Business goals are rarely achieved in isolation.
Jorge De Andrade Business Coach ★ Online Course Creator ★ Author
In order to grow a company with the mission to help the world be a better place, one has to realize personal growth, learning, and being humble is the key to grow and sustain a company in accomplishing its vision.
Identify Stakeholders
Every goal has multiple stakeholders: both the primary stakeholder and one or more additional stakeholders. You must get clear on who all the stakeholders are — and what their level of alignment is with the goal.
What do I mean by a “STAKEHOLDER?”
A stakeholder is anyone whose buy-in and support are essential to achieving a business goal.
Each individual stakeholder has different, needs, desires, and wants. You need to validate each stakeholder’s levels on the 3 key components:
Stakeholders need to be aligned in these three areas.
Let’s consider this business case. Jason, a software developer, has built a niche software product for small dental practices that helps them onboard and communicate with new clients. He’s gotten enough customers to hire someone part-time to help him with customer support. Now a new opportunity comes up to have his software promoted to hundreds of dentists on an industry webinar. He’s excited about the potential to have a bigger impact and grow his revenue rapidly. He’s fully committed to this venture, so his goal to bring in more partners and grow the business is aligned.
But what about other stakeholders?
Jason’s employee, Mark, is very busy giving helpful, personal service to their existing customers. Mark doesn’t want to work more than part-time, and he’s frankly terrified by the idea that dozens of new customers could be joining all at once in the next few weeks. And Mark isn’t the only stakeholder. Existing customers, the lifeblood of the business, expect a certain responsiveness that might be threatened if new customers are coming in with questions and problems.
In order to grow successfully, Jason needs to address the misalignment of Mark and existing customers, or he risks damaging his company more than he expands it.
Just like Jason, you need to understand the alignment of each stakeholder associated with your goal. In particular, the least committed stakeholder is the weakest link in the chain when it comes to achieving your goal.
You will find out how to analyze the alignment and certainly misalignment in an exercise that includes a worksheet in Lesson 1 Become a Master Strategist. And unlike other programs and advice, this course doesn’t help you solve just one business problem. It gives you the strategic thinking tools to solve any major challenge and attain your most ambitious goals -- including all the systems, groundwork, exercises, mental habits, and action steps you’ll need.
Exercise: Stakeholders and Alignment Analysis
Identify the different stakeholders associated with each business goal.
What are the components of wealth, impact, and commitment for each stakeholder?
And, most importantly, are these components in alignment?
I am Jorge De Andrade, Author of Scale Up IT, a Business Enabler Expert, Trainer. Public Speaker, Online Course Creator & CEO of GrowThe.Biz
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