As managers, the ability to manage stakeholders is a key success factor. Although it's generally called "office politics" and is considered a necessary evil, we can structure how to manage stakeholders in order not only to make it less intimidating but also to enjoy this people-oriented activity.

I stumbled upon two articles from MindTools that provide a good starting point:

• Stakeholder analysis: How to identify, prioritize, and understand stakeholders. Take a look at the prioritization matrix, it's a neat tool.
• Stakeholder management: How to plan interactions with stakeholders in order to get what we want.

Who said that managing stakeholders has to be relegated to the rank of counter-productive office politics?