When your performance is at stake..

stake·hold·er : noun \ˈstāk-ˌhōl-dər\: A person/ party who affects or can be affected by an entity’s actions.

Have you ever thought that what you do in the span of eight hours or so that you spend at work everyday is actually governed by so many different factors.

What enables you to give your best? And what prevents you from doing that? If you were to sit down and think about it, among other things, what is likely to crop up are the names of your boss, or of your team, or your customers and clients.

So it’s the people around you who are the stakeholders in your performance. They can affect your performance by the virtue of their:

·         Power in the organization

·         Control over resources

·         Knowledge/ skills/ ability

·         Leadership styles

·         Commitment  ...

And so on...

They could have varying levels of impact on your performance, but all of them affect your performance directly, or indirectly.

So if you were to seriously sit down and analyze the ways you can increase/ improve  your work output; you would realise the importance of managing the stakeholders in your performance.

it considers two dimensions of your stakeholders- first the power they hold to influence your output and level of achievement; and secondly the vested interest they have in your performing well.

 Managers are usually very fond of matrices as frameworks of managing things; so here I have a matrix to help manage these stake holders:  

Since it’s your manager; and/or your team that is directly involved with you in delivering your output, and also it is they who are also dependent on you for their output/ achievement- it is but obvious that most of your efforts in managing people should be directed at them.

The office/ admin staff, on the other hand, is not really concerned about whether you reached your targets in a given month and neither can they really help you achieve them. However, it is good to wish the lady who takes your phone messages a good morning, every now and then!

The top management of your organization is not really worried about your individual performance on a daily basis. An exceptionally good performance or for that matter an exceptionally bad one, however, is bound to get noticed (and they definitely have the power to take action!) Giving consistently good performances and timely reporting / information sharing will generally keep them satisfied.

Your suppliers and customers neither wield direct power, nor have a direct influence on your individual performance. Most of the time they are interested in the bigger picture- it’s your duty therefore, to keep them informed of the developments within your company or in the market place.