Editor's note: This story was featured in the winter 2026 issue of ASU Thrive.
Written by May Busch
About the author
A former COO of Morgan Stanley Europe, she is now an executive coach, speaker, advisor, author and executive-in-residence in ASU’s Office of the President.
Reprinted with permission from “VISIBLE: How to Advance Your Career Without Playing Politics, Selling Your Soul, or Working Yourself into the Ground,” chapter 2: Managing Your Stakeholders: Winning Support Without Playing Politics.
Stakeholders are the people who have a say in your work and your career. They’re key to your progression and worth having on your side.
However, it can be more complicated than you think to identify them. Even well-meaning people can make the career-limiting mistake of overlooking an entire group of stakeholders.
When senior management at Morgan Stanley transferred me from New York to London to start a new business unit, my marching orders were to put together a business plan, build a team and most importantly, get the European bankers on board. They were our entry point to the corporate clients. Without the bankers, we could not succeed.
Armed with a list of our bankers in Europe, I sat down with my colleagues in the U.S. to figure out who had the biggest clients and the “friendlies” versus the skeptics. This prioritization meant I could figure out who to reach out to first — the 20% who were likely to deliver 80% of the business opportunities.
Within the first 90 days of landing in London, I had met with all of them. Little did I know, I had failed to recognize an important set of stakeholders at the firm and that threatened to undermine my success.
Refocusing my priorities
One day, my boss called me into his office. My counterparts in sales and trading were grumbling about me. Six months had gone by and they questioned, “When is she going to start pulling her own weight?”
That’s when it hit me: I had taken my assignment too literally. I spent all my time with the relationship bankers without ever meeting with most of the sales and trading leaders. They were paying for half of my business unit but had been left out of the loop.
They were like the 13th slighted fairy in Grimm’s “Sleeping Beauty” tale — the one who wasn’t invited to the royal christening but crashed the party to put a curse on the princess, causing her to sleep for 100 years before being awakened by a handsome prince. In my case, it was “shape up or be gone” and there was no handsome prince to save me.
So, consider the people you missed. Revisit your list because things change, and every time you have a new project or role, it may involve different stakeholders.
Putting it into practice
Step one: Make a list.
List out the top 5–10 people who have an interest in, are affected by, or can affect what you do and don’t do. They can be internal or external to your organization, but their buy-in is crucial to your success. Think about people who:
- Can greenlight your project or kill it
- Can accelerate your progress
- Can set you back
- Can amplify what you do or recommend you to others
- Pay and promote you
- Recognize you for your performance
Step two: Map them out.
Once you have your list of key stakeholders, step back and assess them. Not all stakeholders are created equal. Mapping them out will help you decide where to focus your time, energy and attention.
Build your career toolkit
Try this method the next time you’re unsure of which stakeholders should be in your orbit.
The full mapping exercise can be found in Chapter 2 of “VISIBLE: How to Advance Your Career Without Playing Politics, Selling Your Soul, or Working Yourself into the Ground.”
Pick up your copy at thevisiblebook.com.
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