Stakeholder management skills have direct impact on achieving the company strategic objectives. Here ‘Sabina Janstrom’ has discussed some points in her Podcast which I have found interesting and agree with most of these points.

• Stakeholder engagement as a portfolio manager is responsible for controlling resistance to change and preventing interruption across the company.
• Stakeholders time engagement with the projects is essential.
• Portfolio managers are better equipped to respond to project disruption because of their borader vision about individual project within the wider portfolio.
• Being open about risks and setbacks will make portfolio managers appear organized and in control of the situation
• Mitigating this resistance is a key role of the portfolio manager.
• Portfolio managers must be trusted advisors.
• A strong portfolio manager has most of the time sixth sense for risk.

I like this point that Stakeholders should be trusted advisors so that if anything goes wrong then a blind trust on their opinion can be done. They are the key players in accomplishing the business strategy and bringing the company to achieve its vision. They are better risk identifier as they have a constant eye on the success of projects and programs.

Reference:

Podcast: Stakeholder engagement in portfolio management