Video: Step 2 Stakeholders
To begin Step 2, please watch the video above.
Key stakeholders are the people who can have the most impact on your success in your new role. May transitioning executives fail to think through this process or look in only one direction to find their key stakeholders. Others make the mistake of treating everyone the same and end up trying to please all of them.
Instructional Guidelines
Utilize New Job Prep Worksheet #2 in your work packet.
By working through this topic, you will identify and increase your emotional intelligence regarding the people with whom you are communicating. You can leverage this information to understand how, going forward, they can impact you and how you can impact them.
Reference the guidelines below to help you complete the worksheet.
Additional Option: Download and “play” this PowerPoint (hit “play from the start” in the “slide show” tab at the top of PowerPoint) to help you fill in Worksheet #2 on the mapping your stakeholders: Step2-Stakeholders.ppt
1. Up Stakeholders
Identify your boss and their boss
o From whom you take direction and get input
2. Across Stakeholders
Across has two parts. Start with internal peers and allies. Then add your peers, external allies, customers and suppliers.
o With whom you must collaborate
3. Down Stakeholders
Note your direct and indirect reports, as well as selected others who significantly impact you and/or you them.
o To whom you give direction and get input
4. Shadow Stakeholders
Identify board members who control or strongly influence the board even if they don’t have their own seats.
o Those influencing organizational direction
5. Former Stakeholders
Write down those who used to be in key roles, but still have influence (like the person who used to have your new job).
o With whom you should collaborate
6. Personal Stakeholders
Consider your family and mentors.
7. Hidden Stakeholders
Notice those that you might not normally consider, but who have influence. You might ask others who’s missing on your list.
o With whom you should interact with appropriately.
Action Items
This step is all about increasing your stakeholder awareness.
Action 1: Get your HR business partner and boss’s input into the stakeholder map. The odds are that you left out some people lurking in the shadows who can make a big difference to your success or lack thereof. Your HR business partner and boss will know who those people are.
Additional Reading
- Read George’s New Leader’s Playbook Articles on Forbes.com. One particularly helpful article at this stage is on how Google’s Larry Page thought about his promotion from within as well as How New Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson Must Deal With His Real Boss (Donald Trump).
- See second chapter of The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan on Leverage the Fuzzy Front End.
Next Step Preview
Now that you’ve identified your stakeholders, in Step 3 you will clarify a message that will be the foundation of all your communication efforts to the people you lead.