6 Benefits of Understanding Your Stakeholders’ Values

Lonnie Pacelli is an Accenture/Microsoft veteran with four decades of learnings under his belt. He frequently writes and speaks on leadership, project management, work/life balance, and disability inclusion. Reach him at [email protected] and see more at ProjectManagementAdvisor.com.

  Career Development   Stakeholder Management  

In Part 1 of The 4 Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence (EI), I focus on knowing thyself. A key aspect of knowing thyself is developing an action plan based on improvement opportunities identified from a 360-feedback evaluation. The nuggets you get from a 360 are crucial in helping you become a better-rounded PM.

There is another great source to help you in your learning journey: your stakeholder’s values. Before we get in too deep, here is a level-set of who I include in the stakeholder universe:

1. Sponsors – This group includes business owners either inside or outside of your direct management chain. This includes understanding things like their objectives, business climate, external threats, communication preferences, and major issues faced.
2. Management – This is your direct management chain. Understanding your management includes how your higher-ups make decisions, how they like to be communicated with, their hot-button issues, and what they value in their employees.
3. Peers – This group includes those at your equivalent level whom you interact with to get work done. They could be inside or outside of your organization. This includes understanding their areas of specialization, their strengths that you can leverage, and areas where you can help each other.
4. Teams – This group includes the different disciplines working on your …

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