Risk, Ethics, Leadership and the Holy Grail!

The impact of the recent financial crisis on organizations has been to drive a set of immediate responses that might not be the best long-term solution. The laudable desire to stop things going wrong could be leading some to focus on the “quick fix” while missing the underlying causes. People do not generally deliberately do things wrong, so maybe it is because they do not realize what they are doing is wrong that is the cause. This often places organizational failures within the responsibilities of leadership, not “bad” employees. Having employees who care about the organization and know what its objectives and values are will not only enable more effective risk management but also potentially add to profitability. Revisiting what we are seeking to achieve via leadership and how we do it may provide the long-term solution to many of our organizational challenges, not just those related to risk