Choosing Greatness – Why Your Should Determine Your Legacy Now
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Just five years. That’s the average amount of time managers and professionals stay in one job according to the US Bureau of Labor. Consider where are you in that cycle. No matter whether you’re one month in or twenty years, it’s never too early to think about how you want to be remembered and what you want to leave behind – otherwise known as your legacy.
Legacy connotes “that which lingers after a person has left.” Your focus and your choices now determine what you’ll leave behind. Too many of us rush haphazardly through our days without considering the bigger picture of what we’re building. Greatness is a choice. To help you make the biggest impact, determine what you want your legacy to be, and work with an eye to that every day.
There isn’t just one type of legacy to think about in your work. Think about legacy in three ways.
No. 1: The Compliance Program
Imagine the compliance program in its best form in one year, three years, five years, and ten years. What has changed? What technology has it implemented? How big is the team? And most importantly, what can you contribute to make the biggest impact such that you leave the program significantly better than you inherited it?
If you’re stuck, consider two things. First, your risk assessment. Implementing mitigation strategies to manage your company’s greatest risk will leave a legacy. But also consider this - what are your strongest skills? Do you write clear and concise policies? Do you give training sessions that people enjoy? Do you have close relationships with board members? Whatever your strongest skill, consciously use it. Polices will be in place for years, good training will stay with the employees, and board members who understand compliance will be priceless for those who come into the company after you.
No. 2: The Company’s Culture
Consider how you can most effectively help…
Read MoreWildly Effective Compliance Officer Tip of the Week - 223
/Email Clog? Nope - it's worth it in this instance!
The Holy Grail of Due Diligence Integration: Scoping for Success
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Your third parties hate you right now. One due diligence questionnaire comes from compliance, another from information security, another from corporate social responsibility, another from health and safety… all coming from different email addresses and systems. All repetitive. All taking an overly long amount of time.
For the past couple of years, there has been a push to relieve the stress felt by third parties by integrating the due diligence process into a single process. Saying “we should have a single process” is simple. Executing on that is really, really hard.
One blog post could not do justice to the grandness of this task, so this one will focus solely on scoping the types of risks that should be considered for an integrated third party risk management approach. Every company is different of course, and understanding the due diligence already being performed by various functions is a critical part of gathering information to succeed in creating the process. Regardless, some risks are commonly incorporated into an integrated third party program. These include:
Bribery and Corruption
The need for bribery-related due diligence in corporate compliance sparked the entire industry. Many third party due diligence programs are still focused solely on bribery and corruption, and it should still be a major focus of any third party due diligence program.
Modern Slavery/Human Trafficking…
Read MoreYou Sure Your Managers Know how to Handle Reports of Misconduct?
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67%. That’s a huge number. When employees report misconduct, 67% report it to their manager. In contrast, on average, according to HR Acuity’s Employee Experience survey, only 6% report to the whistleblower hotline. In compliance, we focus so strongly on the whistleblower hotline that we may be missing a gaping hole – the managers who take the initial reports.
Worrying few compliance programs actively equip managers to handle complaints. While many companies train managers on non-retaliation, very few take the time to go over what to do if the manager is faced with an employee reporting concerns of unethical conduct.
How do you equip your managers to properly respond to complaints? By creating a communication, infographic, or a short training that contains the following.
The Meaning of “Report”
When an employee comes to a manager to talk about potentially unethical conduct or to report a violation of the Code, they usually don’t walk in and say, “I’d like to make a confidential report of unethical conduct.” No, more often they say something like, “I don’t know if I should say anything, but I think Pauline may be pushing her friend’s company to get the contract.” Managers need to be aware that this type of conversation is a “report” of misconduct, and should be responded to as such. Without proper training on this, managers may make the situation worse by brushing off the concern – or worse – retaliating against the employee for bringing the concern in the first place.
Managers should be trained to recognize trigger words for when a report is being made. These may include, “concern,” “uncomfortable,” “think that [followed by potential violation].”
What to Do
Once the manager recognizes that a report is being made, they need to know what to do. Make sure that they know…
Read MoreWildly Effective Compliance Officer Tip of the Week - 222
/Expand Your Reading List for Much Greater Dividends!
Five Way to Overcome Compliance Fatigue
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People are fatigued. From endless Zoom calls to children failing to remote learn, exhaustion is more rampant than ever. All of this fatigue leads to stress. People under stress have less patience and ability to focus. That can easily extend to their feelings toward compliance, leading to compliance fatigue. “Compliance fatigue” refers to exhaustion with compliance-related topics. In this time it’s easier than ever for people to feel that compliance is just one more thing that they have to deal with.
