Soft Skills Matter

When hiring compliance professionals, leaders often give me a long list of technical expertise they're looking for.

Don't get me wrong, technical knowledge matters.

You need people who understand regulations, risk frameworks, AML, sanctions, policies, procedures and everything else that comes with a career in compliance.

But technical expertise alone doesn't make someone successful.

So what else do we need to look for?

Commercial Awareness 

The best risk and compliance professionals understand the business they work in, they understand the organisation's risk appetite.

Not just identifying risk, but they understand the commercial goals behind the decisions being made and can ultimately help senior leadership move forward.

Conversations start becoming 'how can we move forward?' not 'we can't move forward.

Communication

This is an area we tend to find people can fall down "they clearly have some great knowledge, but I think they'd struggle communicating this to partners".

You can be the most technically knowledgeable person in the room, but if you can't explain risk in a way everyone else in the business understands, it becomes redundant.

The ability to translate technical analysis into practical advice is so valuable.

Relationship Building

Compliance may be an isolated role in a lot of firms, especially smaller businesses where you may have one person or a small team sat in the corner of the office.

But, your role is central to the business, you need to be able to work with Sales, HR, finance, lawyers, tech and everyone else in the firm. So being able to build trust across all of these functions is a superpower.

When people trust you, they involve you. Problems come to you when they first arise, not a week later when compliance has become the only remaining option.

Emotional Intelligence

Sat in a compliance function you often deal with serious competing priorities, often fighting with people who want to get a deal over the line and signed.

Being able to empathise with and understand someone's perspective goes a long way.

The best compliance professionals can challenge decisions without damaging relationships.

Adaptability 

We all know the risk and compliance world is forever changing.

Technology is changing, new rules and regulations and guidelines from regulators come up, risks that organisations are regularly changing too.

Those people who continue to learn, adapt and evolve are those who can progress the fastest.

We all know the firms whose AML records are still sitting in paper files from 20 years ago probably carry more risk than they realise.

Technical knowledge will always be the foundation in compliance.

But more and more firms are using their risk and compliance functions as a tool to support growth, not just manage risk.

Bringing a broader skill set to the table will take you much further than technical expertise alone.