In the military, when any soldier or other military member leaves his or her post without permission, he or she is considered AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave). A missing soldier leaves a void—which could negatively contribute to the success of the mission. Everyone involved in a project, including the sponsor, has a role to play in the results obtained by any project based work.
Any work management plan should include sponsor and stakeholder involvement. Here are some suggestions for keeping sponsors engaged and participating:
- Schedule regular meetings (generally monthly) with sponsors, team members and other important stakeholders: This may be a good time for a "quick" status update; but more importantly, it is a time for reinforcing the value and significance of the project in terms of business value and the sponsor’s commitment to helping the team.
- Educate the sponsor on their role as part of the team: The sponsor has a significant role as a project advocate in a steering/stakeholder committee as a way to communicate with stakeholders and provide visibility to executives.
- Don’t neglect impromptu one-on-one time with the project sponsor: Make sure your sponsor is willing to have the occasional informal meetings as needed. It’s not only important to cultivate the relationship with the sponsor—your success impacts their success, and vice versa.
Keeping sponsors engaged often makes the difference between a project that succeeds and one that fails. Project management tools that facilitate sponsor and stakeholder communication can help make this easier, but regardless of whether or not it’s a part of your work management solution, allowing project sponsors to go AWOL isn’t a good idea.
How do you keep project sponsors from going AWOL?
