We are constantly increasing our knowledge in the pursuit of practical things which people can do to help them to become more influential. We are always learning, just as you can always be learning about the critical skill of influence. We want to share our learning with you.

In this article, Colin Gautrey explores a simple approach to become more proactive in stakeholder management.

Getting Started with Strategic Stakeholder Management

The use of this approach to managing your stakeholders provides a simple and effective means of taking action to further your goals. It involves becoming specific about what you want to achieve — your influencing goal. This leads to the question, "whom do I need to influence?" From there, you can start to plot these people on the grid, and then the fun begins.

Get Specific. The more specific you can be, the faster you will make progress. Start by writing down your statement of intent — your influencing goal. This is often easier said than done, but the effort is well worth it. For example, perhaps you need to get more resources for your project. This is not a very specific statement and better examples could be …

My project will have 20 people working full time by the end of May.
Shryesh will sign off a budget of $2M at the next steering committee meeting.

I'm sure you can come up with others along these lines. But notice that with both of these examples we have clear evidence that you have been successful. They also lead you to think more about who needs to be influenced to gain that success.

Whom to Influence? Once you've settled on your goal, now start to think broadly about who can have an impact on your success. Let's work on the Shryesh example to illustrate the process.

The most obvious person to influence is Shryesh, since you want him to sign off the budget. Who else may be able to influence Shryesh? Perhaps his boss may have an influence. Or what about the other people who sit on the steering committee? It's likely that it will be a group decision; and even if Shryesh is against the budget, he may yield to pressure from his colleagues on the committee. Indeed, they may be able to persuade him more effectively than you because they will likely have a different relationship with him.

Also, whom does he rely upon when making his decisions? Perhaps you can identify one of his team members who he always gets to do the detailed analysis and advise him on what's prudent. Yet another aspect to think about, is what other projects are competing for that budget? If one of your colleagues wants the money she will probably be also trying to influence Shryesh.

If you think about it carefully, you'll soon come up with lots of names which can then be plotted onto the map.

Plotting Your Map. With your list of names, try to think of those who will have the greatest potential impact on your success or failure at reaching your goal. These are the ones to concentrate on (click on the map on the right for a larger version).

For each, think about the level of agreement they have with you. If the evidence is that they are in agreement that Shryesh should sign off the budget, they would be placed in the top half of the grid. The stronger the evidence, the higher they go. If evidence exists that they do not agree, they should be entered into the bottom half. The centre line indicates a neutral or unknown position.

On the trust dimension, consider your relationship with each individual. Is it a trusting relationship? This is not just about do you trust them, but also do they trust you? This can become a complex area of consideration and warrants an article of its own; but for now, take a view on the extent to which there is trust between you. The centre line is neither trust nor distrust, to the left is distrust and the right is trust. Remember, this is not a precision tool, but a handy stimulus to action!

Often, particularly with people you do not know very well, you'll find that you cannot place them on either dimension — which is why we added the circle in the middle for the enigmas. If you've got an enigma who has a big potential impact on your success, get to know them fast!

Perhaps the most important point to learn is that in my experience you need to plot your map physically. Sure, you can mull it over and plot people in your head, but the whole point of this is to return to it again and again as you work on your challenge. If you've not written it down, you'll have to start over which is a waste of time. When you've written it down though, make sure and keep it safe and secure!

Colin Gautrey — author, coach, facilitator and noted expert in the practical use of power and influence in the workplace. Colin has coached top executives around the world, run workshops for international teams and always gets results. As an author, he has written several books and regularly appears on the conference stage on his specialist subject of power and influence. To find out more about his work visit him at www.gautreygroup.com