“Nobody really told me, okay, this is what success looks like. And that’s a very dangerous thing, because you can just go in there and be busy and be executing.” – Mukhtar Kadiri
Early in his career, Mukhtar was sitting on the bench with nothing to do — and his days felt numbered. When a low-priority project came along, he jumped at it, eager to prove himself. He met the contract holder, understood the terrain, laid out a plan, and started executing. Then a stakeholder he hadn’t even mapped called him into her office and blasted him.
The project wasn’t aligned with her vision — and it turned out she was more powerful than the contract holder, even though she appeared nowhere on the org chart. That moment forced Mukhtar to rethink everything. He started scheduling one-on-ones with every stakeholder he could find, asking each one what success looked like from their perspective, and then asking them to point him to the next person he should talk to.
What emerged was a comprehensive success criteria that no single person had articulated before — because even the leaders hadn’t sat down to define it. Mukhtar learned that in complex, ambiguous environments, success isn’t handed to you. It’s your job to surface it, articulate it, and get everyone aligned. As he puts it, don’t be fooled by org charts — the real stakeholder map is one you have to build yourself through one-on-one conversations.
Self-reflection Question: When was the last time you validated your stakeholder map beyond the org chart — and could there be an invisible stakeholder whose definition of success you haven’t yet discovered?
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About Mukhtar Kadiri
Mukhtar Kadiri is a PM career coach with 15+ years in project management. He specializes in helping project and program managers land $100–300K roles. He’s been named the #1 PM in Canada. He also has a LinkedIn following of 67K+ professionals. He shares practical insights for FREE on LinkedIn, where he talks about job search, career growth, and thriving as a PM.
You can link with Mukhtar Kadiri on LinkedIn.
