How to be a highly effective risk professional
Experts adapted lessons from the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" for the risk profession at a RIMS LIVE 2021 session.
With more than 25 million copies sold worldwide, Stephen Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” has garnered a reputation of being one of the most influential nonfiction business books in history.
At an April 29 RIMS LIVE 2021 session, Timothy Kraft, risk management consultant at Warrior Consulting Ventures, and Steven Sachs, advisor at Archipelago, took the principles from Covey’s book and applied them to the risk management profession.
What follows are seven Covey-inspired habits that Kraft and Sachs have adapted to help risk advisors meet their professional and personal goals.
No. 1: Be proactive
The first step to being a highly effective risk professional is to be proactive. The first step is for professionals in the industry to own the risk management discipline, Kraft said. Part of that involves shifting identities from being an ‘insurance person’ to being a “business person” who understands the tenets of insurance and is there to be a subject matter expert to other business professionals.
Other qualities Kraft and Sachs suggest for risk professionals to be proactive is for them to always look toward the horizon and to be seen as problem solvers.
No. 2: Begin with the end in mind
Beginning with the end in mind is about leadership and effective communications, said Sachs.
To achieve this, Sachs shared his drivers for continuous success, dubbed “The 3 Legged Stool,” which includes establishing standards of success, creating accountabilities and creating measurements to confirm results.
No. 3: Put first things first
“[This habit] all starts with understanding the roles that we play,” said Kraft. In his role as a risk professional, Kraft focuses on three areas to ensure he puts “first things first”:
- Process: This is the consistent way in which risk professionals conducts their business. Kraft explained that after he and his team were able to improve their decision speed and produce better results after “codifying the process upon which we approach our daily work.”
- Problems: Bad news does not always have to be bad. It can be an opportunity for risk management to excel, fix problems, and show their value, said Kraft, adding that he looks at claims, particularly as an area that can make or break a personal brand based on how a professional approaches the issues that may arise.
- Productions: Kraft views productions as high-impact discretionary projects that are strategic initiatives to drive change within an organization.
No. 4: Think ‘win/win’
Risk professionals get the best ‘win’ when they help others ‘win.’ The starting point in any negotiation or discussion should be to understand what the other person wants, said Sachs.
But before a risk professional can create a ‘winning’ solution, they must address two areas:
- Understand your company’s strategic objectives, such as short and long term goals, constraints and values.
- Connect with leaders at all levels to align with their objectives, learn to speak their language, and communicate how leaders want to see data and make decisions.
No. 5: Seek first to understand then to be understood
Sachs emphasized that in life, you have to give up control to get control.
One anecdote Sachs shared was the story of NETSIL, which is “Listen” spelled backwards.
Sachs explained that while on the board of Howard Community College, a fellow board member said that he would write “NETSIL” at the top of a page when in meetings to help him remember always to be actively listening. He did this because if another person at a meeting looked across the table and saw that he wrote “listen” at the top of the page instead, then they might feel insulted.
“[Listening] gives you a lot more control than you would imagine,” said Sachs. “If you understand that and really practice it because it won’t happen overnight, it will be a powerful tool in your toolkit.”
No. 6: Synergize
“Remember, we are the leaders of our department; we are the risk busters, and we have to act like one,” said Kraft. “We don’t have to do everything, but we have to get everything done.”
To achieve synergy, risk professionals should coordinate resources to meet objectives and gather diverse opinions, especially on critical decisions, from fellow risk managers, brokers, and others in the field to get a broad spectrum of options available to make decisions in favor of your organization.
Kraft also encouraged risk professionals to get comfortable in their role, be passionate, lead from the front and try to make it fun. ”One of the big tenets of my success is I spend a great deal of time trying to educate people but do it in kind of a fun and meaningful way as we approach the decisions we have to make throughout the day,” he said.
No. 7: Sharpen the saw
This is the habit “where you get better,” said Kraft. He and Sachs encouraged risk managers to do three things to grow and improve as professionals:
- Always ask questions.
- Continue education within the risk management discipline, such as attending events and gaining new designations and building knowledge through reading business and leadership books.
- Push people up by encouraging teams and rewarding people with praise and recognition.
Read more RIMS LIVE 2021 coverage: