Stakeholders tend to prefer concise summaries of the company or project’s advance. Keep meetings to the point and focus on progress and value. These people do not have time to sit in long meetings, so reporting to them regularly, in short intervals, works best (in keeping them interested). Do not go into details with them: it could frustrate them, and it does not bode well for you, either.
Changing orders can easily change a project’s aim into something else. This is even more reason to keep stakeholders’ focus on the objective of the project. This is extremely important for the success of the project.
Here’s how to have a healthy relationship with your stakeholders. A relationship built on trust and honesty.
- Distinguish stakeholders: A project manager can begin a relationship with the stakeholders by pinpointing the key stakeholders. Admit the importance of communication with different levels of contributors. Identify the stakeholder groups, their requirements, and what roles they play. For example, some stakeholders want to be kept informed of progress. There are others still who can influence the results of the project.
- Determine desired outcomes: Figure out what the project’s goals will be before initiating the project. Have meetings with stakeholders that answer their questions and help your project as well.
- Arrange meetings: Schedule meetings with shareholders in short intervals so that you can inform them of the progress and value of the project. It would be best if you had a clear picture of what you need. If the project needs modification, you should also know how changing the project will help achieve the goals set out earlier. It’s important to have a clear picture of what you need to accomplish before you start.
- Adjust expectations: You should have the ability to modify expectations when the need for modifications arises and enter them in the issues log and the change log.
- Share information with stakeholders: Discuss all issues and changes in a transparent manner. You establish trust by doing so. Good communication is crucial to sharing your vision with everyone involved in the project. Give the big picture and insert timelines and key milestones.
- Listen to participants: This communication skill is extremely important. Analyze the feedback they are providing, and make sure that you understand the different perspectives, suggestions, and concerns. Stakeholders must feel that they are being heard, as this goes a long way towards establishing trust.
- Provide solutions: Rather than insisting on a single solution to an issue, offer a compromise or several positive outcomes. Providing the participants with symbiotic choices is a powerful strategy.
- Make realistic promises and keep them: Do not promise them the moon and the stars. Keep your promises realistic otherwise, you will set up the project for failure. If changes are needed, let the stakeholders know. Keep your promises.
- Use the stakeholder’s favorite method of communication. By using the most preferred method of communication, you guarantee that the stakeholder remains happy in communicating with you. If you mistakenly employ the wrong method, it will lead to the stakeholders having little confidence in you as it will show you did not consider their likes or dislikes.
- Classify the level of communication for each stakeholder. Pinpoint stakeholders who require a lot of assurance and who demand on receiving all the details. Find out which stakeholder is satisfied with a basic occasional overview and who requires daily or weekly communication.
- The fashion in which the project attains its goals is extremely important, not just adhering to required specifications. Stakeholders will recollect how the goal was achieved. Their measure of success is not just the finished product but how it was attained.
Summary
Having a good relationship with the stakeholders of the company is crucial for the project to succeed. How this can be attained is simple: be transparent and open to other perspectives.
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