{"id":2250,"date":"2020-05-11T11:06:05","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T11:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/?p=2250"},"modified":"2025-08-07T07:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T07:59:06","slug":"getting-your-point-across-to-a-difficult-stakeholder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/getting-your-point-across-to-a-difficult-stakeholder\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting your point across to a difficult stakeholder"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet\u00ae Trainer<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"We all have those colleagues and customers that we find difficult. More often than not, it\u2019s one of our important stakeholders. They might be demanding. They might talk over us or appear not to listen. Maybe they frequently catch us off guard, asking a question or for information that we are simply not prepared for.<\/p>\r\n

Whatever the reason, it\u2019s wise to have a strategy for how we communicate with our difficult stakeholders. One of the key challenges is that when we find someone difficult, this can put us on edge \u2013 making us lose our train of thought, ramble or not do ourselves justice when we are trying to get our point across.<\/p>\r\n

The techniques we teach in Think on Your Feet\u00ae<\/strong><\/a> enable you to get your point across clearly, succinctly and with impact, regardless of how challenging the stakeholder is.<\/p>\r\n

Key messages<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

The most important thing in getting a point across, is that we need to be clear about what we are trying to get across! This may sound obvious, but it is amazing how many people launch into a conversation, with no clue of what their main point(s) are and not knowing the direction they are going to take in delivering the message.<\/p>\r\n

Structure<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Once you know what your key messages are, you need to have some sort of structure for delivering them. To get your point across and to stop your stakeholder from interrupting or challenging you, you need to sound confident in what you are saying – sounding like you have a direction.<\/p>\r\n

In our Think on Your Feet\u00ae <\/strong>workshop, the structures we use are called \u201cPlans\u201d.\u00a0 The way \u201cPlans\u201d work is:<\/p>\r\n