes four basic steps, such as
- Identification – Who are you working with? Where do they come from?
- Analyzing – What interests do they hold? How much power do they have over the project? What is the unofficial political structure of the organization?
- Engage – How will communications be handled? Who is prioritized?
- Manage – How do you handle changes to scope? How do you keep expectations within reasonable bounds?
The point of stakeholder management is to give project managers a structured way of keeping all of this straight. And we highly recommend it.
If you are interested in learning more about stakeholder management, we discuss this principle in much greater detail in our stakeholder management guide.
Benefits of Effective Stakeholder Management
The notion is often dismissed, or management reduces the whole idea to emails mixed with the occasional meeting, but that’s a mistake. Stakeholder management is an extremely helpful practice that allows you to get ahead of the ball and manage how it rolls.
It allows you to make better decisions because you’re able to cast a larger net. Your understanding of the project and any related conditions will be better informed, which results in improved outcomes. Due to that larger net, you are also able to make more accurate assessments.
In addition, you can spend less of the project budget, identify risks sooner, and ensure high-quality project outcomes.
There is a higher level of trust throughout the project because you systematically show up for stakeholders, understand their values, and allow them to see yours. They feel more comfortable with you, which results in everything running better for you.
Effective Stakeholder Management Looks Different All The Time
Relationships, expectations, and feelings can’t be measured, like dimensions or temperature, but that doesn’t make them any less real. When managing stakeholders effectively, you’ve established a connection with each necessary party, supported it with regular engagement, and
And because they are all different types, they require a different approach for each one, including
- Different Personalities
- The Type of The Project
- The Length of The Project
- Communication Styles
- Amount of Power
- Level of Interest
Even if two people have the exact same position, they will never act the same. They’ll treat their superiors, colleagues, and team members with a unique edge. As the project manager, you’ll need to note these variations so you can adjust them how you need them.
The way they want to communicate, how regularly meetings occur, and what you share with them all depend drastically. Effective stakeholder management requires a rich understanding of each person you work with the whole person.
Below, we discuss how each sub-variation or each variation should be best handled for effective stakeholder management.
Different Personalities
The personality of a stakeholder can make or break your experience with them. Along with that, their preferences and values can change how they interact with the project.
Most often, some of the types you’ll see include
- Involved Stakeholders who want to understand everything, know about everything, and have a perspective (that they’d like to share) on everything.
- Hands-Off people who are just looking to know that things are okay, understand how everything is progressing (or not), and then move on with their day as they have “bigger fish to fry.”
- “Their Way” or “No Way” types are often very curious about what is going on, but when issues arise, they have a very clear directive requiring everyone to comply—even if that move is not the best one.
- Delegation Masters are those who take in the necessary information, give their opinion, maybe give direction, and trust you to execute.
- Reasonable stakeholders will understand when deadlines aren’t met, why risks have to be handled this way instead of that and will be accountable for their contributions to the project.
- Unreasonable stakeholders will not understand why deadlines can’t be met, will never agree that the other way works, and are not accountable.
You know exactly who we’re talking about. There are personalities that you will never gel with, no matter how much you try. It will seem like they are fighting your efforts for no good reason, and sometimes, that may even be the case. You can’t get along with everyone.
As a proactive measure, depending on the amount of stake a person has in a project, you might take note in your initial analysis of the personality type each possesses. At the very least, you should have some idea of how they’d like to be updated.
Type of Project
Another title for this section could have been “Location of the project,” as we mostly discuss how you can observe progress toward project objectives.
If you’re logging into a Client Management System because you work remotely, your project considerations are much different from those with a physical project location. For one, there isn’t a huge concern for a prospective loss of life as there is on a construction site.
Second, factors like security, weather, who shows up, who doesn’t show up, and what materials are available all need to be considered by you. You generally don’t have to worry about those things in a remote setting.
To maintain effective stakeholder management on a project with a location, you should invite stakeholders to observe progress themselves. You might warn them of potential risks and opportunities. No matter how you include and update them, be sure to have them participate in any way you can.
When there is no project location, demonstrations are just as important, but you might also include face-to-face meetings that allow both parties to air out any concerns they have about the project.
