To influence technology leaders and promote organizational change, it is essential to have a nuanced understanding of the needs and motivations of various stakeholders, including developers, leaders, and executives. This approach doesn’t try to sell but rather leads and persuades through clear communication and strategic alignment.
Plan out your approach in advance.
To persuade someone, you need to be strategic in your communication strategies and change them depending on the stakeholder’s position and amount of influence. This calls for a complete understanding of their motivations, which can significantly increase your chances of effecting change.
For instance, the ease of integration and ongoing support of a new technology may be more important to a CTO than its scalability and security features. A CEO, on the other hand, is more likely to focus on how the technology affects the company’s business plan and competitive edge.
Show more understanding.
Understanding each stakeholder’s specific job and priorities is essential. Participate in discussions with them that demonstrate how a planned change or new technology will benefit both the business and the technical side.
With a top-down approach, you can introduce new technology or change that will change everything. You can get executive support by showing them the strategic benefits. Then, you can tell other important stakeholders about it.
However, a bottom-up approach works well when users or managers in the middle support the change. Here, it’s essential to make the most of this momentum and work with these stakeholders to push for change at a higher level.
Use the Right Words
Your language and terms should be easy for your audience to understand. Leaders’ discussions should focus on return on investment, market advantages, and long-term goals. When speaking with technical stakeholders like developers or IT managers, it’s important to focus on integration, support, and improving processes.
Understanding the subtleties of communication can prevent your words from being ignored or misunderstood and instead open the door to more productive discussions with the right people.
Different ways to talk to people
Communication tailored to each individual is critical. When stakeholders’ specific needs and wants are met, they feel valued and understood. This provides an environment that is supportive of change and improves engagement.
- Relevance: Demonstrate to stakeholders your comprehension of their issues and objectives.
- Empathy: Talk to people in a way that shows you understand and care about their specific pain points.
- Efficiency: To be efficient, keep your message short and to the point to show that you value their time.
- Trust: Being able to show that you know a lot about something helps people trust you.
- Memorable: Get people to remember you by helpfully addressing stakeholders’ problems.
- Build Relationships: Getting to know people by promoting teamwork and success as a group spirit.
- Value: The change seems more valuable when it meets specific needs.
- Communication helps avoid misunderstandings and makes changes go more quickly.
- Engagement: Use stakeholders by letting them talk about the problem.
- Good experiences: Make sure that the contact makes the project’s stakeholders feel good and supports it.
Understanding key decision-makers’ motivations and tailoring strategic communication are necessary for success. This personalized and stakeholder-centered approach will help you bring about change and new ideas more often in your organization.