586: How to Involve Stakeholders in Decisions, with Eric Pliner

Coaching for Leaders

Dave Stachowiak

Education, Business, Management, Self-improvement, Careers

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eric Pliner: Difficult Decisions Eric Pliner is chief executive officer of YSC Consulting. He has designed and implemented leadership strategy in partnership with some of the world’s best-known CEOs and organizations. Eric’s writing has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Forbes, and Fast Company. A member of the Dramatists’ Guild of America, Eric is co-author of the U.S. National Standards for Health Education and Spooky Dog & the Teen-Age Gang Mysteries (with Amy Rhodes), an Off-Broadway theatrical parody of television cartoons for adults. He is a board director with Hip Hop Public Health. He is also the author of Difficult Decisions: How Leaders Make the Right Call with Insight, Integrity, and Empathy*. In this conversation, Eric and I discuss the difficult and sometimes awkward moments when we engage other stakeholders in our decisions. We explore the language to use when discussing a stakeholder’s role in a decision. Plus, Eric details how to establish clear expectations about involvement in decisions to avoid sending messages that we otherwise don’t intend. Key Points Clarify who you will engage and how you intend to do so. Before discussing a decision with a stakeholder, explain how the decision is going to be made. Make it clear if you’re offering them a views, a voice, a vote, or a veto. Standardize your individual and team processes for decision-making. Ask the stakeholder for input — and go deeper with a second or third question to appreciate what’s behind what they’ve said. Remind stakeholders how the decision will be made when you conclude. Don’t underestimated the importance of this step. Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Influence Many Stakeholders, with Andy Kaufman (episode 240) How to Deal with Opponents and Adversaries, with Peter Block (episode 328) The Way to Make Better Decisions, with Annie Duke (episode 499) Handling a Difficult Stakeholder, with Nick Timiraos (episode 581) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You need to make a decision and you'd like to involve other stakeholders in the process,
0:05.0	but you don't want to leave the impression that they get to make the decision.
0:09.0	That's a tough line to walk.
0:11.0	In this episode, how to involve stakeholders so they know how their input will be used, or not.
0:18.0	This is Coaching for Leaders, Episode 586.
0:22.0	Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.
0:31.0	Greetings to you from Orange County, California.
0:34.0	This is Coaching for Leaders, and I'm your host, Dave Stahovjak.
0:39.0	Leaders aren't born. They're made.
0:41.0	And this weekly show helps you discover leadership wisdom through insightful conversations.
0:47.0	Whenever we're making decisions as leaders, which of course a big part of leadership is decision-making,
0:53.0	I know many of us have had the thought I should probably involve other stakeholders in this decision,
0:59.0	either inform them, get their input, or maybe involve them directly in the decision process.
1:04.0	And yet, even though we have that thought, and sometimes we take some action to do that,
1:08.0	I think many of us don't approach those conversations with as much intentionality as we potentially could.
1:15.0	Today, I'm so glad to welcome a guest expert who is going to help us to think through how to involve stakeholders and decisions
1:23.0	and to do that in a way that is very intentional.
1:26.0	I'm pleased to introduce to you, Eric Pliner.
1:28.0	He is Chief Executive Officer of YSC Consulting.
1:32.0	He is designed and implemented leadership strategy in partnership with some of the world's best known CEOs and organizations.
1:39.0	Eric's writing has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Forbes, and Fast Company.
1:45.0	He's a member of the Dramatist Guild of America, and co-author of the US National Standards for Health Education,
	...

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