A Note On Creative Projects
For those working on a project focused on creativity or design, we’d like to mention that your way of managing stakeholders might look quite different. For example, your job is to complete objectives that can be argued in ways other projects can’t.
If you are building a college campus, there is a plan that will be vetted so aggressively it may not look anything like what was originally discussed.
But your progress can be argued when you are building the latest car model, website, or anything that innately requires a lot of creativity. From your perspective, you’ve been brought in to work through multiple iterations of a design until one is selected, but that won’t stop a suit or two from saying, “Well, I just don’t like it.”
You’ll have to navigate this landscape carefully because while you are the designer, you aren’t always the one with the final say.
Length of Project
The length of a project can also change how you go about managing stakeholders. Specifically, there are four different scenarios such as
- Completing a project in one shot (writing this blog)
- Working through multiple iterations of a project (building a website)
- Ending after a couple of phases (developing a neighborhood)
- Finishing a project over the course of years (constructing a multi-winged hospital)
The first scenario’s stakeholders are just looking to the end result, almost not caring about any of the middle bits. In the second, where stakeholders have to work through a bunch of revisions, there is a bit more weight to potential delays, but the outcome is still the priority.
In the third and fourth scenarios, a collective understanding is that the middle matters. So, to best utilize those feelings, find out what each of your stakeholders, specifically the important ones, has riding on this. Do they have a project following this one that relies on this outcome?
By understanding influences like these, you can better prepare for the pressure that comes with them.
Communication Styles
We briefly mentioned this [above], but we need you to understand the importance of this.
If a stakeholder hates getting general emails that are sent to no one and everyone, you can’t just rely on this channel. You have to know what each individual or party prefers and attempt to work that into your landscape.
- Do they prefer emails that they can read and sort?
- Do they prefer face-to-face meetings where they can get to know you?
- Do they prefer calls that have multiple parties?
Find out how they want to be kept in the loop and make notes in whatever system you are using to sort this information.
Amount of Power
When we explain power and interest levels in our stakeholder management guide, we break all stakeholders down into four categories. You should place each party when you work through stakeholder mapping.
But to simplify, you can just consider those who have a ton of say over the project and those who have very little. You can decide where you draw that line. We recommend giving the whole group some kind of courtesy regardless of their position.
The size and manner of your project might require that you send (at least some people) a newsletter. Perhaps you tailor that message to each group and give everyone some kind of update or insight. It might seem like a worthless inconvenience, but you never know who could rise into a new position or who could be removed.
For effective stakeholder management, it’s best to treat everyone as a part of something. Be kind. Answer questions. Show them the vision.
Level of Interest
Interest is roughly defined as a reason for wanting something done. In a project setting, the level of interest stakeholders hold in your project can drastically change their whole demeanor.
Perhaps they’ve invested a great deal of money into the project. They will actively look for a return which will result in greater involvement, more questions about the “why” behind actions, and even increased advocacy. When a stakeholder has little interest, they simply care less.
So, when you are performing your stakeholder analysis, you may want to take note of what they have riding on this project. Do they have an event following your project? Do they need a “good outcome” to support the following event?
Knowing their interest level helps you understand their attitude toward the project and how that changes their attitude toward you.
Define Effective Stakeholder Management Yourself
You are handling people’s needs, hopes, dreams, goals, and expectations. And while having a systematic approach to this is very helpful, you can’t ignore the “human-ness” of it all. Your project is unique to you as a project manager, to the plan you are trying to execute, and to those you have to answer to. So, don’t be afraid to redefine what effective stakeholder management means to you.
You might prioritize the involvement of as many parties as possible. You might feel a great need for increased accountability which means you work this practice to support that. You could also need more collaboration, and this is how you get it.
Ultimately, you can make this practice work exactly how you like—use it.
Let New Ideas Find You
Here at A.McBeth, Inc., we know it’s better to open our thinking caps, receive new ideas, and use them occasionally than act like we know everything. Project management is pretty uncomfortable with that attitude, which is why we are offering up new (and old) ideas all month long, so sign up to be notified the next time one pops up. You won’t want to miss it!
