How to Be Better at Stakeholder Management

Michelle Stronach has over 20 years of experience in the project management field, with experience creating successful PMOs and implementing project, portfolio management and IT governance frameworks. Michelle truly appreciates the value of feedback and welcomes comments on her articles. https://twitter.com/mlstronach

  Communications Management   Stakeholder Management   Talent Management  

Stakeholder management is complex and very dynamic. It’s about managing the people who are impacted by or who can impact the results of your project. People can have expectations that have nothing to do with your project or everything to do with your project. People have filters, biases and misconceptions that can affect their perception and attitude toward the project, either positively or negatively. People have the power to help, drive or get in the way of the success of the project--and will do so if it suits their interests.

People’s interests, attitudes and authorities change constantly, and your project is only part of the many things influencing these changes. As a project manager, you need to continually understand your stakeholders, assess the landscape and use that knowledge to guide the planning and management of your project.

Be Self-Interested for the Project’s Sake
At the end of the day, the primary purpose of stakeholder management--as with all other knowledge areas and processes--is making sure the project is successful. Projects are investments undertaken with the intention of benefit gain in some way. Those who think stakeholder management is just about identifying requirements and managing communications are thinking reactively. The wealth of information gathered in identifying and assessing stakeholders feed all aspects of …

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