A Practical Guide to Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders

by Jake Holloway, David Bryde

All project stakeholders have different needs, objectives, responsibilities and priorities. For many project managers it is disturbing to realise that, for any number of personal or professional reasons, some of their stakeholders may not be as co-operative and helpful as they expect. It could be a negative and powerful sponsor (the 'Anti-sponsor'), a demotivated team, low-maturity or unrealistic external clients, maliciously compliant gatekeepers and finance teams, or uninterested internal customers. The reality of project management is that stakeholders can be difficult! Jake Holloway, Professor David Bryde and Roger Joby bring their years of project management experience and combine it with research and insight from social psychology to delve into how and why project stakeholders can be difficult. The book describes some of the common stakeholder types - such as Sponsors, the Team, Gatekeepers, Clients and Contractors - and associated unhelpful or difficult behaviour profiles that you will often come across on projects. It then provides practical ideas, techniques and methods that will help the project manager to effectively manage the impact of these stakeholders on the project. As projects get larger and more complicated, the role and influence of stakeholders grows too. A Practical Guide to Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders will provide your project teams with the basis for a more sophisticated and resilient approach to stakeholder management.

122 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2015

Reviews

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well I would give it 5 stars because I wrote it with David & Roger! We wrote it for new and experienced project managers alike who are struggling with people inside and outside the project who are impacting on the project (and your mental health!). These include your team (mutinous or supportive), the sponsor (and anti-sponsor), gatekeepers (auditors, process owners, finance, etc.), suppliers, and so on. It details practical ways of dealing with them, as well as insight into why they behave as they do.

[S J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic but good summary of Stakeholder issues

High level, goes over many stakeholder issues at multiple levels.
Well written and easy to read and useful refresher for project manager.

[Mahfer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this for work so didn’t enjoy but it was helpful