Influencing Stakeholders & Managing Changes At This Time

Many business owners, entrepreneurs, directors, CEO’s etc have now got to accept the fact that drastic changes might be required to continue delivering their services or staying in business. In getting buy-in into the changes you want to make, you would need positive support from your stakeholders (i.e. customers/clients, business partners, staff etc). Getting that support will require you, to utilise your influential skills. It is safe to say that influencing others is a fundamental part of being a successful leader.

Influencing stakeholders can be difficult especially when the stakeholders have different priorities. This can often be overcome by establishing trust. When dealing with stakeholders it’s important and effective to be open and transparent. In general, people tend to be more influenced by people whom they believe are genuine. Remember, not to be robotic, most stakeholders will trust you more if you are genuine and approachable.

High-stake situations often require the need to influence. For example, a restructure or, a change in a business-critical system. In such situations getting stakeholders on board from the get-go is vital.

To be able to successfully influence your stakeholders you need to know and understand their needs, wants, and interests, then align those when attempting to influence. Doing this with an air of confidence will allow you to further build trust with your stakeholders.

How to find out your Stakeholders interests:

 The best way to find out what each stakeholder’s interests are, is by engaging with them from early on, particularly important to raise awareness of your plans.

 This can be done initially quite casually, for example, in an explanatory meeting. Remember, avoid overusing technical jargon which can at times be unattractive - natural flowing conversation will allow you to build a better rapport with the stakeholders. Which will have an impact on how they respond to you and in turn serve a purpose when you need to influence them.

Once you know what the stakeholder’s interests it is are easier to align those interests to your goals/high stake situation. Ensure you communicate those when pitching to them for stakeholders to see what they want matters and is a part of the bigger picture. 

Be Strategic when Influencing:

Start by identifying the key stakeholders for any relevant project, perhaps use a point system or a prioritization list to weigh up who will affect the outcome the most giving you a clear indication of whom to spend the most time with.

You can then plan out how best to deal with each stakeholder individually and who requires what amount of communication. Throughout, check their understanding of your plans.

This then leads to how to communicate the information to stakeholders. You will naturally have your own preferred method of presenting information but in order to influence effectively, you need to think about the person receiving the information and how best they will take it in and most importantly retain and understand it.

People who are strong influencers can find the most effective way to present and adapt to suit. Do not forget to align the stakeholder’s needs to what you are presenting in order to influence adequately.

Another way to influence is by always aiming to present something that is appealing to both sides; you as the influencer and the person you are trying to influence having a mutually beneficial outcome could make a big difference in the reaction you receive.

By being aligned to their interests, would make the influencing process a bit easier, remember to point out what you are doing helps with their desired goals too.

Resistance / The Power Play:

We all like to think our influencing skills are second to none and using the above techniques and strategies will work. However, it’s always good to have a contingency plan should you meet strong resistance.

Let us say you come across some challenges/blockers whilst trying to influence.  You may have to use what is known as a power play! How can you do this? By using your position and authority to influence and trade as currency! Sometimes, we all need to play hardball. But I’ will always use this as a last resort.

P.S. Here are a few book recommendations if you need help with your influencing skills:

• How To Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
• Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R Covey
•  The Power of Other - Dr Henry Cloud
• The small BIG. Small changes that spark big influence - Steve Martin, Noah Goldstein and Robert Cialdini

                              ---------------------------------------------