Here's how you can navigate common mistakes when engaging with senior stakeholders as a project manager.

From my experience, I've learnt these are some of the keys to engage senior stakeholders succesfully: 1. Understand who your stakeholder from a role, position, level of influence and interest in your Project or functional area. 2. Define your objective and work towards it. Whether it is inform your stakeholder, ask for support to remove a roadblock, or ask their engagement to complete a task. 3. Make sure your objective is clearly communicated and backed up with data. 4. It is a good practice to ask for a Peer review or advise before engaging these types of stakeholders to get feedback on your strategy.

1)Lack of Effective Communication-Failing to keep Sr. STKH informed.Have regular scheduled connects.Updates must be concise & relevant using clear,non-technical language. 2)Ignoring STKH Input-Overlooking/undervaluing their input.Seek & value their input by involving them in key decisions & discussions keeping them informed about how their input influences the project. 3)Failure to Manage Expectations-Not setting realistic expts about timelines, deliverables &risks.Set clear goals & timelines from the outset.Regularly revisit & adjust expectations. 4)Inadequate STKH Engmt- Not engaging Sr.STKH enough.Build strong relations by involving them early & often.Use formal & informal connects to build rapport & trust.Tailor as per STKH’s prefs.

Building and strengthening relationships with relevant stakeholders makes securing approvals and a buy in in your project much easier. I have also observed that good relationship management of key stakeholders makes eases the process and gets you the support you need to excel

It’s also important to illicit and distinguish between what the senior stakeholders want and what they actually need. This will focus the project on the right outcomes and help with benefits realisation monitoring.

Always meet in advance to present options/recommendations with each stakeholder individually. Get their buy-in and understand their objections so you can address them before you bring everyone together. You never want to be surprised by a leader/stakeholder’s objection in a room full of stakeholders. And send materials in advance with the expectation of pre-read so you don’t spend everyone’s time reading a deck.

Offer succint appraisals of options considered, but always have at the ready the detail, should stakeholders wish to delve deeper into the methodology/assumptions.

When closing a project (or finishing a phase of a project) do the lessons learnt bit. And do it with your senior stakeholders. Too often this bit is skipped, as the project has finished, and people have moved on to the next challenge. However, reflecting on what went well and what could have been done differently is key to ensure organisational resilience in the face of change.