Stakeholder Management

A stakeholder is anyone who can affect, be affected by or perceive themselves to be affected by a project. That includes the obvious — sponsor, team, customers — and the easily forgotten: finance, legal, security, unions, regulators, the help desk that will field calls after launch.

Step 1: Identify

Brainstorm with the team and sponsor. Useful prompts: Who funds it? Who approves it? Who uses the output? Whose job changes? Who could block it? Who supplies inputs? Who will support it afterwards? Capture each in a stakeholder register with name, role, organisation and contact preferences.

Step 2: Analyse

The most common tool is the power/interest grid:

• High power, high interest — manage closely.
• High power, low interest — keep satisfied.
• Low power, high interest — keep informed.
• Low power, low interest — monitor.

Plot your stakeholders with the free stakeholder map. Other lenses include influence/impact, salience (power, legitimacy, urgency) and attitude (supporter, neutral, resistor).

Step 3: Assess engagement

For each key stakeholder, compare current engagement with the engagement you need: unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive or leading. The gaps tell you where to spend effort.

Step 4: Plan communication

Download a communication plan template.

Step 5: Engage and monitor

• Listen first. Resistance usually has a reason — a real risk, a loss of status or a past bad experience.
• Involve early. People support what they help create.
• No surprises. Deliver bad news early and in person, with options.
• Re-map at each phase. Power and interest shift as the project moves.

Handling a difficult stakeholder

1. Meet one-to-one and ask what success looks like for them.
2. Find the underlying interest behind their stated position.
3. Look for a change that addresses it without compromising objectives.
4. If you cannot resolve it, escalate transparently through the sponsor — never around the person.