Fundamentals of Risk Management

Risk practitioner competencies
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management technical skills can be set out as a competency framework, in the way 
described in Table 27.1.
The range of business skills that will be required will vary according to the type 
of organization. In general, they will include skills related to accounting, finance, 
legal affairs, human resources, marketing, operations and information technology.
The importance of people skills has increased considerably as communication 
within and between organizations has changed. People skills are often referred to as 
soft skills. Technical skills are usually considered to be associated with intellectual 
intelligence, whereas soft or people skills are associated with emotional intelligence. 
To be successful, the risk practitioner needs a combination of both types of intelli-
gence and both sets of skills.
While labelling them ‘soft’ may make them sound less important than technical skills, in fact 
people skills are essential for all businesses, and can actually mean the difference between 
success and failure. Employing staff with good people skills will mean they are more effective 
when interacting with people. This is particularly important if your business is largely based 
on face-to-face contact with clients.
Just as technical skills can be learnt and developed, so too can people skills. In fact,
people skills are continuously developed over the course of a lifetime, but there are ways that 
you can encourage this in your business. These include workshops, seminars and 
encouragement to staff to provide input, suggestions and advice in business discussions.
Benefits of people or ‘soft’ skills
As well as technical and people skills, the successful risk manager will also require 
the skills associated with self-management and self-development. Typically, these 
will be the skills expected of all technical professionals and will often be under-
pinned by adherence to a code of ethics or code of conduct. Self-development covers 
activities that enhance talents and potential, as well as increasing job satisfaction and 
future employability. Self-development also includes developing other people, and 
this may include activities such as teacher, mentor, training provider and/or profes-
sional coach.
Table 27.2 describes the range of people skills that are required in the business 
envir onment. These skills can be classified as communication, relationship, analytical 
and management (CRAM) skills. Technical skills can be acquired through a com-
bination of training and experience, but people skills are far more reliant on the per-
sonality of the individual. Therefore, it is a greater challenge for risk practitioners to 
master the range of people skills that are required in order to be successful.

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