If you look at pretty much any contract job board online, you’ll see an awful lot of the project management roles call for someone with the ability to ‘handle senior stakeholders’.  I think this is a pretty revealing request in a job advert.

For a start, while I don’t deny this should be part of any project manager’s job, the main work of handling senior stakeholders should be done by the Executive.  This is, after all, part of why they are in position – not only to give authorisation for the project to go ahead, but to gain support from senior stakeholders.

When I see a job advert asking for someone who can ‘handle’ senior stakeholders, it makes me think that the organisation as a whole probably doesn’t really embrace project management.  The Executive probably doesn’t understand, or doesn’t carry out, the responsibilities their role brings.  Project managers are probably engaged in a perpetual struggle to get support for their projects.

Unfortunately, this type of organisation isn’t unusual.  The situation described above is one I have often gone into as a contract project manager.  Part of me even kind of enjoys it – even though it certainly makes life more difficult.  But it does give an opportunity to transfer some project management knowledge to the organisation as a whole, and hopefully leave them in a stronger position for the next project!

What about you?  Have you come across this problem?