Think that change management skills are just for change professionals? Think again – they’re crucial skills for all professions.
A good example is people who work in governance, risk and compliance.
Research has found there is an opportunity to enhance the value they deliver by focusing development resources not just on technical skills, but on behavioural skills.
What’s the research?
Research was undertaken to understand the nature of governance, risk and compliance roles in organisations, and what could be done to enhance their ability to deliver value.
The survey was conducted during June – August 2015, seeking opinions from Australian based governance, risk and compliance professionals.
What did it find?
The findings confirmed that governance, risk and compliance professionals are relied on for advice when the business is making decisions. But many times this advice is not heeded.
The majority of governance, risk and compliance professionals said they were consulted and their advice relied on when the business was making decisions (65% and 57% respectively).
However, 70% also said there were situations when they weren’t asked to participate or provide advice on a decision that they felt they should have been. 60% said there were decisions on which they hadn’t been able to persuade the stakeholder to accept their advice. Training, coaching or development in leadership and business acumen was seen as advantageous to helping them be more influential.
More than 80% of respondents thought that understanding and knowing how to effectively manage and motivate behaviour change would help them do their job more effectively. And yet, only 5% of respondents receive frequent training in how they can understand and manage behaviour change.
What’s the answer?
Provide governance, risk and compliance professionals with the development support they need to embrace a new way of thinking and acting. This is about encouraging them to go beyond a technical focus to a behavioural focus. Ultimately, so they have the behavioural and influencing skills to best engage with and motivate their stakeholders.
Why care?
Because having a behaviourally adept and commercially astute governance, risk and compliance team, who can successfully influence and negotiate with business leaders, will lead to better organisational outcomes.
If you’d like a copy of the research results they are available here.
So, if change management skills are relevant for this profession – they may well be relevant for many others.
Remember, change happens. Make it work for you.