Managing sponsor

Good day...

I hope you agree with me that among all of your stakeholders, your project sponsor could be the most important one and the most difficult to handle, am I right? It you agree with me on the above statement, it is normal, as your project sponsor is the one providing you with the budget and to be held responsible for the investment and business case realization of the project.

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Having said so, let's discuss on managing your project sponsor and making sure that she is a resourceful person to the project. The last thing you want to have in your project is your project sponsor coming against you. Then what is the practical way to make sure that your project sponsor is on your side? There are couple of important things you need to keep in mind in this domain:

1. First of all, make sure that your project sponsor is fully aware of the project objective, scope, key deliverables, and other important constraints, such as budget, timeline, important milestones, and key team members. Repeating the items over and over again during project SteerCo meetings and offline whenever you have the opportunity will increase her awareness to your project.

2. As with other stakeholders, offline catch up and updates, on positive achievements, risks and issues, are always recommended. Remember, that no one likes a negative surprise. In that case, in both better and worse situation, you better make sure that you are the first person delivering the update to her. This is especially true for a negative situation development, issue or anticipated risk. To add on this argument, it is very normal for anyone to set their mind on the first news she hears.

3. Build rapport with your sponsor as with other stakeholders. One-on-one sessions, lunch, coffee catch-up, and offline discussions are among the methods you should give a try. Although conversation on a more personal side of each of you is encouraged, keep a high professionalism in each session.

4. Deliver, deliver, and deliver. There is nothing more powerful in building your sponsor's (and your other leaders') trust to you than delivering the expected result, and if possible, go beyond the expectation. Keep up with your milestones, budget, quality, and team performance.

At the end, once you have your project sponsor's support, half of the burden is taken away from your shoulder.

Edwin