Share; Stake; Stock.

Eye-glaze warning: Some of these terms cause people to tune out from whatever follows. Commonly used in mission statements and corporate mumbo-jumbo.

TL;DR:

Shareholder: Someone who owns shares (or stocks) in your organisation.

Stakeholder: Someone who’s impacted by your organisation or project.

The longer bit:

(I switch between these two terms a lot below which got confusing as I was re-reading, so rather than stick with confusing, I added emojis to also make it annoying).

You may see share🤑holder and stake🥩holder used interchangeably, but they’re different.

A share🤑holder generally cares about the financial stuff – revenue, growth, margin, capital, etc. They put money into your org and expect to get money back.

A stake🥩holder however, is anyone who might be impacted by decisions your organisation makes, the work it does, or the products or services it delivers. Stake🥩holders might include employees, customers, service providers, suppliers, as well as those in surrounding areas (like when a road is being repaired late at night and you can hear the jackhammer – you’re a stake🥩holder in that project).

Organisations that seek to “maximise share🤑holder value” are almost always talking about dollars. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it might skew decision-making. Eg, they may prioritise relentless billing at the cost of worker health and safety.

Organisations focused on stake🥩holders over share🤑holders may be more interested in seeking engagement, feedback and reassurance, rather than providing financial returns.

Or put another way, a stake🥩holder-focused org ensures it’s providing maximum benefit and minimal harm to as many stake🥩holders as possible, and wants to regularly check in and know if they’re actually achieving that.

Whenever the word share🤑holder is used is when I personally start to glaze over, especially if it’s part of some marketing material or a mission statement. Sometimes I see the word stake🥩holder and think I’ve just seen the word share🤑holder, so still glaze over, but probably just because they’re such uninspiring, boring words.

Stake🥩holders and share🤑holders are also known as people.

You’re a people – do you regularly identify as a “stakeholder” in anything? I know I don’t.

Mostly a public service announcement today, in two parts:

1. Heads-up that sometimes it’s worth pushing through and reading that eye-glazy language, especially if you thought you read share🤑holder but it really says (or they meant) stake🥩holder.
2. There are nicer, and more impactful ways to refer to people in your own marketing material, which will also help them self-identify as a person you’re addressing directly. Refer to people as people – your stake🥩holders will appreciate it.

(And to edit myself, stakeholders aren’t always people. A place can be a stakeholder too!)