How do you manage stakeholder expectations as a leader?

Stakeholder identification is crucial because these individuals or groups are connected to the project's outcomes and have a vested interest in its success. RACI is a valuable tool for mapping stakeholders and their roles in the project. Additionally, you can begin identifying and engaging with stakeholders by preparing and conducting value stream or process mapping exercises.

Identifying stakeholders involves understanding the undertaking and brainstorming all possible groups or individuals affected by the initiative. Categorizing and prioritizing stakeholders helps focus on those with the most significant influence or interest. Utilizing tools like a stakeholder map and developing an engagement plan can facilitate better collaboration with stakeholders.

It's possible to mentally drown yourself in concerns with how to attend to various stakeholders, and there are two reasons for this. First, the term "stakeholder" is vague and arguably overbroad. This leads to basically anyone and everyone with a tenuous or tangential connection to your business getting the same label as everyone else. Second, the interests of some will be in conflict or totally at odds with the interests of some others, meaning you will never keep everyone happy and aligned, especially if you bloat the roster of stakeholders you choose to proactively manage. Something I've found useful is to subdivide stakeholders. Primary stakeholders should be 20% of your entire group and get 80% of your focus. Secondary, vice versa.

Establishing effective communication with stakeholders takes some adjustments but absolutely worth the effort. When done right, it can lead to a 50% decrease in project risks. This demonstrates the importance of clear and regular communication, as it not only builds trust and collaboration but also helps in identifying and managing potential threats.

Communicate clearly and honestly. Use plain and simple words that are easy to understand. That way, you'll leave no room for assumptions. Listen attentively with an intention to learn and be mutually agreeable. Say what you mean and mean what you say. If it's not true, don't say it. If you're not sure about something, let them know. If you're not going to do something, don't say you will. Keep your words clear and honest ??

Undoubtedly, communication plays a pivotal role in any project. Understanding the specific roles of each stakeholder enables you to tailor information to their needs effectively. Some stakeholders will focus on hard KPIs and intricate details, while others will seek an overall status update. As a leader, it is your responsibility to determine how to present and communicate information and at what frequency. The message should be honest and transparent, fostering an environment free of blame or fear of failure. When there are no surprises resulting from poor communication, everyone can collaborate towards ensuring the project's success.

Are you in execution mode or project mode? When executing day-to-day, focus 80% of your communication on primary stakeholders with direct interest and impact on your activity. In project mode, the circle widens to include more stakeholders because a wider constituency will have control or influence over your progress, requiring more communication from you to align and influence others. The big takeaway here for me is to design your communication routines to be lightweight, simple, and scalable. This will prevent you getting weighed and slowed down by the demands of communication, which are considerable. Don't oversimplify messages, but by being as transparent and simple as possible, you help your messages stick and gain traction.

Remember, the goal of negotiating with stakeholders is not to win at all costs but to find solutions that align with the goals and satisfy the stakeholders' expectations to the greatest extent possible. This often requires empathy, patience, creativity, and strong communication skills.

Aligning expectations also requires an understanding of the constraints each stakeholder experiences that would limit them from effectively moving the project forward. Challenging assumptions through first principle thinking helps reveal perceived and legitimate barriers to success while creating space to collaboratively ideate solutions.

It's very difficult to generalize about this point because how you go about alignment (or conscious misalignment) and how you manage expectations depends on the subject matter, the context, the circumstances, and the stage of a process. The key insight is to actively poll your stakeholders in every situation ... ask them what they expect to get from the situation, project, or endeavour. This gives you a chance to understand whether what you've been asked to do by your boss aligns with what the broader stakeholder group envisions. Where initiatives go badly off-track, it's often because of unresolved ambiguity in the original problem statement, or a disconnect between the official ask and the unofficial expectations. Surface this early.

