Getting Your Stakeholders' Buy-In Starts With Explaining the "Why"

This is one of the most important concepts you'll learn in Project Management. If you're not good at getting your stakeholders' buy-in, you're going to run into trouble.

But wait. What does that even mean? Who are the stakeholders? And how do you actually get their buy-in?

Your stakeholders are anyone impacted by your project; negatively or positively.

In my world, I started CyRoot Academy from scratch. And let me tell you, starting a company is the easy part. Building a team and establishing real relationships is where the challenge lies. Starting a company takes paperwork and money. Building an effective, cohesive team takes sweat equity, transparency, generosity, and yes, getting their buy-in.

Every person I interact with—whether they're on my team, an instructor, a student, a potential partner, or even a vendor—is a stakeholder.

When I first brought my team together a few months ago, I laid out a high-level process that required a lot of detailed work. They were excited, but I could tell I hadn't earned their full buy-in yet. That didn't happen until I started explaining the why.

For example, I asked them to help build a database of all the classes we offer through our vendors. We're talking over 100 classes. I asked them to research each one, including market pricing and instructor requirements.

Naturally, I got pushback. It was tedious and time-consuming. So I called a meeting.

I said, "Hey guys, let me explain why we need this."

I explained that without a solid bank of classes, we couldn't decide which ones to teach, which instructors to recruit, or how to price our offerings. My goal was to deliver the highest quality education at the lowest possible price. And I couldn't do that without proper market research.

Once the team understood the purpose behind the task, everything shifted. That database was completed in just a few days. From there, we moved on to building the website, creating the portal, developing marketing materials, and designing compensation packages. That one tedious task became the backbone of our operations.

This is why it's critical to treat the people on your team as stakeholders and to earn their buy-in by always explaining the why.