Communication. There is so much written and less used from this fundamental skill’s principles. In today’s complex environment, communication has become a crucial skill for people in the structure. There are no more events when everyone can stay quiet and execute what they are expected to after making the decision. With the rising need for people to voice their concerns, proposals, ideas, feelings, and vision, communication has become an emerging skill that people need to learn, no matter the size of the company or the group they are part of.
With the emerging need for better communication, styles, and needs, it has also differentiated into specific groups with distant understandings and expectations. Communication is leveling up, depending on the group’s status, format, content, longevity and scope of the process, expected final results, etc. Undoubtedly, what was just a prerequisite for some of the client-centric roles in the past has become a driving force for moving the workplace as a whole.
The grouping of communication subjects has turned the basic communication process into a flexible approach with different levels and specifics. While your friends at work may require informal communication, your team members, especially those you feel more distant from, may need a different approach, phrases, and structure of individual communication models.
In today’s organizations, communication is crucial to finding support, generating resources, and getting the work done. In most cases, it is direct and sometimes even harsh, but in others, it may be delicate and indirect to allow everyone in the room to feel appreciated and still get the job done.
The project approach to work has evolved over the last two decades and includes a communication agenda as a crucial element for achieving results. With the variety of groups in the organization, adapting styles and fine-tuning approaches have become the winning blocks for every task or project.
After going through the different organizational layers and adapting what should be adapted to minimize discrepancies, many people still miss the right tone with the organization’s most significant group of people – the so-called allowers, enablers, or said – stakeholders.
Stakeholders are an essential part of a company’s life. They are there to allow and support initiatives. At the same time, they are there to stop what they think is incorrect or worth the effort to balance the results and find the following winning approach to moving the organization forward.
To communicate with this group, people often prepare in advance, and still, most enter such type of conversation with some fear and insecurity about what will or can happen as an output. Here are four steps that work for me and the people I am advising on how to work with stakeholders
Don’t make it a surprise.
Your stakeholders are busy people. They need more time to go into detail when making decisions. Those with the most information in advance step on the winning foot. So, why is it from the loser’s side? I needed help to think of going to a stakeholder and asking for their time to ask about something they needed to learn. If that happened in the past, then I would feel frustrated. It is the same with people I have educated through the years in this practice. The more information the stakeholder has in advance about the question or the situation you plan to discuss with them, the easier and faster the decision will be. So, be generous when sharing information before you ask for a final decision or confirmation. It may save time and the situation from going into rejection mode.
Bring real proof
Now, I often see that someone goes to a stakeholder with the understanding that they will agree on everything. However, your stakeholders hold their roles not because they agree on everything but because they perform critical analyses and make decisions. After all, decisions bring responsibility with them, and no one likes to take the blame for a decision that may not make sense. The proof is a piece of evidence taken from real life that makes your statement stronger. In some cases, it may be a piece of information. For example, like in other cases, it may be market analysis data, research in the area, etc. What proof the person will bring to light depends on the solution the seeker is searching for. It is essential to keep information private for later but to share it directly to enlighten the decision-making process and not allow significant moves from the comfort zone of the stakeholder.
Come in with an opinion. Do not expect one.
Many people come to the stakeholder for a solution rather than allowance and support. While this may work for blue collars in the companies, what often happens is that white collars need to be prepared and ready to explain how they see an action agenda toward what they brought to the stakeholders. No matter the issues, their complexity, and possible impact, the stakeholders expect to hear your potential solution. They may correct it, disagree, or give you a direct allowance and support, but the crucial element here is still where the opinion comes from – them or you. The more you focus on preparing your opinion, the better your expertise will be seen by the stakeholders. It may not be perfect, but it still shows your readiness to act and your commitment to what has risen as a challenge.
Be prepared to explain the costs of not changing the course.
Stakeholders love numbers. Whether the numbers describe a positive or negative move, they expect to see it. In some situations, the individual may not need to provide them directly, but in others, they may be crucial for making the final decision. So, visiting a stakeholder needs to be supported by preparing yourself to explain what may happen if the course doesn’t change and what may lead. People are somehow attracted to destruction. And it is the same with your stakeholders. They may need that destroying element from you to internally motivate themselves to engage with the case you bring. A detailed preparation of how not doing or doing something in the current way without changing it may be crucial for the final decision of the stakeholder. The explanation must be robust. You may need to prepare for a more significant part of the organization to achieve that. For example, if there is a direct problem in the customer service department, explain how it may cause trouble in the department. The presenter should also focus on how this internal disturbance may lead to disturbance with clients, other departments, department and organization results, etc. The more comprehensive the explanation is, the more impactful it stays on the head of the stakeholder.
IN CONCLUSION:
What makes or breaks a solution for the better of the organization is often not a question of authority and leadership level but a matter of good preparation and confidence in what we want to achieve. People usually walk “disengaged” from meetings with stakeholders, not realizing that the only reason they have failed to get support lies in them. The better a person understands how stakeholders’ minds work, the more successful they will be in their initiatives.
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