Excerpt from Kristy Grant-Hart’s How to be a Wildly Effective Compliance Officer: Learn the Secrets of Influence, Motivation and Persuasion to Become an In-Demand Business Asset (Brentham House 2015). Grant-Hart’s decision tree demonstrates how businesses can best work with a compliance officer.

Illustration - decision tree

I developed the Compliance Officer Decision Tree after dealing with a high-ranking corporate executive who did not understand what I did and was not interesting in learning what I did. After a particularly ugly conversation wherein she expected a commercial decision from me, I developed the Compliance Officer Decision Tree and shared it with her to help her to understand when she, as the business leader, needed to make the decision. I wanted her to understand when I had veto power, when it was my job to evaluate risks, and when it was my job to implement policies and procedures to mitigate risk. I used this Decision Tree to guide communications with her.

For every question or scenario the business brings you, use the Compliance Officer Decision Tree to help you determine whether or not you should be making the final decision. This should help you to clarify your role. When you are new in your job, or dealing with a boss that does not understand your job, use this Decision Tree to help you to draw your boundaries appropriately.

Compliance Officer Decision Tree

Compliance officer decision tree

By going through the Decision Tree, you will be able to give the proper answer, and leave the commercial decisions to the business (where they belong). You may have to teach the business about your job. You may need to educate the men and women who you work with what your job entails. But this will be time well spent. Both you and the business will be happier when you understand the roles you both play in making the company successful.

Kristy Grant Hart Headshot

This excerpt from How to be a Wildly Effective Compliance Officer is used by kind permission of its author, Kristy Grant-Hart, CEO of Spark Compliance Consulting.