CEB Corporate Leadership Council© 2013 The Corporate Executive Board Company. All Rights Reserved. 1

EMPLOYEE GUIDE: INTERACTING WITH EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERSExternal

stakeholders are individuals or groups outside your organization that you rely on to conduct your work.

• Effectively interacting with your partners impacts your organization’s overall performance.

• Customers

• Vendors

• Suppliers

• Professional associations

• Channel management/logistic providers

• Other partners

Description: This guide educates you on the information you need to know upfront before working with your organization’s external partners.

Reason for Importance: It is becoming increasingly common for companies to work with external partners to operate their business, and 65% of employees say they must manage external stakeholders to get their job done.

Examples of External Stakeholders

They include:

Who are my external partners?Write down the names of external contacts and organizations you interact with on a regular basis.

Individual/Company: ___________

External stakeholders are outside groups that do not work directly for your company, but affect or are affected by your organization’s performance.

Individual/Company: ___________

Individual/Company: ___________

Individual/Company: ___________

Source: CEB Corporate Leadership Council, Driving Breakthrough Performance in the New Work Environment, 2012

CEB Corporate Leadership Council© 2013 The Corporate Executive Board Company. All Rights Reserved. 2

EMPLOYEE GUIDE: INTERACTING WITH EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERSExternal Stakeholder Relationship Management Checklist

Instructions: Relationships with external stakeholders are critical to your organization’s success, but can be particularly difficult to manage at the individual level when the relationships are new or ambiguous. Consult the guide below to make sure you have the information and support you need to best manage your relationships with the external partners that impact your performance. You should be able to answer every question at the beginning of your relationship with an external stakeholder.

Clarify the goal of the partnership• Why is your organization partnering with another company? • What are the prospective benefits to your organization or to you personally in this relationship?

Be aware of limits to sharing internal information• What information will be shared with the external partner? You need to be aware of what internal documents or

information is considered confidential by your organization. If you believe information in sensitive from either a legal or strategic perspective, but could be useful to your external partner is fulfilling their portion of a shared task, ask your manager or the legal department for instructions before offering the information.

Define the parameters of the relationship• What are your personal responsibilities for managing the partnership? After clarifying this with your

organization, it is important to make sure you and your contacts at the partnering organization are also in agreement on your responsibilities.

• What are the responsibilities of your organization and what are the responsibilities of the partner organization?• How much time should you spend working with the partner organization?• With whom at the partnering organization will you be working most closely?• Should you accept directives and tasks from the partner organization or do you still report solely to the manager

at your company?• Are you able to give directives to employees at the partner company?

Identify other stakeholders in your organization• Who else at your organization is working in some capacity with this external partner? Knowing this will help you

identify potential contacts who can answer questions you may have while working with the external partner.• If you believe the partnering organization is not fulfilling its responsibilities, or have a complaint of any nature

about the external partner, to whom should you bring this information?