What productivity tips do you have for managing multiple stakeholders and their expectations?

I'm a big fan of thinking about stakeholders side by side with programs and projects. Managing expectations is dependent on strong alignment. I use multiple tools and techniques to help navigate the web of stakeholders:

• I hold a regular cadence of 1:1 syncs (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly) with my most critical stakeholders.

• The frequency depends on the scope and nature of our relationship) to ensure we have a strong partnership and open-door policy for open conversation and overall alignment

• I rely on weekly project comms (sometimes daily if urgency is needed) to provide context on updates and use a walking deck to serve as an single source of truth of key deliverables and information (in slide format)

• I begin live checkpoints with a TLDR summary and my perspective on whether the initiative is Red, Yellow or Green. That ensures we focus conversations that are tied to the overall business goal