It is hard to be productive in a busy role. Everyone has their own planned work to get done. But too often the day is taken over by requests from others. As a result, planned work can get dropped. Does this happen to you? Would you like some tips on how to manage requests from your stakeholders?
The Problem
Stakeholders in a company can include colleagues, managers, senior executives, or maybe a project team. Or in a small business, a client or suppliers. The key people we interact with in our role. It is important to maintain good relationships and be responsive but this can impact our own work plan.
Firstly, we can feel pressure to respond immediately. Secondly, we don’t want to upset them by saying no even if it is not urgent. Thirdly, the stakeholder may be a senior figure and you feel it is not possible to say no. As a result, you prioritise the new request and the following may happen:
- Not completing important deliverables
- Letting others down
- Saying No to a previous stakeholder request
- Working late to do everything
Overall, it can feel like the work day is out of control. And this can lead to stress and anxiety, which of course, affects our wellbeing too.
So here are some tips on how to achieve a good balance: manage requests from your stakeholders and have time for your priorities too.
The Solution
First, it is important to know where your time goes. Get a handle on how many requests you get each day, each week, and from whom. Using a Timelog helps you track:
- Recurring requests
- Requests that are not in your role
It also provides data/man hours to help you make a case for change. Raise it objectively with your manager, “I get X requests from Y each week which equates to about 5 hours work. That means 5 hours less on Project Z”. That might be okay, but it may prompt a productive discussion on how to improve things.
Tip 1 – Be Clear about Your Priorities
To help take control be clear about what you need to get done each week. Then block time in your diary for this priority work. Now as new requests crop up, you can assess which is the higher priority task. Maybe you need to do both but you will not drop the planned work without rescheduling it.
A baseline plan gives you the confidence to discuss your response in terms of the work that needs to be done. Having no plan makes it harder to do that.
Tip 2 – Manage Your Response Time
When responding to stakeholders, the key thing is to still ‘Say Yes̵