Episode 92: Managing Your Stakeholders (Without Losing Yourself)

The Career Clinic Podcast

Host: Ronnie Dickerson Stewart

Episode Overview

Welcome to Week Four — the final week — of The Career Clinic Podcast January Intensive Series.

This week is focused on designing your career on purpose, with practical tactics you can apply immediately. In Episode 92, Ronnie tackles a topic that consistently trips up capable, thoughtful professionals: managing your stakeholders — without burning out, people-pleasing, or losing yourself in the process.

This conversation reframes stakeholder management away from "corporate politics" and toward self-advocacy, stewardship, and clarity. The goal isn't to perform or overextend. It's to ensure the people who influence your progress and provision actually understand your value, priorities, and boundaries.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ What "stakeholders" really means — beyond your direct manager ✔️ Why stakeholder complexity increases as you become more senior ✔️ How mismanaged relationships lead to burnout, resentment, and missed opportunity ✔️ The shift from passive to participatory career management ✔️ A practical framework for managing stakeholder relationships intentionally ✔️ How to advocate for yourself without shrinking or over-explaining ✔️ When it's time to adjust — or exit — a stakeholder relationship

Who Are Your Stakeholders, Really?

In this episode, Ronnie defines stakeholders as anyone who influences your progress or your provision.

That can include:

• Your manager and leadership team

• Skip-level leaders

• Clients and vendors

• Cross-functional partners

• Board members

• Collaborators on key initiatives

As careers advance, stakeholder webs become more complex — not simpler. Managing up, down, and across requires intention, not assumption.

The Core Shift: Passive → Participatory

A common mistake many people make is waiting to be understood.

They assume:

• Stakeholders know what they're working on

• Stakeholders understand what they need

• Past performance will speak for itself

But assumption is not a strategy.

Ronnie emphasizes that stakeholder management means actively participating in shaping how your work, value, and priorities are understood — rather than leaving it to chance.

The Four Pillars of Stakeholder Management ✍🏾

Ronnie introduces a practical framework built on four elements:

Anticipation Understanding what your stakeholders care about before they have to say it.

Communication Sharing information in ways that are useful to them, not just you.

Translation Framing your work in language that resonates with their priorities.

Consistency Showing up in predictable, reliable ways over time.

These four elements create clarity, trust, and momentum.

Not All Stakeholders Care About the Same Things

A key insight from the episode: stakeholders optimize for different outcomes.

For example:

• A manager may care about execution and morale

• A skip-level leader may care about risk and alignment

• One client may prioritize speed, another results

• One partner may value collaboration, another optics

Treating every stakeholder the same often creates friction. Managing relationships well requires understanding what each person is measured on and worried about.

How to Understand What Your Stakeholders Care About

Ronnie offers seven diagnostic questions to help you gain clarity:

1. What pressure are they under?

2. What are they being measured on?

3. What keeps them up at night?

4. What do they need to feel successful?

5. What does success look like from their perspective?

6. How does your work help solve their problem?

7. How does your contribution make their job easier or their goals more achievable?

When you can answer these, you can manage relationships strategically — not transactionally.

Say vs. Show: Managing Perception

Stakeholders don't experience your intentions — they experience patterns.

This episode revisits the idea of closing the gap between:

• What you say you are

• What stakeholders actually experience from you

Visibility here isn't about noise. It's about intentional surfacing of:

• Wins

• Progress

• Challenges

• Context that needs translation

What gets shown consistently is what gets trusted.

When Stakeholders Are Misaligned or Difficult

Ronnie addresses a reality many listeners face:

• Conflicting priorities between stakeholders

• Unclear or inconsistent leadership

• Relationships that create ongoing friction

The guidance:

• Name what's true without dramatizing it

• Focus on what you can influence (communication, framing, boundaries)

• Adjust strategy without abandoning yourself

• Recognize when a relationship may no longer be worth the energy it requires

Not every stakeholder relationship is meant to be preserved at all costs.

A Practical Stakeholder Audit 🤎

Ronnie closes the episode with a clear, actionable exercise:

1. Identify Your Stakeholders List anyone who influences your progress or provision.

2. Clarify What They Care About Note their priorities, pressures, and success metrics.

3. Identify Gaps Where are you unclear, inconsistent, or silent?

4. Choose One Small Shift One conversation, one update, one boundary — not an overhaul.

Small adjustments compound.

What This Episode Reinforces

• Stakeholder management is about protection, not performance

• Clarity reduces friction

• Advocacy builds provision

• Relationships compound over time

• You don't need to manage everyone — just the relationships that matter most

What's Coming Next

Tomorrow's episode tackles one of the hardest career decisions many people face: when to stay — and when to go.

Links & Resources 🤎

📩 Join the OhHeyMonday Newsletter Weekly reflections, tools, and leadership guidance 👉🏾 www.ohheyjoin.com

📝 Ask OhHeyCoach Submit a question for a future episode 👉🏾 https://form.typeform.com/to/ja89DHpT

🤝 Work With OhHeyCoach Executive coaching, leadership development, and career design 👉🏾 www.ohheycoach.com

📬 Contact [email protected]

Final Thought 🤎

This is grown-folks career stewardship.

I'll see you tomorrow.