Too many stakeholders on a project

In most of the projects project manager will have many number of stakeholders who need to be involved and satisfied with the outcome of the project.?When we are sailing through rough sea how to weather the storm (deal with difficult situations) without being damaged or harmed too much.

Too many stakeholders join the meetings and try peddle their urgent items get your buy-in. Some of them may not be listening at all, they bring up the point again that was already discussed because they haven't paid attention or joined meeting late, key aspects discussions would be drowned by dominant speakers.

A project manager role is to set direction for the project, not doing what your stakeholders tell to do, he is not a short order chef.

How should project manage handle :

• Project manager has to focus on what is important, if he spreads himself thin then he would get defeated on all fronts.
• Do conduct purposeful stakeholders analysis i.e., identify who are key for project; talk to them individually, find out their constraints / most important project needs , work out hem first all others next.
• project managers must be thoughtful , if I have to be strait forward must be cunning, understand each stakeholder so that you can manipulate for benefit of project in positioning each stakeholder, plan natural win wins for each stakeholder without compromising on overall project deliverables.
• See people who they are , their expertise , we must accept that everyone has their own agenda, their career aspiration, their position in the company, the soon you identify it you get to know how to manage.
• Focus on ways to build genuine trust. Involve key stake holders in decision making.
• Revisit your way of approach redesign if needed.