Stakeholder.

There’s a word we all understand. Defined, I might say it means anyone who has a financial or emotional interest in the success of a particular entity, be it organisational, community or even family. Anyone, therefore, who has a stake in the entity’s wellbeing.

Consider the organisation for which you work. Ask yourself, “Who are the stakeholders?”, and write them all down.

Of course you won’t. You’re busy, as am I.

I would hazard a guess, though, that if you made that list you would, like 80% of the groups I have asked, miss out one or two. One or two important stakeholders.

Go on – try me out. Make that list before you read further and before I provide the answer/s.

Did you read my last-but-one post on team time management? If you did, first of all thank you. Secondly, the answer to the above question may be found in your understanding of that article. If not, no problem because every article on LinkedIn, on my website or anywhere else contains a nugget of information that you may find useful. For me, it was in David Schwartz’s book ‘Think Big’, and that piece of gold was ‘Be a Front Seater’, where he proposed that people who sit at the front get more engaged and more noticed. People who sit at the front also volunteer, get opportunities and (in my case) make money and get a reputation for being authoritative.

People who sit at the back are scared of something. Think about that next time you go on a seminar.

Back to stakeholders. If you did your list of the stakeholders in your organisation – and therefore the people for whom, with whom and as a result of whom you carry out your tasks and therefore manage your time, I bet the ones your missed were

You, and your family.

They are the most important stakeholders in your workplace. They have the biggest stake in the entity’s success, because no entity equals no money (work), no purpose (work, family, service) and no happiness (relationships).

Think about that next time you go to work.

Ask yourself – “Is what I am doing, or is the quality of the work I am doing, serving the stake I have in the success of ‘X’?”

Thinking about this may just improve your attitude, or perhaps even your sense of purpose in doing what you do, which in turn gets noticed when opportunities arise to improve your own lot.

In essence, how well you do your job for the stakeholders that rely on you doing that job requires that you do the best you can with the resources available to you. Including how you use your time.

And your stakeholders include you and yours.

And if that isn’t motivation for you to learn how to manage your time as well as it can be managed, nothing is.

Have a great, productive day. And love to you and your kinfolk.