How Graduates with an MBA in Project Management Can Engage with Stakeholders

Being a project manager involves bringing together a variety of necessary skills: financial adeptness, leadership skills, communication skills, and a rigorously analytical mind. An MBA in project management can help aspiring business professionals foster their skills and facilitate career growth. This education consists of an education in management, leadership knowledge, and economic and business administration. These topics all come together in a holistic approach to understanding projects. One of the key parts of being a successful project manager is developing an effective approach to stakeholder engagement. Stakeholders are valuable for ensuring sustainable project outcomes, and knowing how to properly identify, attract, involve, manage, and influence stakeholders is necessary. Read on to learn how an MBA in project management can teach students how to better engage with stakeholders.

Practice Proper Stakeholder Identification

One of the ways that an MBA in project management helps business professionals engage with stakeholders is by helping them understand how to establish these relationships at the beginning of a project. Business students earning an MBA in project management are educated in the various methods of stakeholder identification and taught the importance of identifying all parties early in the process, at the point of project initiation. Stakeholders should be profiled, reviewed, and analytically considered. Those in charge of project management should be aware of who has the authority to make decisions, especially of the parties that carry veto authority. Graduates of project management programs know that mapping out the complexities of stakeholder authority early on is a risk management tactic that will result in a more efficient project.

An MBA in Project Management Teaches Effective Communication

The value of soft skills for business professionals cannot be overstated, especially in terms of stakeholder engagement. An MBA degree in project management will teach aspiring managers how to clearly, openly, and actively communicate with others in a business context. This is especially important for fostering positive and continual stakeholder engagement.

An effective communicator will facilitate coherent and open communication both with and between stakeholders. They are also able to practice active listening, a process in which the goal is a sense of understanding of the speaker’s perspectives. Project managers should also seek to communicate continuously at every stage of the project’s progression. By clarifying expectations, listening to feedback, and involving stakeholders in planning, projects can run in a more streamlined, hitch-free way.

Build Stakeholder Commitment

The ability to build stakeholder commitment to a project can be one of the most challenging parts of being a project manager. Aspiring business professionals need to know different methods of instituting a stakeholder management plan, and how to effectively engage with and influence stakeholders through a variety of contexts.

It’s important to nurture and maintain valuable relationships with stakeholders, and develop flexible, contextual methods of engagement. In addition, continually revisiting and updating your stakeholder engagement plan as the environment and context change will help you succeed when managing projects.

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