What are some proven strategies to master conflict resolution and influence stakeholders? We explored this question with Ant Murphy when we welcomed him back to our Product eXpert series event. Key takeaways from our chat are: * You need to have empathy - Understand your stakeholder’s motivations. Approach their perspectives with curiosity and ask yourself “what keeps them up at night?”. * Take an evidence based approach - Create a third reference point, such as a roadmap, that you can both react to and debate the pros and cons. You can tease out what is an opinion vs. data and fact. * Say ‘No’ without saying No - the people who are best at influencing don’t say ‘No’ a lot. Instead ask questions such as “How does this fit into our current strategy?” to better understand the stakeholder’s assumptions and beliefs. * Confidence is a proxy for competency - we need to project confidence which will project competency and can earn more trust. But we need to have conviction in what we’re saying. * Consistency is a proxy for reliability - small actions can erode our trust worthiness. If you say you are going to do something, did you do it? Thank you for all of your insights and inspiring stories Ant. We’re thrilled that you were able to join us again and look forward to having you back!
Rob MacInnes
9mo
Alexandra Keeley sounds awesome
Excellent and very useful tip sheet ! Thank you Petra Gross for sharing this.
Product Coach & Founder of Product Pathways - Helping product people have greater impact and companies shift to the product model 🚀
9moThanks for having me (again! 😉) Petra and WooliesX Amazing summary too! These strategies have served me very well over the years. Especially redefining my perspective away from stakeholder management being a painful task, something to avoid to being a core value-add activity (from stakeholder management to stakeholder engagement) - it not only reduced my stress but also helped me be more effective and influential 🙌