Friday’s #ZenClub session had a fascinating debate.
We were analysing a VP of Sales who wanted “everything” – she’d seen the marketing deck, loved all the shiny features, had big ideas about what Salesforce could do.
Barrie Robertson said: “She’s dangerous. She’s been sold the dream. She doesn’t know what she actually needs.” 🤨
Piyusha Pilania didn’t quite agree: “I like working with people who have vision. At least she knows what she wants.” 🥰
They’re both right.
Enthusiastic stakeholders with big ideas are either:
👍🏻Assets (if you help them reality-test and prioritize)
👎🏻Liabilities (if you let them create unrealistic expectations)
The difference is how you manage them.
I don’t think you should shut down their enthusiasm – that energy is valuable. But you do need to:
🍩Ask what problem each feature solves (not just what they want to build)
🍩Show what’s achievable in Phase 1 vs. Phase 2
🍩Help them prioritize based on ROI, not shininess
🍩Bridge their vision with what the end users actually need
🍩Set clear boundaries on scope, timeline, budget
Done well, they become your biggest advocate. 🥳
Done poorly, they promise features to executives that you can’t deliver, create massive scope creep, and set impossible expectations. ⚔️🤺
This is the kind of nuanced stakeholder management we work through every week in #ZenClub – realistic scenarios where there’s no obvious “right answer,” just better and worse ways to handle it.
Full session analysis including strategies for different stakeholder types in this week’s newsletter (👇🏻 make sure you set comment filter to “Most Recent” as LinkedIn hides outgoing URLs).
The best consultants know how to channel enthusiasm productively instead of being controlled by it.
I hope you’ll join us.
