Can I be honest with you — I am bored. Once again, I have had a client pull out because of the pandemic. I completely understand as it is an impossibly challenging time for many. It makes me realise how fortunate I am that I could comfortably go the best part of a year with no income.
However, I do hate sitting around. I am one of those people who like a challenge to get my teeth into, and if I am not busy, I end up annoying my wife, which always ends badly for me! Also, I know it is not good for my mental health. Yes, I could work on my personal projects, but to be honest, I prefer client work. I like solving other people’s problems. So, if you feel I could help you or your organisation, I am knocking 20% off my prices for any work I start in October. Also, if you are a charity who could do with some support, get in touch. Maybe I could give you some time for free. Just drop me an email either way.
Let’s Talk Challenging Stakeholders
Anyway, let’s talk about that challenging stakeholder you have. You know the one. In fact, you probably no more than one!
Dealing with difficult stakeholders can feel like the most challenging part of our job sometimes and the single most significant barrier in making progress towards digital transformation, improving the user experience or delivering that digital project.
I know that over my long career, I have met my fair share of problem people. However, I have also learned a valuable lesson. I cannot change them, but I can change how I approach them, and that simple truth has made all of the difference in my ability to get stuff done!
So in this email, I want to share how I approach managing difficult stakeholders, and it begins by better understanding them.
Understand Your Stakeholders
Too often, we make life harder for ourselves by seeing stakeholders as an obstacle to overcome rather than taking the time to understand their motivations and demonstrate some empathy.
By doing this, we achieve two things. First, we show our stakeholders we care about their point of view, and that builds respect in the relationship. Second, we learn how to frame our requests in a way that connects with them.
Over the years, I have learned there is little point in talking about things like user experience because if you work in legal or marketing, you don’t care about these things. Instead, we have to reframe what we are asking in the context of things they do care about, whether that be less legal liability or more leads.
We can learn this stuff by merely asking. In fact, asking questions is often the key that addresses a whole range of stakeholder issues.
Ask More Questions
When a stakeholder throws up an objection, we often leap in with a counter objection before we correctly understand their point of view.
Imagine, for example, a stakeholder says that we cannot adopt a particular approach because it fails to meet compliance guidelines. Don’t merely take that at face value; ask why it doesn’t comply. Dig deeper until you understand the specific problem, because a hard no is often a lot more nuanced, and together you will be able to find a compromise.
By asking questions, you will also understand precisely how they see the issue and the project more generally. You will often be surprised just how diverse your mindsets will be, and we need to adapt to that.
Match Your Stakeholders Mental Model
A couple of emails ago, we discussed talking the language of business. In that email, I explained how our mental model as UX and digital professionals is vastly different from that of others. Because of our specialism, we intuitively understand things that make little sense to others.
It is important to remember this when speaking to any stakeholder. What seems evident to you, may not to them. It falls to you to join the dots about why improving some aspect of the user experience, or digital will have a positive impact on the organisation.
This fact raises another interesting point when it comes to dealing with stakeholders. It is not their responsibility to understand.
Take Responsibility for Explaining
We get frustrated because our stakeholders don’t “get it” but whose fault is that? I would argue it is not their responsibility to be up on the latest digital and user experience best practice. That means if we want to convince a stakeholder of something, then it is our responsibility to win them over.
That means we need to become better communicators and educators. We cannot ask our stakeholders to trust our judgement if the consequences of our decision-making impact them. We will have to prove we have the right approach.
Another advantage of us accepting the responsibility to present compelling arguments is that it moves us away from a confrontational mindset. It acknowledges that a stakeholder not supporting us is our failing, not theirs.
Don’t Turn It Into a Confrontation
We often spend too much of our time telling stakeholders what they should be doing, or worse, what they are doing wrong. We also all too often reject their contributions implying that they are ill-informed.
This kind of approach inevitably escalates into a confrontation as our bluntness aggravates stakeholders.
Instead, we need to learn to take a more gentle and circumvent approach to stakeholder engagement.
For example, if the stakeholder makes a suggestion that will have ramifications on accessibility, don’t merely point this out as a failing in their suggestion. Instead, ask a question as this is a softer approach. Ask them whether they have any thoughts on addressing the inevitable accessibility impact?
Also, don’t make them feel stupid because they don’t have a good answer, If they struggle to answer (which they probably will) suggest that you have not explained yourself very well and unpack what the problem is and offer some possible solutions.
At no stage imply that the stakeholder is ignorant or that their suggestions are invalid. Be careful not to get drawn into pointscoring, no matter how tempting it can be!
Perhaps I Am Simplistic
Look, I know you might consider me to be in a privileged position. As a consultant, I sit outside organisational structures, and that gives me a latitude that in-house staff do not always have.
However, like all the agencies and freelancers reading this, I have to keep my clients happy, so I cannot just say what I want! That has forced me to be creative in how I win over stakeholders and get things done.
That said, I would be interested in hearing from those of you who work in-house. What challenges do you face with stakeholders that my suggestions would not help with? Where does it fall down? What techniques have you found that work for improving stakeholder relationships? I would honestly love to hear. Please drop me an email if you have a few minutes spare.
