Best Practices (Part 4 of 6): Influencing Project Stakeholders
This is the fourth in a series of six articles to discuss Best Practices in Project Stakeholder Management, using the I-C-E cube model:
- Identify
- Classify
- Expectations
- Influence
- Communicate
- Evaluate
4. INFLUENCE
Some stakeholders are very powerful people, but YOU know more about the project than anyone else. There will inevitably be some stakeholder requirements that can’t be met within the bounds of your project so it’s important to explain why, and be honest up-front.
What can stakeholders do?
- Always find fault with deliverables
- Not provide feedback on interim deliverables and milestones
- Delay the approval process
- Not provide any direction
- Steal your team members
- Undermine your authority with politics
- Make a case against the project in public
- Start a competing project
People will resist change. The best way to influence them to support your project is to educate them about the benefits of the product and the project. Reframe to the stakeholder’s perspective and ask “What’s in it for me?”
Understand where your influence comes from. Here are the typical power bases for project managers:
- Formal
- Reward
- Punitive
- Expert
- Referent
The most important thing you can do is to build rapport by making people feel important, knowing what they expect, and keeping them informed. Every person involved in a project is important to its success. A great way to gain commitment is to help them see the importance of what they are doing.
- Keep people informed. No one likes surprises. Tell them what they need to know, when they need it. Remind team members about issues that are coming up and notify them if any plans change.
- Know what stakeholders expect. The more you understand stakeholder’s needs, the better equipped you will be to meet their expectations.
- Inform them about what requirements will be met, and what requirements will not be met, and the reasons why.
- Involve them in the creation of lessons-learned.
- Be honest, and follow the code of professional conduct.