Hileni Amadhila
No matter how groundbreaking your strategy is or how bulletproof your execution plan may seem, if you ignore the human factor, your stakeholders, your project is already halfway to failure.
Stakeholder management is often treated as a checklist: identify them, inform them, involve them, influence them. But when we reduce people to processes, we lose the very thing that makes them buy in, trust. People don’t just support plans. They support people who value them, listen to them, and show up consistently.
At the heart of effective stakeholder management is empathy. It’s understanding that a board member, a team leader, a regulator, and a community member all view the same initiative through very different lenses. What excites one might concern another. What feels urgent to you may feel disruptive to them. Good stakeholder management is about more than just making everyone happy. It’s about making everyone heard. And that often starts with learning to pause before pushing forward.
We sometimes believe that communicating more means communicating better. But it’s not just about how often you update stakeholders, it’s about the quality of the interaction. Are you tailoring your message to what matters to them? Are you engaging early, or only when you need buy-in? Have you considered not only what you say, but how your decisions impact their priorities?
Stakeholder engagement must be ongoing, not an afterthought or a phase on the project plan. It’s a relationship, not a transaction. You earn support by showing integrity over time, not just during high-pressure moments. And when stakeholders feel like partners rather than spectators, they’ll not only support your work, but they’ll also advocate for it.
True stakeholder management goes beyond influence, it’s about alignment. It means letting go of the urge to control every narrative and instead creating a space where feedback is welcomed, not feared. It means being transparent when things go off track and courageous enough to change course if that’s what’s required to stay true to your shared goals.
In a world that’s becoming more interconnected and more scrutinised, success is no longer defined by what we build alone, but by who believe in what we’re building. Projects will come and go. But the trust you build with your stakeholders will either open or close the doors to the next one.
So, manage your project. But lead your people.
*Hileni Amadhila is a senior public relations, stakeholders and communications consultant at Old Mutual Namibia.
