Managing Stakeholders and Internal Expectations
How to understand stakeholder needs, manage competing priorities, and communicate progress clearly
This session is designed to help marketers handle the people side of delivery. By the end, participants should have the foundations of a practical stakeholder plan covering:
Who matters most
What each stakeholder needs
How decisions will be made
How progress will be communicated
How risks and tensions will be managed
Why stakeholder management matters in marketing
Marketing work is shaped by colleagues, managers, sales teams, product teams, finance, legal, agencies, and clients.
Delays, rework, and friction often come from expectation gaps rather than poor marketing ideas.
Strong stakeholder management improves alignment, trust, and delivery quality. Atlassian notes that early and regular stakeholder engagement improves outcomes because needs are understood and incorporated into planning and execution.
Reflection question:
Which current project or campaign has the most stakeholder friction for you?
What counts as a stakeholder
A stakeholder is anyone who can affect, be affected by, or see themselves as affected by your work.
In marketing this can include senior leaders, budget holders, product owners, legal teams, sales teams, agencies, and end users.
PMI defines stakeholders as individuals, groups, or organisations who may affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by a project decision or outcome.
Reflection question:
For your chosen project, who are the 6 to 8 most relevant stakeholders?
Stakeholder theory in practical terms
Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory suggests organisations create value through relationships across multiple stakeholder groups.
HBR makes a similar point: stakeholder systems are interconnected, and one group’s experience can influence outcomes for another.
For marketers, this means you rarely manage one audience at a time.
Reflection question:
Which stakeholder group most strongly influences the attitude or behaviour of another stakeholder group in your project?
Expectations are often present before they are spoken
Stakeholders usually carry hidden expectations about speed, visibility, quality, and control.
PMI highlights recurring non-technical requirements such as role clarity, progress information, and confidence that resources are being used well.
If these expectations are left unstated, they often surface later as frustration.
Reflection question:
What has each key stakeholder quietly assumed about timing, involvement, or decision-making?
Start with stakeholder mapping
A simple first model is the power-interest matrix, often associated with Mendelow.
Map each stakeholder by:
how much influence they have
how interested they are in the outcome
This helps you decide where to focus time and communication.
Reflection question:
Which stakeholders sit in high power/high interest, high power/low interest, low power/high interest, and low power/low interest?
Go beyond power with the salience model
Mitchell, Agle, and Wood’s Stakeholder Salience Model adds three tests:
power
legitimacy
urgency
This is useful when someone lacks hierarchy but still needs attention because their issue is urgent or valid.
Atlassian also recommends considering power and influence through stakeholder analysis.
Reflection question:
Who has urgency or legitimacy that you may be underestimating?
Build a stakeholder one-pager
For each priority stakeholder, capture:
their role
what success looks like to them
what they worry about
what decision power they hold
how they prefer to receive information
Asana recommends tailoring communication to stakeholder influence, interest, and communication preference, including recognising that some stakeholders want regular direct contact while others prefer to access materials in their own time.
Reflection question:
For your most important stakeholder, what does success look like in their own terms?
Avoid unhelpful labels
Teams sometimes describe stakeholders as blockers, difficult, disengaged, or political.
PMI warns against using labels because they close the mind, create negative attitudes, and can harden resistance.
A better question is: what is driving this person’s current level of commitment?
Reflection question:
Which stakeholder have you mentally labelled, and what is a more useful description of their position?
Clarify the objective before discussing tactics
Unclear goals create conflicting expectations.
Stakeholders can only align if they understand the intended outcome, the boundaries, and the trade-offs.
A communication plan should begin with clear objectives aligned to broader organisational goals.
Reflection question:
Can every key stakeholder describe the project objective in one sentence, using similar language?
Define decision rights early
One of the biggest causes of delay is unclear authority.
A practical model is DACI:
Driver
Approver
Contributors
Informed
Atlassian recommends setting expectations early about who needs consultation, who signs off, and who is ultimately responsible.
Reflection question:
Who is the final approver, and who only needs to be informed?
Set expectations explicitly at the start
HBR describes expectation management as one of the most important professional skills in project work.
At kickoff, clarify:
what success looks like
what is in scope
how often updates will happen
how decisions will be made
Atlassian recommends getting the kickoff right by agreeing buy-in, cadence, and the decision-making process.
