How to Garner New Support
Feeling confident in your new plan? Ready to sell it to the higher powers? Your confidence will be the make or break point of garnering support for the new plan. Just like the session with your team, do not allow this to turn into a bashing session. The project is where it is. No amount of dwelling on it or discussing it will fix the issue, only new plans will.
What if you are not confident in your plan?
Do not present it then, or at the very least, don't lie. It is much better to look a sponsor in the eye and state that you don't know how to fix an issue versus setting a false hope that you can, and then letting them down again.
To garner new support, show all of the options. Talk through the issue with your sponsor, the path you'll use to reach the current decision, and how you plan to manage the new plan. Projects are full of mistakes — just don't make the same ones over and over.
Sponsors, clients, and executives are all just people in the end. They may not be happy with your progress. They may be upset at the current state of the project. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. Presenting the options, keeping them informed, and staying honest with them is where you will garner your new support. Lie to them, make and break too many promises, or shield them from all of the information, and you will most likely lose more than their trust.
