Every strategic project competes for our limited leadership hours. The way we allocate time to stakeholders can make or break strategy execution. Over-servicing wastes energy, while under-servicing risks losing their support. The leaders who get this balance right free capacity for high-value work and move strategy forward faster.
Precision in stakeholder management is now a core leadership skill, not a nice-to-have. This week, let’s strategically review how we manage our stakeholders. You will save time, get more buy-in and move your strategy forward faster.
Stakeholders blocked this Strategy Program
I was asked to review a major program that had already absorbed millions in consulting spend without any tangible improvements. The strategy looked solid…. I waded through several elegant 150+ page decks… but execution was stuck. Lots of hard work, no impact. I see this often, and always feel the weight on the teams who are frustrated that they cannot make progress.
When I investigated further, I found that 71 stakeholders were being managed almost entirely through 1:1 meetings. The team said they were stretched too tight, but the real issue was how they spent their time. They could never get to the end of their meeting list. This compounded a lack of stakeholder buy-in, which presented in every form imaginable: passive disinterest through to aggressive resentment.
By restructuring their approach to stakeholder engagement, the program finally moved forward and gained traction.
Smarter stakeholder management delivers faster strategy
3 tips for smarter stakeholder management
Today’s your chance to re-think your stakeholder management more strategically. Here’s 3 tips:
1. Add leverage to your stakeholder management
One of the first things I do on a project is map the stakeholders. You can generally categorize them into 3 groups, so you can prioritize your time accordingly:
-
High-touch 1:1 meetings for those with the most influence
-
Group forums for other decision makers and influencers, including those groups impacted by the changes – paying careful attention to champions and blockers
-
Broadcast updates (eg email or video messages) for broad awareness
This ensures your time is well spent.
2. Develop smarter stakeholder materials faster
I find that only a small minority of professionals (including CEOs) know how to get the best from Generative AI. Let me try to reduce a one hour AI productivity session into one paragraph: You can use GenAI (eg ChatGPT) to develop communications tailored to different stakeholder groups, including agendas, talking points for influence, discussion questions, presentations. You can repurpose one core message into multiple versions easily and quickly. Always review and edit all AI communications.
3. Keep a log of stakeholder meetings
Maintain a stakeholder log or use an AI tool such as Fathom AI to record your conversations, with automatically extracted action items. Share these with your team (with permission). This avoids revisiting the same topics across different team members, and propels strategy forward. (You can find my favourite tech tools on my website).
When you manage stakeholders with a holistic approach, you accelerate buy-in and decisions. It also reflects an important culture signal that you value peoples’ time.
If you want to know more about tools, my next monthly express Turbochargers masterclass October 21 covers “Tools to Accelerate Strategic Projects” – email me for info, I’d love you to join us.)
See 3 remaining sessions for October, November and December 2025. Previous session recordings are accessible for members of The Turbochargers Hub.
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
The legendary Peter Drucker
PS More Ways to Accelerate your Strategy
Looking to move your strategy forward? Lisa Carlin works with selected clients directly to go from strategy to plan to result. Email Lisa.
A bespoke in-house Bootcamp is the fastest way to learn. Get the skills your teams need to go from Strategy to Plan to Results. AI optional. Bootcamp info here.
Subscribe here to ensure you don’t miss this weekly newsletter.
Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn.
About Lisa Carlin
Lisa Carlin is a Strategy Execution Specialist. She works with business leaders to go from strategy to plan to result with culture intelligence and AI.
Lisa is author of the globally acclaimed newsletter, Turbocharge Weekly, read by 8,000 business leaders.
Lisa’s career includes roles at McKinsey and Accenture, then running her own business since 1999. Over this time she has delivered over 50 implementations with a 96% success rate.