Difficult stakeholders in a project environment are not a rarity but a reality. In fact, the only time you may not face a challenging stakeholder is when the project comprises only yourself. You could argue that even internally you may have a devil’s advocate somewhere giving a hard time too. So, the reality is stakeholders can pose varying levels of difficulty in achieving a common goal. As the size of the project and impacted business areas grow, the opportunity for challenges in stakeholder management grows with it.
How many times have we done some introspection into what made some stakeholders difficult, how did we manage them, did we get the desired outcomes, given the opportunity would we have done things a bit differently in managing them? This article intends to touch on those aspects of stakeholder management.
Firstly, let’s acknowledge difficult stakeholders are difficult for a reason. There are a variety of reasons why a stakeholder may not be playing ball with you. As a professional working in a dynamic project environment, we must invest time in understanding the reasoning behind the difficulty. It could range anywhere from the likes of:
- Bad past experiences in similar projects.
- Not on board with the proposed benefits.
- Disagrees with the priority of the initiative.
- Feels insecure due to changes brought about by the project outcomes.
- Change fatigue.
- Time-poor with many competing priorities.
- Not adequately resourced to juggle project and non-project work.
- Organisation changes (leadership, team structures).
- Key non-work-related factors: personal life situations, health etc.
and the list goes on.
So, how can we manage these challenges and get to work productively with these stakeholders? Well, the truth is, there is no magic wand, however, there are several structured approaches that can be used to deal with difficult stakeholders.
Before we describe the approaches to deal with the difficulties, here are some typical red flags when a stakeholder is on course to becoming a challenge. The stakeholder:
- Does not share the same sense of importance or urgency of the work.
- Exhibits obvious lack of communication.
- Does not follow through with the actions they agreed on without multiple follow-ups.
- Engages in frequent reshuffling of their resources on the project.
- Is generally negative or unhappy when they share their views.
- Influences other stakeholders to develop disinterest in the work.
All of these are clear warning signs that you are or soon will be dealing with difficult stakeholders in the project.
Our recommended approaches for dealing with difficult stakeholders are:
Keep an open mindset
A primary approach to dealing with challenging situations is to embrace the mindset that difficult stakeholders are difficult only in the context of the work they have been asked to participate in. That is, they are not difficult individuals. This mindset should help reduce negative emotions regarding the stakeholder, allowing you to focus on the problem and not the person. Sometimes it may be hard not to take things personally and keep emotions in check. However, by keeping an objective focus on the issue rather than the person, negative emotions can be removed, and the issue can be managed more effectively.
Listen & understand
With that open mindset, invest time to identify the valid reason(s) behind the stakeholder’s behaviour. For this, allocate time with the stakeholder to provide them with opportunities to express their views, negativity, feedback, suggestions etc. This dedicated time allows you to understand their viewpoint and see the world from their perspective, empathise with them where necessary and build a relationship, all at once. When planning a one-on-one catch-up to discuss these matters, it is best to seek the stakeholder’s preference on the type of engagement that will work for them. Examples include – face-to-face, virtual, in-office setting, non-office setting (e.g. café) etc. to make them as comfortable as they can be to open up and provide their true views.
The ultimate objective is to ensure the stakeholder understands that you are there to help them in addressing whatever difficulty they are facing in achieving the common goal. Sometimes people just need to feel heard and seen.
Help raise real issues
With the relationship-building process underway, apply an analytical lens to sieve through all items unearthed in the discussions to identify the real and valid issues that the stakeholder is encountering that you can try to assist with. These are the issues to bat for, get them raised and sorted out, if possible, for the stakeholder. Yes, in its true sense, this activity may not always fall into the remit of a project professional, however, it is a crucial step to express how genuine you are in resolving their difficulty. When the stakeholder knows you are on their side and taking action to raise and/or sort out their issue, there is trust in the relationship which is a core ingredient of effective stakeholder management.
Be genuine, honest and nice
Patience and perseverance are two must-have qualities to address and resolve difficulties in stakeholder management. Being patient, nice and respectful goes a long way to diffuse any difficult situation and helps build the relationship. Importantly, there is only a thin line between being nice and being taken advantage of, therefore, while being genuine and honest, you may also have to be assertive (not rude!) when required to bring the stakeholder back to the issue if they lose focus on it.
Communication
Communication is key and often it determines the effectiveness of a relationship. Stakeholders in a project environment especially those posing challenges need to be constantly involved in the communication of issues identified, the resolution provided, the status of progress, options available to address a problem etc. Even if the reality of the situation does not alleviate the difficulty they may be facing, good communication ensures the stakeholder that they are part of the team and their issues have been heard, assessed and worked on as necessary.
Support pathway
Sometimes, none of these approaches may work and the stakeholder does not respond to the genuine effort being invested in them, to offer their cooperation. Yes, it does happen! After all, one who is willing to invest their time and effort on stakeholders is human too and there is only so much they can manage and resolve by themselves within given circumstances. At this point utilise the support channels and escalation mechanisms available to deal with such special situations. This support channel structure needs to be discussed and agreed at the project initiation phase and more importantly, it must be utilised only as necessary and not to be used as the go-to approach for every instance of difficulty.
Bringing it all together
Stakeholders are difficult for a reason. Described above are a handful of key approaches that can deliver better outcomes in managing difficult stakeholders.
Why should a project professional consider all this?
Addressing the difficulties in stakeholder management has a direct bearing on the success of the project, and a successful project is the key outcome we aim for.
