My Simple Approach to Project Stakeholder Management

I think we can all agree that, in life, there are always difficult personalities, demanding clients, ignorant bosses, arrogant experts, introverts, extroverts, and even plain jerks.

Even if someone is great at their job, they may have a different vision of the project and project management. They may have personal problems, or simply be overwhelmed.

Rarely, but still possible, you might even encounter people who are aggressively against you or your project.

This is why stakeholder management is the most challenging part of project management: Stakeholders are human beings.

And there’s no hiding from difficult stakeholders: You need to manage everyone.

As a project manager, you need to meet your objectives. You want to do everything to the best of your knowledge and skills to finish the project successfully. Your motivation is clear. However, not all stakeholders have the same vested interest.

When I was a novice, I thought all the stakeholders except the project owners were supportive, and willing or obliged to work with me to meet the project’s needs.

We work in the same company, after all, and a successful finish of a project is surely a common goal? Though this was pretty naive, it worked to some extent because there are still many good people in the world.

With experience came a different understanding. You can easily manage stakeholders if you tie their personal goals with their work on your project.

For example, you help your team members to build their careers or get salary raises. Or you give them freedom and responsibility.

As a result, they are motivated to work on the project because they see how their efforts will benefit them directly.

Likewise, you may help a department manager to highlight her contribution to an important project. So, you'll play along. In return, she'll help you push through some crucial decisions for your project with the executive board.

Helping stakeholders to achieve their goals benefits the project most of the time.

Yes, there will be people who will take advantage of you. But, if your project benefits from this too, then it’s a win-win.

That's why ad hoc stakeholder management doesn't work. Your engagement needs to be consistent and predictable, not episodic.

You need to approach stakeholders strategically and with a healthy dose of cynicism.

You need to have a plan to encourage (through leadership and motivation) a stakeholder to behave in the manner you need. Ideally, you also want to help them achieve their own personal goals.

Likewise, stakeholder management is not a one-off process at the start of the project; you need to carry it through until the end. And don’t forget, stakeholders and their objectives may change.

By the way, if you haven't got my stakeholder management plan template yet, it's a great starting point for any project.

Get the template now.

Here's the most common stakeholder management question I get:

"Are your team members stakeholders?"

Here's the catch. Some team members are stakeholders. Some of them are not.

If a person has a critical impact on project success, then they are a stakeholder.

But what does it mean in practice?

For the majority of your team, you'll use "group" motivation techniques. You'll focus on general guidelines for rewards and recognition.

For a team member who is a stakeholder, you'll develop a personalized engagement plan in addition to the above.

It means you'll have to arrange some unique benefits and rewards that don't follow the regular performance review process.

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