Mastering Stakeholder Engagement
Introducing Archetypes
Mary Abbajay’s Managing Up (2018) explores ways to improve your relationship with your boss. Featuring effective strategies for coping with any type of manager, it explains how you can deal with difficult leaders and how to turn a bad boss into a great opportunity for professional growth. I find these archetypes also hugely beneficial in engaging with lateral stakeholders. In complex organisations where you have to align and engage with many stakeholders to deliver on your individual goals and responsibilities.
Archetypes:
Introverted: An ‘Innie’ will often focus on her own thoughts and ideas. This means that she may not share much information with you and might only give you her opinion when you ask for it. This sort of person doesn’t interact much with her colleagues and tends to reflect on decisions before making them, meaning that she’s slow to respond to people’s queries.
Extroverted: An ‘Outtie’ focuses on the external world of people and her relationships with them. She’ll happily share her knowledge with you; in fact, she may even give you too much information sometimes. You’ll usually know what she’s thinking because she’ll readily tell you, and her friendly attitude will shine through during her regular interactions with staff.
Harmoniser: The Harmoniser cares less about results and more about making his workplace a great place to be. His focus isn’t so much on achieving goals as it is on ensuring his colleagues are happy and in sync with one another. While the Harmonizer’s workmates see him as kind and cooperative, they may also consider him weak or too relaxed around the office.
Advancer: The Advancer is obsessed with getting results. She’s highly goal-oriented and less interested in building friendly relationships with her colleagues. She’s seen as confident, efficient and pragmatic, but also as a cold, demanding and dominating force around the office.
Absentee: The absentee, either by accident or design, is simply never around when you need her. You might go a whole week without having a meaningful discussion with her, and whenever you need support, she makes it clear that she can’t help you.
Micro manager: The micromanager is the person who constantly looks over your shoulder and scrutinises everything you do. She constantly stops by your desk to ask you what you’re doing. She explains, in minute detail, how to do a task, even when you know more about it than she does and, anything but her way the wrong way.
Narcissistic: Some people seem great when you first meet them. During your recruitment interview, they come off as charming, charismatic and highly skilled – the type of person you’d kill to work for. But then, after a few weeks of working for them, things take a turn for the worse. That perfect person is actually a power-crazed, egotistical nightmare.
Incompetent: Then there are people who spend a lot of time focusing on irrelevant things? Does she fail to make decisions, preferring to sit back and be inactive? Do you feel like you’re working in the dark, because she doesn’t keep you in the loop?
Here is a clear and printable overview of all archetypes:
Utilising the archetypes presented in Abbajay's book, leaders can identify the most suitable strategies and approaches for working effectively with each stakeholder. For instance, a stakeholder with introverted tendencies may prefer focusing on their own thoughts and ideas, requiring proactive engagement and the opportunity to prepare in advance for meetings. While an Advancer is merely interested in solutions for problems. Preferably several solution so she can help you pick the best one. An Advancer typically wants you to be concise, proactive and focus on results using data and facts. Here you will find an overview of working effectively with different archetypes.
Below you will find a clear and printable overview of how to develop effective strategies to work with each Archetype.
Final thoughts
Remember, everyone is unique, and everyone may differ in their communication preferences. Use these tips as a starting point and adjust your approach as needed. Embrace the anthropologist within yourself and study your stakeholders. By understanding their communication style and adapting your approach, you can build more productive and more positive working relationships.
