After reading my previous post, a budding product leader pinged me, “Venkat if I have to follow your advice, I would have to start spending more than 50% of my time on stakeholder management”. This was her reaction to my last post on a framework for stakeholder management (article link in the comments).
She also asked “Why should I be setting up the alignment meetings with the stakeholders and not the other way around. Don’t the stakeholders have equal responsibilities towards managing their relationships with me?”
Her questions seemed valid.
I probed – “Tell me what comes to your mind when you hear the word stakeholder management”.
She said – “I visualize a bunch of people whom I need to update quite regularly, convince them quite often. I have to do all of these to eliminate poor quality deliverables, escalations against my team, and fire fighting”.
It’s time to think differently. I asked her to write down each of her stakeholders’ names and what all they can do/contribute to make her, her team, and her product successful. The product leader did the exercise and felt surprised at her own notes.
She said “Now, I get what you are saying. I need to stop seeing stakeholders as overheads and start seeing them as people who are required to make me, my team, and my product successful.”
I asked “Do you now agree that it is OK to spend 50% of your time on stakeholder management”
She said “Yes”
I asked, “ Is it worth your time to set up the communication channels (I meant 1:1s and small meetings) rather than expecting them to do it for you?”
She replied “Absolutely”.
Few takeaways from this conversation:
A mindset change is required – from viewing stakeholder management as a burden to adopting it as a tool to help you achieve your goals. After all, your success is dependent more on others as you grow in your career.
Though PMs are generally more adept at stakeholder management than most of the other functions in the organization, it takes a different level of skill at leadership roles.
One of the important reasons for organizational disarray is the lack of alignment with stakeholders. By aligning leaders of different teams (to your thought process/strategy/roadmap/decisions etc), you are helping your team to navigate smoothly while they have to deal with their stakeholders. The morale of your team improves significantly as they are saved from unnecessary resistance or escalations.
What other mindset shifts are required at leadership levels while handling stakeholders?
