How to build solid stakeholder engagement

Knowing your Stakeholders isn’t just enough, here are the steps to manage and build trust and relationships. More importantly how to build a solid stakeholder engagement.

Before we get started, let’s learn the basics!

What is a Stakeholder?

“A stakeholder has a vested interest in a company and can either affect or be affected by a business operations and performance.”

Depending on the business you manage, typically stakeholders are investors, employees, customers, suppliers, communities, governments, or trade associations.

What is Stakeholder management?

Stakeholder management is a critical component to the successful delivery of any project, programme or activity. A stakeholder is any individual, group or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a programme.

Stakeholder management comprises four steps:

1. Identify, recognize and acknowledge stakeholders;
2. Determine their influence and interest;
3. Establish communication management plan
4. Influencing and engaging stakeholders

Based on the PMI – Figure 13-1. Project stakeholder Management Overview

While you manage a business or a project, you need to involve or work with several stakeholders directly or indirectly

Some stakeholders may have complete control while others may have no or less control but still may put pressure on you and your projects delivery. Managing them is critical as they may create a negative influence on your project leading to failure or repeat work

Here are tips to manage and build strong sustainable stakeholders’ relationship:

1. Prioritize and understand your stakeholders
2. Know and identify all your stakeholders – Internal vs External
3. Stakeholder Engagement Assessment matrix – this tool provides you with an understanding of your stakeholders, roles they play and the power/interest they hold. Stakeholder analysis
4. Establish Objectives
5. share your vision with your respective stakeholders,
6. be open and honest with what you can achieve
7. call out the challenges and plans to overcome them
8. Align your strategy
9. share your project plans and how you are going to meet the set objectives
10. Executing your strategies
11. share detailed plans on how you will execute the project towards completion and share the people who will work towards these activities be it the Team Leaders, SME’s etc. This will build confidence in your stakeholders
12. Effective communication
13. Set up clear governance model
14. share the health and hygiene of your project based on the agreed timelines
15. share newsletters or performance status reports based on the communication plan
16. Request feedback
17. ask for suggestions to improve or seek advice – this will keep them highly engaged

Important tools:

Here are the different types of stakeholders you need to deal with and the engagement strategy mentioned in the 13.1.2.3 DATA ANALYSIS PMBOK guide

• Stakeholder analysis. Stakeholder analysis results in a list of stakeholders and relevant information such as their positions in the organization, roles on the project, “stakes,” expectations, attitudes (their levels of support for the project), and their interest in information about the project. Stakeholders’ stakes can include but are not limited to a combination of:
  • Interest. A person or group can be affected by a decision related to the project or its outcomes.
    un-Rights (legal or moral rights). Legal rights, such as occupational health and safety, may be defined in the legislative framework of a country. Moral rights may involve concepts of protection of historical sites or environmental sustainability.
  • Ownership. A person or group has a legal title to an asset or a property.
  • Knowledge. Specialist knowledge, which can benefit the project through more effective delivery of project objectives, organizational outcomes, or knowledge of the power structures of the organization.
    un Contribution. Provision of funds or other resources, including human resources, or providing support for the project in more intangible ways, such as advocacy in the form of promoting the objectives of the project or acting as a buffer between the project and the power structures of the organization and its politics.

Below Stakeholder analysis helps to understand the stakeholder environment and how to prioritize them – Stakeholder management

Required Soft Skills – Leadership, Communication & Collaboration, Teamwork, Problem Solving, Flexible, ethical, problem solving, Motivational

For SME’s/team leaders who are aspiring to become a PMP or an existing manager facing hurdles, my personal recommendation is to study for PMP Certification. This course provides you the foundation on

• People – soft skills required to run the projects smoothly
• Process – technical aspects
• Business environment – connection between projects and organizational strategy

Personally, this course helped me to improve my operations and my understanding of the above foundations better.

Conclusion

All stakeholders play an important role during the lifecycle of your project. Engaging and managing them appropriately is vital for your project success.

What challenges did you have to go through while managing and dealing with your stakeholders? please share your thoughts below