Dear Reader,

Welcome to my 6 email series sharing my very top tips on developing your communication skills and career and answering the questions I get asked again and again by clients.

This is the 6th and last email in that series. And it’s a powerful exercise which I’ve saved for last.

Are you ready?

This is about answering the question “How can I have better relationships with my stakeholders?”

Which is a big question that can be unpacked in a number of ways. Ways like:

How do I know the strength of my stakeholder relationship skills?

How do I know which of my skills are valued?

In what ways can I get better at stakeholder management?

And wouldn’t it be great if there was a simple way to check this out? Well, it turns out there is!

Welcome to the Power Audit. Here’s how you do it.

🦸‍♀️ Be your very own action hero

This exercise lets you find out your superpowers and where your areas are for growth with new super skills. A bit like an action hero. You might find out there are areas where you are knocking it out of the park. And also, where there are areas that might be disappointing.

And this is where I’m going to introduce the phrase “right now” because if you find out there are areas that your stakeholder feels are disappointing, tag on “right now” and then you’ve got yourself an area for growth and opportunity.

Nice reframe, yes? Did you see what I did there?

So, let me share the exercise.

1. First up, write down 10 stakeholders that you communicate with the most. Beside their name place a number between 1 – 10. This number reflects how much you rely on them to do your job.

Think about what this person does to support you in your role.

Are they the kind of person who’s calm and a harbour in tough times? Are they creative and come up with great ideas? Are they the person who has their finger on the pulse and knows office politics?

If this person is really important to you and someone you think would be tricky to replace put a higher number beside them.

2. Then, flip the exercise.

Put another number beside each stakeholder (I'd recommend a different colour of pen) that reflects the value you think they receive from you. This is where you step into their shoes and think about things from their perspective.

3. Then, and this is where you need to put on your big boy pants/big girl pants, invite your stakeholder to give you a number on the quality of your stakeholder skills. This is where you may see a gap between your perception of the relationship and their perception.

4. And then there’s an optional extra bit if you want to dive deeper and are feeling brave. Arrange to meet up to explore your stakeholders’ answers and how they consider you could up things from a 6 out of 10 to an 8 or a 9 out of 10. Heck, what would a 10 out of 10 look like to this person?

Let’s be ambitious here!

Done regularly, this exercise lets you check in on the temperatures of your key business relationships and gives you both an aerial view and a deeper dive of things.

It also lets you see who has power and influence in the relationships and if that’s in balance. Or if it’s not and somebody else holds all of the cards.

What’s really going on

Doing this deeper dive also lets you see where your stronger relationships are and if they are spread in an even way across your organisation or if they’re all on the same team or with the same kind of person.

For example, are 2 of your 10 stakeholders scoring off the charts in how they support you but everyone else is below a 4?

Once you’ve got more information, are there common themes emerging? Do you have a reputation for being ahead of deadlines? Are you the person others contact for an update because of your clear, concise communication skills? Or are you the person that brings harmony to teamwork?

The Power Audit is a great way to measure and chart relationship building skills and see the strength of your network.

Yes, it takes a bit of time. But it also has the power to identify strengths and areas for development – which are great for developing your career.

And with that, we're wrapping up this little series on the things clients ask me about again and again. If you're up for sharing, which of these 6 emails was most helpful to you?

See you next time,

Mica

P.S. Sticking with the action hero theme, my cape would be a bright, fuchsia pink. What colour what yours be?

Copyright @ Mica Allan Consulting, 2025

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