Businesses in the current day and age are much different from those of the past. Until recently, the way businesses were run was left to the executives at the top. Today, risk professionals are much more involved in the process.

Risk managers have an extraordinary amount of knowledge about their organizations because they speak, coordinate and solve problems with just about every facet and branch of a company. But despite their integral role, many find themselves wondering how to connect with executive management or a board of directors.

RIMS recently published a report, The Top Five Steps for Communicating with Executives, which highlights effective ways to share information with their company's senior management. These tips are based on interviews conducted with leading risk professionals from a variety of industries who have “seats at the table,” and their advice can get help others get there as well.

No matter the field, insurance professionals everywhere can gain valuable insights into the world of executives. Keep reading to see which steps will help you more effectively communicate with executives.

Prepping for meeting

Spend a significant amount of time crafting the materials, especially in the early stages of a relationship with executives. (Photo: Shutterstock)

1. Prepare for the meeting

It may sound basic, but it's the best place to start. Whether you're in a team-building meeting or reviewing your company's growth in 2017, you know you need to prepare. But what you might not think to prepare for are the informal, one-on-one meetings with executives that can happen at any time.

One way to prep is to send materials that you will be discussing via email a day or two before the meeting, and have a clear agenda for the discussion, even if you don't need to share one with the executive. Spend a significant amount of time crafting the materials, especially in the early stages of a relationship with executives.

Many of the risk professionals interviewed in this report claimed that meetings like these were the ones in which the most groundbreaking conversations happened, so it's important to be ready for any scenario.

Man listens carefully

Listening carefully can also give the risk professional important information about how to proceed with the relationship. (Photo: Shutterstock)

2. Listen carefully

When meeting with executives, it is essential to listen carefully. Don't dismiss or ignore anything an executive has to say to you about risk management, especially if it's something you haven't heard before. Listening carefully can give the risk professional important information about how to proceed with the relationship.

“The feedback you get can also help you understand where things aren't resonating, where people aren't getting it. You have to listen really carefully.” Suzanne Christensen, treasurer and head of investor relations and risk at Invesco, told RIMS. “It's always a hint if you're not getting a two-way conversation. If they're not starting to contribute and say, 'Oh yeah, we can do this or that to help,' then they're not getting it. You have to be on the lookout for that.”

You need to think about the executives' point of view, their business, their teams. (Photo: Shutterstock)

3. Speak their language

Executives are usually risk-takers, while risk professions are in the business of minimizing as many risks as possible. How do the two communicate? You need to think about their point of view, their business, their teams.

It's also important to tailor what risk management has to say into understandable business terms. Not everyone will have a background in risk management, so it's important to speak in a common language. From there, risk professionals can relay their insights more effectively.

Coming into a meeting with open-ended questions can send the message that you don't know what's going on in the risk sphere. (Photo: Shutterstock)

4. Propose solutions

Risk managers are expected to propose solutions and have answers for any number of risks that executives might not be aware of. Asking open-ended questions is the opposite of proposing solutions, and this is where a risk manager can get in trouble. Coming into a meeting with open-ended questions can send the message that you don't know what's going on in the risk sphere. Short of that, it can simply be a waste of their time and derail the meeting.

Morgan Keane, formerly the ERM general manager at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told RIMS, “I would never ask 'How do you think we should move forward?' I always bring potential answers with me to propose. At that level, you need to have something for them to react to. If I come with an open question, I might lose control of the meeting because it will go down a path I didn't anticipate.”

Challenge yourself

Every organization is unique in its culture, structure and circumstances. (Photo: Shutterstock)

5. Challenge yourself

The most important challenge for a risk professional is how to make that leap from being perceived as “the insurance person” to being accepted as a critical informant of strategic decisions.

An ERM leader at a global consumer packaged goods (CPG) company (who requested to remain anonymous) told RIMS, “You should never have to convince anyone that risk management is valuable because the work itself should show the value. One way I always challenge myself is to make myself think like the general manager of a business unit. What is it that I can bring that will show the value to our strategic goals?”

Every organization is unique in its culture, structure and circumstances. The preceding tips have worked well for the risk managers interviewed, but others might need to tweak their approach in order to communicate with their executives more effectively.

Special Reports /

5 steps for communicating effectively with insurance executives

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