How do you overcome stakeholder management struggles in employee engagement?

Some examples of tools and techniques which can be used to identify stakeholders include: Stakeholder Mapping: This technique involves identifying all stakeholders who might be affected by the employee engagement initiative and mapping them on a grid based on their level of interest and power. Stakeholder Analysis: This technique involves analysing each stakeholder in detail, including their interests, power, and influence, and understanding their perspectives on the initiative. Surveys and Interviews: These methods involve conducting surveys or interviews with stakeholders to gather their views and opinions on an initiative.

One of the biggest learning curves and lessons I've had in my time is right a the very start when you're working out who your stakeholders are (and beyond that who could be useful) is to spend as much time as is needed to understanding what will be driving their opinion. Understanding what makes people tick and what's really going on beyond what they tell you will unlock so much more. The thing people say is the thing very regularly isn't the thing that is the cause or the driver it's the outcome of it.

In the digital age, stakeholder identification goes beyond traditional mapping. Social media analytics and AI tools can offer insights into who is talking about your initiatives, providing a broader and more dynamic stakeholder landscape. My key takeaway: Expand your stakeholder identification processes with digital tools to uncover hidden influencers and potential allies.

Identifying stakeholders involves recognizing individuals or groups directly or indirectly impacted by the project. This includes clients, team members, sponsors, and vendors.

Begin by identifying all relevant stakeholders in the employee engagement process. Conduct stakeholder analysis to understand their needs, expectations, and level of influence on employee engagement initiatives.

One thing I’ve found helpful is to be consistent with your communication . Engage frequently and openly. Be friendly and approachable and adapt to your audience. Sometimes a face to face chat over coffee has brought me closer to my stakeholder and closer to understanding the culture within the organisation/team.

Being honest at every stage and transparent about where things are at is critical too. It'll all come out in the wash anyway so sometimes when we have a temptation to keep our cards close to our chest can come across as defensive and create paranoia too. Always remember we've all got our own individual and collective challenges going on away from whatever project is being run so whilst you might come at it with enthusiasm and positivity not everyone will share that initial view (which isn't your doing but it is your challenge to figure out).

In addition to frequent communication and openness and honesty while engaging with your stakeholders, it can also be helpful to (start) working on your (professional) relationships before a project is in full force. Getting to know your stakeholders helps you understand their perspective on the project better. Things that helped me with this in the past is to have an official kickoff moment to the project, so everybody feels aligned with the goal of the project. It also helped to travel to different offices to meet my stakeholders face-to-face, this way it's easier to get to know your stakeholders outside the scope to the project.

Engaging stakeholders involves fostering open communication, understanding their needs, involving them in decision-making, and building strong relationships to ensure project success.

I understand the mechanical methods that different methods recommend adopting, but most of all, I try and take a human approach with stakeholders. Engage 1:1 with people, listen to them, and understand their viewpoints. Whether I can relate to an issue or not, it's important that stakeholders feel engaged, involved and understood. This time is crucial to build trust that increases the chances of success. Workshops and meetings will not bring out everything you need as some stakeholders will not feel able or willing to put their views forward in an open forum, so the material gathered can be incomplete. You may miss a vital perspective that comes back and bites you late on.

By understanding stakeholders' needs and constraints, I ensure alignment between project outcomes and their expectations, fostering trust and collaboration throughout the project lifecycle.

Simple things like summarising what was discussed in the meeting at the end work great for aligning before leaving the room. This provides the opportunity for stakeholders to agree or clarify any misunderstandings. It also demonstrates that you are a good listener.

Engage with stakeholders as early as possible, and work with them on co-creating the final outcome or through the change you're implementing. This gives them an opportunity to be involved in the process, to ask questions, and clarify vague points. Most importantly, the ongoing involvement is also a way for stakeholders to pass the knowledge and information to their teams, work with them through the information, and then feedback to you. Expectations management is about ongoing two way conversation.

Remember to be clear too about what you want from them. Is this a collaborative project where all views will be accommodated or is it an intelligence gathering exercise but ultimately a singular recommendation. We all feel we should have approval/ veto over stuff but it's a lot easier to contribute freely if you understand how the final view will be presented. As the lead it'll also save you a lot (not all) of challenge when if from the outset its clear that you want evidence and insight but not their approval at the end.

In my opinion, while managing stakeholders expectations it is just as important to be transparent on which things you are not workings on and the reason for not working on them, as to communicate the things you are working on. While inspecting the product/project progress/backlog, stakeholders can give their input better if they have a full overview. In my experience if you don't actively communicate this, stakeholders might still assume it's something that's being worked on.

Mediation techniques are proving invaluable in resolving stakeholder conflicts. My Key Takeaway: Consider internal mediation as a tool for resolving stakeholder conflicts constructively.

I facilitate constructive dialogue, clarify misunderstandings, and seek common ground. By focusing on shared project goals and fostering collaboration, I mediate conflicts to achieve mutually beneficial resolutions.

In my experience one thing that really helps avoiding conflict is to document agreements. Make risks, assumptions, issues and decisions (required/taken) visible in a log which is actively groomed, enriched and updated. This is to assure stakeholders that their concerns, experience, motivations, vision, organization goals and objectives are understood and aligned with at the implementation level.

Try and find a way to accommodate but ultimately take accountability for your own actions - recommend what you, in your professional opinion, is the right thing. That doesn't of course mean steamroller people but explain, outline and provide reason for why the conclusion is the one that's reached. Remember too it's not usually about the thing that is being discussed often what drives us as individuals is a collective of influences at any one time. So the decision you're making might come on the back of pressures from elsewhere in the organisation or run of things being perceived as going against them. Understand the person and their motivations - it'll help get better outcomes and make you a better colleague.

Proactively identify and address conflicts among stakeholders, seeking to understand the root causes and find mutually acceptable solutions. Foster open communication and collaboration to resolve conflicts constructively, utilizing mediation techniques or involving neutral third parties if necessary.

Everything is stakeholder management. Make sure you are true to yourself about how you show up, stand up and what you stand for. People value good people and it's always clear, even though you might not agree with their decisions, who is trying to doing things with the right motivation. We all know colleagues that are destructive and toxic in their attitudes and it is imperative on us all and individuals, and especially those us us in leadership positions, to promote and celebrate those that give energy, create that right culture and get stuff done (in the right way). That is how to build your stakeholder relationships every day.

Stakeholder management is a iterative process, that needs to be inspected and adapted to improve. Methods that can help with improving are for example an annual engagement survey to measure employee engagement, or a bi-weekly 1-on-1s to check-in with your stakeholders.

Regularly assess stakeholder satisfaction and engagement levels through feedback mechanisms, surveys, and performance metrics. Analyze the effectiveness of stakeholder management strategies and identify areas for improvement based on feedback and lessons learned. Continuously adapt and refine stakeholder management approaches to address evolving needs, challenges, and priorities in engagement.