In WesselinkVanZijst's training courses, sincere interest is central; showing genuine interest in the stakeholder sitting opposite you. What motivates him or her? What is their story and experience? Why is there emotion? Is there a prior history between this person and the client of the environmental manager? Is it the straw that broke the camel's back, or is it the whole camel?
You can't fake genuine interest; conversation partners will see right through it. You truly have to adopt it as a life credo to do our job well. It's also important to truly understand the stakeholder's interest, because if you bring that interest from the outside into the team (for instance, the project team), you need to be able to articulate that interest well, defend it, and ensure a proper balance between this individual's interest and the general interest. And you must be able to creatively find solutions, explore mutual gains, and that genuinely requires understanding the stakeholder's interest.
That's where things often go wrong, because we (humans) tend to assume a lot based on previously acquired knowledge and experience; “we know our regulars,” after all! The true art of stakeholder management is to set those assumptions aside and be genuinely and sincerely interested in the other party's interests. This requires asking open-ended questions, and especially listening carefully to what is said and what is left unsaid. Even when it gets a bit complicated, because not everyone readily lays out their interests. Patience is (as so often) a core value of the stakeholder manager, even when deadlines elsewhere in the project team are looming.
If you want to do this properly, you need to be genuinely curious; you want to hear the stakeholder explain in their own words what interests lie behind their viewpoints. You ask follow-up questions without filling in the blanks for them. You want to understand it, but through the stakeholder's eyes. Only when you truly understand can you properly represent the interests within the project organization, and can you come up with the creative solutions needed to achieve social added value from a change process in the environment. I find genuine curiosity to be a good starting point for sincere interest. I'm going to practice being genuinely curious and am curious about my experiences.
