A fellow reader recently shared a story and asked for help. Here’s a summary of the situation:
Imagine you’re an in-house consultant. You were hired to onboard the sales team to Salesforce, but the stakeholder who hired you isn’t dedicating time to define requirements or approve the project launch. This is hindering your ability to deliver value.
The question is, how to incentivize the stakeholder to move forward?
As an in-house consultant, you are part of the fabric of the company. You need to play by their rules and work within the system you’ve been given. So your options are more limited than if you were an external consultant.
Given this, I recommend you approach the stakeholder and ask them what challenges they have. Position yourself as a problem solver, wanting to help them professionally and personally.
It’s a question I ask all new prospects: How can I make both the company and you personally, succeed?
By doing this, you will be seen as an ally more than an obstacle.
The takeaway
Power struggles are not uncommon in the workplace.
More often than you would expect, someone who blocks things is simply struggling to retain some power.
It’s like a doorman of a busy club. Outside the club, they may have very low status. But as a doorman, they have a significant amount of power. So they exercise that power because it’s the only moment in which they can.
By approaching them as a friendly ally, they will lean into you for help in dealing with these struggles.