Managing stakeholder expectations during the change process is integral to the success of the change upon completion. Indeed, the attitudes that they develop during the implementation phases will generate the atmosphere at the end. Therefore, leaders are responsible for listening to voices, empowering people to detect and correct problems, and operationalizing legitimate feedback/critiques during the change initiative. Operating with the best interest of people in mind is integral to buy-in. It will determine whether a team or organization will continue to succeed upon solidifying a new way of doing business.

In addition to the listed changes, there might also be alterations among the stakeholders themselves, such as departures or replacements during the course of the project. The leader must ensure that the project's desired outcomes remain well understood and that any organizational changes do not introduce additional chaos.

Borrowing from war philosophy, any complex endeavour will be subject to fog, friction, and fortune. You *must absolutely* be clear about the assumptions governing an initiative -- particularly resources assumptions like labour, money, and time. Make your stakeholders aware of these. By forcing these assumptions into the open, you will force yourself to be confident about them, but also to understand them intimately so you notice when they're invalidated in a way that changes the basic promises you've made to stakeholders. Without "sandbagging" ... which leads to lazy timelines and underperformance ... make sure your plan leaves room for things you don't control and can't foresee. When things change, communicating proactively reassures.

I agree, as a leader you must focus on the end result and support those that are working hard to support the vision. Clear concise communication with stakeholders and transparency is a common denominator. #partnershipsdriveresults

Along the way to delivering value and satisfaction there needs to be a measure of excellence and a means for process improvement. This idea goes back to the use of SMART goals mentioned earlier in the article. As we remember “M” stands for Measurement. The measurement piece is critical in building long-term trusting relationships. Data must be gathered in a way that is timely and that produces actional outcomes based on the feedback collected.

I'm gonna argue this is actually the first step. :-) Every initiative should start by asking the question "what outcome will the customer love the most?" The answer forces you to define the customer(s) and understand the result you're seeking. With this clear in mind, you work backwards to the present moment. This will give you a clear idea of the path you need to trace and support a strong plan to get there. In my USAF days, I always knew I was in good company when we planned backward from the target. When you plan forward, the plan or process becomes your focus, and the target or customer becomes secondary. 100 times out of 100, this subtle shift in focus will leave capturable customer joy on the table, which equals underperformance.

Businesses are just a bunch of people working toward shared goals. The long term success of your time in business is often related to how effective you are in building relationships with others. By that same nature, if you'd like to be effective in business for a long time, it also makes sense to build relationships for the long term. So not just when you need something, but throughout the course of your time as a leader

Many potential communication issues stem from a lack of trust. By cultivating a strong, long-term relationship, you create an environment where others feel more at ease with your words and actions. When stakeholders know that you consistently follow through on your commitments, operate with transparency, and can be relied upon, they are more likely to embrace your message. This, in turn, simplifies the process of conveying changes and delivering “bad news,” as you no longer need to constantly justify yourself or convince others of your competence. The emphasis shifts to the message itself, rather than the person delivering it.

While all the suggestions here are sound, this is one that often goes undervalued. At the end of the day, stakeholders are people, which means you have to prioritize the relationship. If you view stakeholders as a thing to be managed versus an individual you need to build and maintain a relationship with, you’re already off to a rough start. This only gets more challenging when trying to mechanize something as complex as managing expectations. Without the relationship, you’ll get tossed by unspoken traits and circumstances of the individual. When you have a strong relationship and expectations go sideways, it’s a lot easier to go, “Come on! What are we doing here?!” With a laugh and work it out.

Keep the dialogue open and utilise social media as a way to listen to your key stakeholders’ needs and expectations. The more you hear them speak, know what events, influencers, and other sources they go to for information, the more you get to know about them. It will also help you speak their language, understand and relate to them better. Social listening is the act of following your key stakeholders whether they be investors, customers, employees or future talent from a distance online, and then using this intelligence and insight to craft your messages from a place of understanding and empathy. This helps to ensure your communication is timely, relevant and relatable to your key stakeholders which means it will have greater impact.