I sure wish I’d asked more questions before diving in. Our relationship never really recovered, though I didn’t fully realize the depth of my mistake until months later.

Having a smart take, as it turns out, isn’t worth much in the real world without attending to the real world’s complicated ecosystems of information-sharing, relationships, perception, and power. Research leader Dr. Alexandra Mack’s new book, Talking to Stakeholders: How to Add Value and Make an Impact by Building Strategic Relationships, is about the brass tacks of doing just that. How you talk to powerful people matters: your tone, your message, your framing, your assumptions. You need to figure out what language they speak, and you need to translate your point into that language. As Steyer Insights research principal Ray Salas says, it’s not about giving them more data: it’s about what that data means for them.

From Talking to Stakeholders: “When you connect the dots between the data and potential decisions, actions, and outcomes, the data has more impact. The meaning and the application—the very things that technical people are discouraged from describing—become the centerpiece of a business presentation with staying power.”

The strategies in this book aren’t, for the most part, taught explicitly. I learned them through experience, and I’ve been very fortunate to have coaches and mentors (like Steyer’s owner, Kate Walton) sit with me through the sometimes frightfully embarrassing process of receiving and integrating feedback about my comms. If you don’t currently have a mentor working with you on your workplace comms (or heck, even if you do!), I recommend Talking to Stakeholders as a practical, deeply wise resource.

Steyer is hosting an author event this Friday with Alexandra Mack to talk about stakeholder comms, and it’s open to the public. Whether or not you’ve read the book, I’m extending the invitation to you all: join us to talk with Alex about what it takes to actually be effective in the workplace. You can RSVP here.

Thanks,
Katelyn

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash