Stakeholder Analysis & Your Career Success

Stakeholder Analysis & Defining your Career Success

 Quite often when I’m working with corporate clients it is useful to understand the internal structures of the business, comprehend where my clients fit into the wider scheme of things, and see what kind of organization people are working within. Quite often clients complain that they are being asked to do things for apparently no reason, or that their work goes unnoticed in the grander scheme of things. In this sense it is really useful to understand why that might be happening before a greater sense of discontent creeps in. In which case I would suggest a Stakeholder Analysis.

Very often clients don’t even really understand the business structures themselves and as an Organisational Design specialist I see it as essential to look at your overall Stakeholder awareness. This can be an enlightening experience.

1.       Start by putting a name to the following people:

·       Your Peers;

·       Your Manager;

·       Your Manager’s Manager;

·       Your top 3 internal customers;

·       Your top 3 external customers;

·       Your subordinates;

·       Your Head of Department/ Department Director;

·       Your CEO

·       The Chairman & 2 other board members;

·       The person who currently sits in the position you want next.

2.       Now can you draw out the structure in boxes with lines connecting people who report directly to one another (a hard line for direct reporting lines and a dotted line for indirect reporting lines). This will look a bit like this:

Example Organisation Chart only

 3.       You can use a Power/ Interest Identification Model to help you to prioritise your stakeholders – this looks something like this:

The position that you allocate to a stakeholder on the grid shows you the actions you need to take with them:

 High power, highly interested people (Manage Closely): you must fully engage these people and make the greatest efforts to satisfy them.

High power, less interested people (Keep Satisfied): put enough work in with these people to keep them satisfied, but not so much that they become bored with your message.

Low power, highly interested people (Keep Informed): adequately inform these people and talk to them to ensure that no major issues are arising. People in this category can often be extremely helpful with the detail of your project.

Low power, less interested people (Monitor): again, monitor these people, but don’t bore them with excessive communication.

 4.       Now let’s do a bit of benchmarking – who are the following people:

·       Your counterparts in other parts of your company;

·       People you admire in the company and would like to be mentored by;

·       The people making decisions about your career;

·       Who are the people doing your job in other similar companies?

·       Who are the people doing the job you want in other similar companies?

5.       Connect with essential people internally and externally to start to better understand the roles they undertake on a daily basis

6.       Now this exercise is going to take you a while. Think about each person on each rung of the ladder and try to answer the following questions:

·       What issues or areas of concern can I help to alleviate for this person?

·       What work can I take off their desks?

·       What information, support or guidance can I offer to this person?

·       In what other ways can I offer support to this person?

7.       More generally now answer the following questions:

·       What issues or areas of concern do I have that somebody can help me with? Who?

·       What issues or areas of concern do I anticipate having in the future that somebody can help me with? Who?

·       What information, advice or guidance would make my current job easier and/or my future in the company clearer? Who can offer this?

·       Whose actions don’t I understand and would benefit from hearing more about?

·       What future decisions or policy making would I benefit from knowing in advance and who can give me this insight?

Understanding your key stakeholders can be essential in ensuring that they are on board with your projects from the beginning as they can either support them or block them. The better you understand the landscape in which you work, the more you comprehend everyone else’s role in the company – the more likely you are to succeed.

If you would like some more information – Mind Tools have an excellent breakdown of Stakeholder Analysis here.