Gaining Influence and Buy-in Through Stakeholder Analysis

By Deborah R. Bernstein

When you launch an organizational change initiative, take on a team project or start a new job, it’s often very helpful to begin by conducting a formal “stakeholder analysis” -- a process that identifies people who have a vested interest in what you are going to be doing and develops strategies to win their support or minimize their opposition.

For example, a corporate marketing director looking to launch a major advertising campaign may want to make sure the chief financial officer is on board with the program before it is presented to the entire senior management team for approval.

Who are stakeholders? They may vary from project to project, but, essentially, they are members of an organization -- usually senior management -- who are in a position to approve or block a decision that will affect them. They may also be people in a position to champion an initiative to success … or derail it.

There are three steps to a successful stakeholder analysis.

First, identify the major stakeholders and assess their level of support. In a large change-management initiative, there may be as many as a dozen key stakeholders -- ranging from the chief executive officer on down -- whose opinions are important and can influence others. In smaller initiatives, there may be fewer.

Once you’ve identified your key stakeholders, go down the list and ask yourself the following questions:

* Who might want to undermine, derail or sabotage this project?
* Who can help prevent that from happening?
* Who needs to champion this initiative?
* Who can help us achieve success?
* Who can influence others?

Check off where your stakeholders are now, where you need them to be, and examine the gaps. You don’t need to have everyone’s support; sometimes, it’s enough to move a person who’s “strongly opposed” to “neutral” or even “moderately against.”

It’s rare when an entire executive team is 100% in agreement. Usually, there’s at least one dissenter; sometimes there are several. There are a variety of reasons why people may not support an initiative, including fear that the proposed change will diminish their power and the fact that they may have a different “agenda.”

Next, develop your strategy for approaching key stakeholders. After you’ve identified the people you need to influence, and the directions they need to move, map out your plan for approaching them. You can either plan your strategy alone or confidentially with a trusted colleague.

This is where I see the hugest failure of stakeholder analysis -- poor or no execution. It’s worth taking the time upfront to do the stakeholder analysis than it is to fix things later if you don’t.

It’s often helpful to do some role-playing with a colleague or an executive coach, so that you are clear in what you want to say and how you want to say it when you or your colleagues meet individually with your key stakeholders. Ask yourself, “What’s the desired outcome from this meeting? How am I going to achieve this objective?” Otherwise, when you sit down with your stakeholders, you can lose control of a critical discussion. Your conversation should be direct, but also empathetic. “I know you feel very strongly about this project, as I do. I want to understand your concerns and address them, so that we might find some common ground to agree upon.”

An executive I know used stakeholder analysis successfully with a presentation to her executive committee. The subject was controversial and she thought the senior management team was going to chew her up alive. So she figured out who her key stakeholders were, went to them individually ahead of time, and said, “I really respect your opinion …would you mind giving me some feedback on the presentation I’m going to make next week?”

The executive committee members gave this woman some excellent comments. When she made her presentation in the board room, they nodded approvingly because they had championed her and had already bought into the proposal, which incorporated their suggestions.

Finally, evaluate your approach and determine what you can do better next time. Like any process that involves other people, stakeholder analysis is subject to many variables. What works well for one person may not work with another. Review your efforts and identify steps you can take to perform better in the future. In the end, the time you invest in preparing and carrying out your stakeholder analysis will pay for itself many times over.

Deborah R. Bernstein is a member of WJM Associates’ executive coaching and organizational effectiveness faculty.

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When Strengths Become Weaknesses

By Max Lorenz, Ph.D.

I once counseled an executive who was very bright, very well educated and very successful. Only in his mid-30s, he had risen rapidly through a major business organization only to reach a plateau. In talking to some of his peers and subordinates, I discovered that this executive had developed a reputation for arrogance. He thought that he was smarter than other people and dismissed the importance of developing and nurturing relationships.

Another executive I know overdid his analytical skills to the point where he had a difficult time making decisions. Because he was so cautious, he insisted on gathering more information than was truly necessary. As a result, his obsession with the need to amass and analyze data detracted from his performance, and adversely affected his advancement.

In a third case, a woman whom many members of corporate management had identified as a “high potential” candidate derailed her career to a degree because she was reluctant to make difficult personnel decisions. Known as a “people person,” she was a natural leader with the kind of personal charisma that caused others to want to work for her. But when she had to confront a subordinate over an issue of performance, she just could not bring herself to do it. As a result, the performance of her team suffered.

While the facts of these three cases appear quite different, they all have one thing in common: the executives involved, consciously or subconsciously, turned strengths into weaknesses.

When you open the business pages of newspapers today, the headlines are filled with similar examples of well-known executives whose intelligence or management style led to their downfall. Frequently, a contributing factor is the insularity that comes with the job. As many observers have noted before, as people ascend in organizations, they become further removed from their roots. Intelligence becomes arrogance. Analysis leads to paralysis. And the need to be liked translates into avoidance of interpersonal conflict.

