I see stakeholders everywhere. Often they don’t know they are stakeholders. More often, YOU don’t know they are stakeholders. That could be a problem.
The Coach’s Recommendation: Before any change, you MUST identify your stakeholders; analyze the impact of your change; and manage your stakeholders’ expectations. Result: increased chance of success; reduced chance of being blind-sided or sabotaged.
When to consider stakeholders
- – when you hire an executive coach to make a change to your performance / impact;
- – when you hire a coach to help you improve on a personal level (work / harmony; etc);
- – at the start of a new project (home or work);
- – when you decide to make a change to how things are currently done (home / work).
When do you consider your stakeholders? Pretty much with anything that involves change and other people. But wait. It’s not just change that involves other people – it’s all change. Why? Because if you are changing yourself, those who interact with you will be impacted – like it or not.
How to identify stakeholders
It’s easy to identify those that are directly involved or impacted. For example if you are engaging an executive coach to work with you on your communication style at work, of course those you interact with at the office are impacted. But what about your family? If you are changing a behavior at work, you will be changing in other arenas as well.
Make sure to expand your usual circle of influence when identifying the stakeholders.
What’s next?
For simple changes, you can go through identifying and assessing the impact by simply asking yourself a few questions:
- – what is the change?
- – who are the stakeholders?
- – what are their expectations?
- – how can I manage their expectations?
For complex change, you’ll need a more involved plan for assessing and managing expectations. I’ve developed a tool I use in such situations. The tool’s objectives:
- – Identify & Understand All Roles We Play
- – Identify All Known Stakeholders
- – Examine Expectations of Self and Others
- – Recognize Potential Impact of the Change
- – Manage Expectations Throughout
If you don’t already have a copy of the “Switching Lenses – Altering Perspectives” tool – contact me!
Isn’t it better to know your stakeholders and get their support at the start? Rather than spend extra time managing the damage afterwards?
