As a Project Manager, it’s important to recognise that your project will likely never be the top priority for senior stakeholders—and it doesn’t need to be. They are senior leaders because they have many other responsibilities and priorities. That’s precisely why they hired you: to ensure the project remains a top priority for you. Instead of trying to elevate your project on their priority list, focus on understanding their perspective. What’s important to them? Tailor your engagement to provide clear, concise updates and address their concerns without overloading them. While the project might mean the world to you, it’s not the same for everyone—respect their time and priorities to secure their trust and support.

It's very simple: Define the project priorities based on the business priorities, and your project will automatically receive attention.

Senior stakeholders attention to projects are extremely difficult to get. A project is a potential for revenue, improvisation of customer service or a result of a regulation in all cases is an expenditure. A RAG status is merely not enough to get their attention. To get senior stakeholder attention it is important to explain the impact from their perspective which can be in terms of impact on sales , revenue, customer or regulations. As their time is very precious, you have to be very precise what is it that we are seeking from them by bringing this to their attention.

To engage senior stakeholders effectively, frame your project as a solution to their pain points, backed by data-driven insights. Create a visual roadmap that highlights critical milestones and benefits, emphasizing measurable value. Use strategic storytelling to connect the project's impact to their long-term vision. Foster ownership by involving them in decision-making for key junctures, ensuring their influence is acknowledged and their priorities are integrated into the project's success.

Customer focused. Engaging with senior stakeholders, we need to understand their pain points and priorities. Often it is high value high impact pain points and very enterprise related. Focus on breaking down the strategies on how your initiative will address the pain points. Use simple but clear language during presentiation. Focus on impact and value rather than effort. You may highlight key challenges and how to address them. Finally, what are the main key asks that you need from senior stakeholders so that they will also feel onboard. Buy in is super critical