Page 75 - IRMSA Risk Report 2021

5. STRATEGIC THINKING

Of all the competencies a risk professional needs to develop, strategic thinking is arguably the most important. If you do not master
this skill, your potential to add value to your organisation and gain the respect of executives will be limited.

To develop this skill, you need to get out of the trenches and take a holistic, a helicopter, and a satellite view of your organisation.

The true purpose, and the true value, of risk management does not lie in the mire of detailed standards, processes, and risk
registers. It is found in making sense of uncertainty; understanding the big issues that can sink the organisation; contributing to the
debate inside and outside your organisation; guiding decision-making; and ensuring strategic objectives are achieved.

To be clear, some level of detail is necessary for a strategic thinker to understand how details can impact the big picture – but you
should not get so bogged down in the details that you become unable to see the wood for the trees. Discernment and experience
are needed to determine when details are required and when they only serve to obstruct and impede organisational ambition and
purpose.

Risk professionals must think like leaders and executives to be able to have meaningful interaction and contribute to the organisation
at a strategic level.

TOP 10 SKILLS

1. COMPLEX PROBLEM SOLVING 1. COMPLEX PROBLEM SOLVING
2. CRITICAL THINKING 2. COORDINATING WITH OTHERS
3. CREATIVITY 3. PEOPLE-MANAGEMENT

4. PEOPLE-MANAGEMENT 4. CRITICAL THINKING

5. COORDINATING WITH OTHERS 5. NEGOTIATION
6. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 6. QUALITY CONTROL
7. JUDGEMENT AND DECISION-MAKING 7. SERVICE ORIENTATION

8. SERVICE ORIENTATION 8. JUDGEMENT AND DECISION-MAKING

9. NEGOTIATION 9. ACTIVE LISTENING
10. COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY 10. CREATIVITY
2020 2015

SOURCE: FUTURE OF JOBS REPORT, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 2020.

The similarities in the competencies required of a Chief Executive Officer and a risk professional are not coincidental or overstated.
Both CEOs and risk professionals must have a deep knowledge of how all the components of the organisation should fit together
and function in harmony to create sustainable value and deliver the required results. Because risk and strategy are flipsides of the
same coin, the competencies needed to drive strategy are aligned to those needed to drive risk.

6. CONTEXTUAL AWARENESS

To be strategic, risk professionals require a solid understanding of the external and internal context of the organisation, organisational
drivers, industry, and world. Coupled with this is being knowledgeable about emerging business trends and how all these contextual
elements are woven into the unique cloth of the organisation. The ability to see, comprehend, and react to the bigger picture is what
makes risk professionals, organisations, and countries exceptional.

75