Reflection question:
What expectation needs to be made explicit at your next kickoff or reset meeting?
Separate priorities from preferences
Stakeholders often present preferences as urgent requirements.
Use a prioritisation framework such as MoSCoW:
Must have
Should have
Could have
Won’t have now
This helps protect delivery and reduce scope creep.
Reflection question:
Which current stakeholder request is a preference rather than a true priority?
Build a communication plan
An effective stakeholder communication plan should define:
objectives
audience
channels
roles
timeline
feedback mechanisms
Atlassian notes that communication plans reduce ambiguity, support better decision-making, and keep work aligned with goals.
Reflection question:
What does each of your key stakeholders need to know, when do they need it, and in what format?
Choose cadence and channels deliberately
Stakeholders do not all need the same level of detail.
Decide the right mix of:
weekly updates
milestone reviews
asynchronous notes
live decision meetings
Asana recommends clear rules for which tools to use, centralising important decisions, and scheduling regular check-ins, especially in hybrid work.
Reflection question:
Which stakeholder is currently over-informed or under-informed?
Create a single source of truth
Disconnected documents create confusion and missed updates.
Atlassian highlights the value of one central location for project documents, updates, feedback, and decisions, especially across teams and asynchronous work.
This reduces rework and makes decisions easier to trace.
Reflection question:
Where does the current truth for your project live, and can everyone who needs it find it easily?
Improve your update format
Strong updates usually include:
project details
objective and timeline
milestone progress
involved parties
risks or bottlenecks
budget or resource issues
key decisions needed
Atlassian recommends these components to give stakeholders the context they need for informed decisions.
Reflection question:
What three elements should every stakeholder update from you include from now on?
Manage upwards with concise communication
Senior stakeholders usually want:
status
risks
decisions needed
business implications
A useful structure is SCQA:
Situation
Complication
Question
Answer
Another strong option is the Pyramid Principle: lead with the conclusion, then support it.
Reflection question:
If you had two minutes with a senior stakeholder, what would you say first?
Revisit stakeholder plans as things change
PMI advises treating stakeholder mapping as a living document and revisiting it when project direction changes, unexpected issues arise, or key people change.
PMI also notes that stakeholder requirements and communication needs change over time.
A map that stays static quickly becomes inaccurate.
Reflection question:
What recent change means your stakeholder plan now needs updating?
Handle resistance with listening before persuasion
Resistance often signals a need, fear, or unresolved risk.
Atlassian recommends identifying concerned stakeholders, linking the change to their interests, involving them in decisions, and giving support and resources.
PMI also argues that understanding people begins with listening to their worries, expectations, and desires.
Reflection question:
Which stakeholder needs a listening conversation rather than another progress update?
Build trust through consistency
PMI stresses that reviewing goals and key events frequently increases credibility with stakeholders and senior management.
Proper communication and consultation build trust and confidence.
Reliability in small things usually matters more than high-energy presentations.
Reflection question:
What one behaviour would most improve trust with your key stakeholders this month?
Watch for early warning signs
Look for signals such as:
delayed sign-off
surprise objections
silence after updates
changing requests
conflicting messages from different leaders
repeated requests for reassurance
These often show expectation gaps before problems become visible.
Reflection question:
Which stakeholder relationship shows the clearest early warning sign today?
Build your stakeholder management plan
Your draft plan should now include:
stakeholder list
power-interest map
salience check
one-pager for priority stakeholders
decision rights
communication cadence
update format
review trigger points
Asana recommends stakeholder engagement plans that identify stakeholders, assess influence and interest, and outline communication across the project lifecycle.
Reflection question:
What is still missing from your stakeholder plan?
A practical 30-day action plan
Week 1
Identify stakeholders, map influence and interest, write one-page summaries for top stakeholders
Week 2
Clarify objective, scope, and success measures, confirm DACI or RACI, surface hidden expectations
Week 3
Launch communication plan, centralise documents and decisions, standardise update format
Week 4
Review trust, responsiveness, and risks, hold one listening conversation with a difficult stakeholder, adjust plan where needed
Final Reflections
Stakeholder management is a core marketing capability.
When expectations are clear, communication is planned, and decisions are documented, work becomes easier to explain, defend, and improve.
Reflection question:
Which stakeholder conversation will you schedule first after this session?
More webinars like this at http://marketingcollege.com