Sometimes even the factors responsible for the success of an entire organization can be an Achilles Heel. An executive I know recently interviewed for a senior position at an established company in the Midwest. The people he met there said to him, “We’ve been around for 85 years and we’ve been very successful …we have no plans to change.” He accepted the job, but quit after three months. They didn’t want to listen to any of his ideas.

So how can you prevent strengths from turning into weaknesses? One way is to seek the truth, however painful it might be at first. Another executive I know, who prided himself in doing a good job, was shocked to learn that people around him felt he couldn’t be trusted. That perception came from his habit of taking on too many projects, and not delegating enough of them to his staff. In an effort to ensure quality, he created the impression that he didn’t trust others enough to share tasks with them. It’s amazing what a little feedback can do.

Talk to colleagues and subordinates, or ask a professional advisor to talk to them for you. One reason 360-degree interviews are so popular in executive development programs is that their shield of anonymity invites people to open up. Some executives have gone so far as to form a “personal board of advisors” -- consisting of two or three close colleagues and friends -- from whom they solicit candid feedback on a regular basis. Psychological assessments, when integrated into hiring and developmental programs, can take the process a step further.

In the end, preventing strengths from becoming weaknesses is all about self awareness -- being honest with yourself, listening to others, and taking their comments to heart in an open and constructive manner.

Max Lorenz, based in St. Louis, is a member of WJM Associates' executive assessment and coaching faculty.

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Your Career Path to Success

Coaching High-Performance Teams

By Bill Morin
Chairman & CEO
WJM Associates

Many of the top executives we coach report that they have a problem getting their people to work together as a team. What they usually have is a leadership problem.

Once we coached an executive of a major company who was the consummate micromanager. He had his hands into everything and consequently had control of very little. His superiors criticized him for the way he was operating his function and told him that he must create a greater sense of unity among his people.

After we worked with the executive for almost a year, he developed a totally new skill set -- that of leading teams. Instead of focusing all of his efforts on the work, he spent his time developing an environment and work process that encouraged the people in his group to work together. He became the facilitator of his team, rather than a policeman of the work, and it made all the difference in his own effectiveness and the effectiveness of the people reporting to him.

The most successful companies today are those that create organizations where people act like they own the place, where they are passionate about what they do, and where they are encouraged to challenge management -- all characteristics of a team-based culture. While the benefits are manifold in terms of business results, getting there is no small feat.

Over the next few issues of this newsletter, we will focus on what you as an individual manager or supervisor can do to achieve higher levels of performance by transforming the group of people you are leading into a true team. Obviously, the more the culture of your company or organization is structured around teams, the easier it will be. Even if your company doesn't have a strong team-based culture though, there are still many things you can do to improve the performance results of your work group.

Teams are more important today than ever. Work is more complex; organizations have been flattened, which means most managers are managing many more people; and the rapid speed of change has changed all the rules and made old ways of working obsolete. Most organizations are running on a much leaner staff. Those organizations that create the synergy that comes from teams are usually in a far better competitive position.

Managers and supervisors who can engender a true sense of team among their work groups not only improve performance for their companies, but they also create an entirely different work experience for the people on their teams.

An Amazing Transformation

A few years ago I was involved in an intensive team-leadership training program for government managers. Each session brought a new group of 30 or so managers together to develop ways that they could better lead their teams. Participants attended the session with members of their management team back at work. The whole idea was for the managers of intact groups to create more of a sense of team among themselves so that they could bring the same spirit and ideas back to their work groups.

It is amazing the transformation that takes place. As one participant put it on the last day of the program, "You know, when we came here on the first night we were all a little anxious, very reserved, not knowing what to expect. Some of us didn't even know each other. And now, look at us. There is a real sense of community here. It almost feels like family."

The people in the program had worked very hard, but because they were in the right relationship with one another and they weren't working in isolation, the work was fun. They were tired, but the predominant feeling reported by most of them was a sense of camaraderie … of being connected to other people in a meaningful way.

That's the way it is with real work teams. When a group of people make the transition to team, it's almost like magic. People aren't quite sure when or how it happened; all they know is they feel very different, and work begins to take on a whole new meaning.

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WJM Offers Consulting Services in Spanish

WJM Associates’ faculty includes a number of psychologists and executive coaches who are fluent in Spanish. If your organization would like to have executive assessment, executive coaching or organizational effectiveness consulting services delivered in Spanish, either in the United States or abroad, please contact Cynthia Auman, Vice President, 212-972-7400.

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WJM Associates offers a wide range of services designed to help organizations recruit, hire and develop top performers. To learn how we can help you, visit www.wjmassoc.com or contact Vice President Cynthia Auman at 212-972-7400 or cauman@wjmassoc.com.

WJM Associates, Inc.
675 Third Avenue, Suite 1610
New York, N.Y. 10017
Phone: 212-972-7400
Fax: 212-972-0695
www.wjmassoc.com

Enhancing Executive and Organizational Effectiveness