Every organisation—every project and every task—is influenced by a primary driver.
Some organisations are cause-driven, others are personality-driven, start-ups are often technology-driven. Financial firms in London are money-driven, focused on the stock market index or the latest market manipulation.
The captain, whichever one you choose, is the authority that gets heard the clearest, and the person with that voice is the one who gets to stand at the wheel.
Often organisations are stake-driven. They’re a machine, focused on the bottom-line, the outside gloss, the internal efficiency to squeeze out one more pound (money or flesh).
I’m not really interested in helping you become stake-driven, because it’s a meaningless path.
The alternative choice is to become stakeholder-driven—to hear the voice of your customer, to listen to it, to shape it, to make it better.
When you’re stake-driven, you’re focused on the latest silver-bullet tech, competing in the app-race, and your scarecrow project costs. On the other hand, when you’re stakeholder-driven, you consider the wants and desires of your customers and their stakeholders. You empathise with their situation and commit to making the change.
Being stakeholder-driven perpetuates.