Every project manager (professional or ad-hoc type) has a story about a “ difficult stakeholder. ” You know the script: They don’t respond. They push back on everything. They seem annoyed no matter what you do. What I discovered in most cases is that the stakeholder isn’t difficult. They’re disconnected . Somewhere along the way, the PM got so deep into managing the project that they stopped managing the relationship . Updates turned into bullet points. Meetings became status checks. The human being on the other side of the table slowly disappeared behind the process. John Maxwell has a line that hits this perfectly: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” It’s simple, but it’s the diagnostic tool most PMs never use. Why Connection Comes Before Influence Maxwell’s whole leadership philosophy is built on one idea: you can’t move people until you’ve connected with them. His “ Five Levels of Leadership ” makes this painfully c...
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Management is a journey that never ends. There are so many perspectives on how to manage a business, how to manage people, and how to achieve exceptional results, that there will also be a place for yet another opinion. What's yours ?