Project managers looking to solidify their skills generally focus on the more big-ticket items that can grow their career, such as PMP training and certification. However, it is vital to also emphasise one’s improvement on the key aspects that make up this discipline, chief among them being stakeholder management.
Despite its critical role, stakeholder management can often get overlooked or not get enough of the attention it deserves as other factors take higher priority. This generally results in a bevy of pitfalls that can snowball into a bigger problem, namely budget overruns, missed deadlines, mistaken assumptions, frustrated team members, and more. Hence, we explore what stakeholder management is all about and why enhancing it is paramount to the success of any project.
Understanding Stakeholder Management
Stakeholder management is the practice of balancing the interests of and communicating with stakeholders to avoid conflict and effectively improve the organisation’s project. Additionally, it ensures that interested parties feel more positive and content with their involvement in the company. Some examples of common stakeholders include investors, executives, team members, suppliers, customers, and local communities.
These stakeholders are categorised as either internal or external shareholders. Both get affected by an organisation’s success or project outcomes, with the only difference being that internal stakeholders are directly involved with day-to-day operations while external ones are not. Determining their unique role, interests, and goals puts project managers in a better position to meet their needs.
Why Having A Stakeholder Management Plan is Crucial
Coming up with a plan is an essential aspect of stakeholder management, and it entails outlining the protocols and procedures to follow within the organisation when interacting with all kinds of stakeholders. It may cover instructions and best practices on communicating with interested parties, prioritising their interests, and analysing their needs. Furthermore, a stakeholder plan should also explore strategic methods on how to effectively engage stakeholders with the goal of forging stronger relationships and gaining more of their trust.
The main steps that are generally involved in creating such a plan include pinpointing the interested parties, conducting stakeholder analysis, prioritising all relevant stakeholders, delegating the organisation’s key tasks, and monitoring progress. Through this identification and analysis of stakeholders, project managers can more easily know where their energy and resources should be focused.
A Quick Overview of Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder analysis is an ongoing process where you identify stakeholders, their needs, interests, and role in regards to how they may affect your project or organisation. This endeavour is the key that lets you assess and balance their needs with that of the project and business. When conducting the analysis, you can also evaluate how different project outcomes could affect those interested parties and the many ways to address their interests properly. In short, performing a stakeholder analysis helps determine:
● The priority level of the organisation’s various stakeholders
● Their unique needs and interests and how they may change over the course of the project
● A plan to satisfy said needs and interests and manage expectations
● How to communicate with and sustain a relationship with stakeholders during the project
● How to develop products and services that align with stakeholder interests.
The Advantages of Effectively Managing Stakeholders
Project management online training in Singapore undoubtedly touches on stakeholder management, but getting additional training focused solely on it is the best way to truly learn how to effectively oversee their needs and involvement. When done well, stakeholder management leads to invaluable benefits such as:
1. Increased project risk management
All projects face numerous risks throughout their lifetime, and the higher the stakes involved, the greater the importance of knowing what all those risks are, preferably from the outset. Unfortunately, this is hardly ever possible since some risks only become apparent as the project progresses. Achieving a complete ‘risk picture’ is only possible by working closely with stakeholders not just from the very beginning but also on an ongoing basis.
2. Improved stakeholder expectation management
Every stakeholder holds expectations for the project or company–based on unfounded assumptions, rumours, or the plain old truth–which can bring potential risks to the project if they are not managed well. Thus, taking time to become familiar with stakeholders and verifying their understanding of the project is vital to developing a solid engagement strategy and, ultimately, managing their expectations.
3. Greater communication and stakeholder satisfaction
It is impossible to satisfy all of a project’s stakeholders, but through early dialogue and consistent communication, it becomes easy to foster and maintain a relationship of trust. The goodwill built through these efforts goes a long way, especially when the project comes across difficulties, and you need to ask stakeholders to be more flexible or patient than initially planned.
Conclusion
The key to success in the modern world of business lies not only in delivering exceptional products and services but also in effectively mobilising the stakeholders involved in creating said offerings. Stakeholder engagement thus shines as a worthwhile strategy that has become the cornerstone to success and is guaranteed to pay dividends over time in the way of improving corporate reputation, stimulating internal innovations, and fostering customer loyalty.
Get started with professional training covering essential disciplines like stakeholder management at BridgingMinds today. With a glowing record of 28,000+ satisfied students certified through our many programs, we guarantee you’ll receive nothing less than quality instruction that is worth every dime.
