Leading from the front

As the world continues to go through an unprecedented combination of humanitarian, healthcare and economic crises, there has been, rightfully, an incredible amount of focus on a set of seemingly disparate risk factors. This includes upgrades to regulations, geopolitical risks, the “great resignation”, cyber security, supply chain, and climate to name a few. There has also been a significant expectation on organizations to develop, deliver and sustain trust in their respective operating environments as they aspire to meet evolving regulations and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.

Executing an approach to meet these expectations, of course, requires technical skills and competencies. However, it is becoming more important to have a set of leadership traits that can clearly connect governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) to the needs of the employees, customers, third parties, regulators, shareholders, and communities that GRC leaders operate in.

In this paper, we present a set of six (6) leadership traits that will position a GRC leader to meet today’s complex challenges.

1. Systems thinker
2. Deep industry awareness
3. Collaboration mindset
4. Ability to build coalitions
5. Prioritize change management
6. Relentless focus on people