While the job of the compliance officer is to “keep calm and compliance on,” there may be more pushback than normal because of people’s heightened stress levels. At times like this, we need a plan. Here are five ways to overcome (or at least combat) compliance fatigue.
No. 1: Mix it Up
The same-old, same-old gets to be just that – old. When you’re trying to recapture your audience, try something new. There are many creative companies in the compliance field ready to help. The Broadcat has an entire suite of pre-created communications devices employing cartoon characters and quippy sayings. Compliance Wave’s short burst cartoon training is famous for its eye-catching style, and Real Biz Shorts has a library of entertaining (mostly US-centric) videos that quickly capture attention.
If you don’t have access to these tools, you can make a cartoon yourself using Doodly.com. You can also use Canva.com to create materials like infographics. You can download PowerPoint and Google Docs templates that include interesting graphics. Whatever you do, bring humor and a catchy look to your communications or training to mix it up.
No. 2: Re-work Your Schedule
Take a look at your annual training and communications plan. Then ask HR, Security, Sustainability/CSR, IT, and anyone else who regularly deploys training and communications to send you their training and comms plan. Look carefully to see where the calendar is most open. Fit your plan around all of the other functions so that the people you need to train aren’t worn out by having training from multiple functions. People don’t differentiate one training activity from another. For compliance professionals, anti-bribery training is completely different than cyber training, but to the average employee, training is training.
It may be uncomfortable to move your schedule around. If you typically celebrate Ethics & Compliance Week in November, it may feel weird to move it to June. However, if June is the best place to put it based on the schedule, go ahead and move it. Impact is more important than keeping things moving according to plan.
No. 3: Shorten it Up…
Read MoreWildly Effective Compliance Officer Tip of the Week - 221
/Instead of “No,” hear “Not Now” - here’s why!
The Top Five Traits of the Best Compliance Officers
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One of the great joys of consulting is being able to see so many companies from the inside out. This week Spark Compliance Consulting reached its fifth anniversary (!). That milestone had me thinking about what I’ve learned from watching how hundreds of compliance programs work. I’ve learned what works – and what doesn’t work. I’ve also learned to spot who works well, and who doesn’t.
Tony Robbins famously said that success leaves clues. There are commonalities present in those who become wildly successful in their compliance officer jobs. The titans of our industry and the rising starts have similar traits – those that predispose these people to greatness and, when honed, create singularly great compliance officers. These are the top five traits that they share and how you can nurture them in yourself.
Trait One: Curiosity
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines curiosity as “inquisitive interest in others' concerns,” and “interest leading to inquiry.” A person with an inquisitive nature gives others a great gift – that of attention. In our frenzied modern era, one of the most craved-for things is the undivided attention of others.
A curious person uses their inquisitive interest in others’ concerns to drive them to understand how and why things happen in the company and the lives of their co-workers. This knowledge aggregates, culminating in a unique vantage point from which to make decisions. The more knowledgeable the compliance officer is about the company’s operations, the more able they are to tailor the program to its needs. But perhaps more so, the more information the compliance officer has about the people in the company, the better the program can be structured to meet the employees’ needs.
To nurture curiosity in yourself, begin with the question, “I wonder why that is?” When someone has a vastly different opinion than you do, or they do things in ways that don’t make sense to you, instead of judging, choose to be curious about their thought process. Ask questions. Pay attention. Act like a scientist or observer. Your attention will draw out others to tell you about why and how they do what they do, making you more effective in your response.
Trait Two: Tenacity…
Read MoreHappy Five Year Anniversary to Spark Compliance!
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Five years ago today I was terrified. It was just me, opening my computer, hoping that it all worked out. When starting a business, people helpfully remind you that 80% of small businesses fail before they hit their fifth year anniversary. It was my fierce prayer at that time that we would get to today, and we have!
Spark Compliance has grown and thrived more than I could have hoped for that day. We grew from my home office to having a presence in London, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. We've got a terrific team. We've won awards. And most importantly, we have the most wonderful clients and friends. We are so lucky to count you among them.
We've got massive plans for this year, including this month's upcoming launch of our hotly anticipated hybrid online/live facilitated training game for companies called "Compliance Competitor."
From the bottom of my heart, thank you. If five years ago, I could have seen what the company would look like today, I would have been delighted. Thank you for being such a huge part of this accomplishment.
All the best,
Kristy :)
