Making Projects Work: Effective Stakeholder and Communication Management

Chapter 5

Focus on Managing Upwards

Introduction

This chapter offers a perspective, and some guidelines, for understanding the expectations of the project’s senior stakeholders and developing relationships with them for the benefit of the project and the project team members. Chapter 3 focused on the theoretical aspects of leadership from the perspective of the project manager leading the team. Those theories will prove useful in helping the project manager understand the roles, responsibilities, and motivations of their senior stakeholders.

This chapter is loosely organized to answer the following questions:

• What does the project (and the team) need from senior stakeholders to be successful?
• What can the project manager do to ensure that senior ...