Five questions to assess independence in your role

It feels like it’s been a while since our profession has talked about the whole “independence” thing. Maybe that’s good? Maybe that means that every company out there is granting their CCOs the independence they need to do their jobs.

Or maybe it’s just not as top-of-mind as it once was? Candidly, I feel it’s the latter.

For CCOs and other high-level compliance officers, independence is important because it allows you to conduct your job as you see fit. It means that you do your work for your company (read: your Board)—not for a boss, not for a GC, and not for another C-level exec.  

Broadcat’s founder, Ricardo Pellafone, looked at this issue eight years ago through a lens of “Can I leave if I'm not independent?” It cuts deep, and I suggest carving out some quiet, introspective time to conduct this self-assessment if you’ve not already done so. 

For the purpose of this post, however, I want to explore independence as access: Are you able to get the time, resources, and candor you need to do your job? Don’t say “yes” just yet! Read and respond to these five questions for a true evaluation of your independence query.  

1. Are you able to get any piece of data you ask for (within reason)?  

Obviously, if you need a security clearance for something and you don’t have it, you can’t reasonably ask for whatever that something is without going through the clearance process first.

But really, just about anything else—financial docs, most HR records, audits, external reviews, etc.—should be available to you whenever you ask for them, ideally on demand. And if not on demand, within a reasonable period of time if, for example, a report needs to be pulled or access needs to be granted to you or your team.

What’s even better is if you were copied whenever those things were originally created. If you can’t get the data you’re looking for, or unreasonable roadblocks are being put in your way, you may need to start questioning your independence.

2. Are you able to get time on any senior leader’s calendar?

This is important not only for conducting assessments, investigations, and the like, but also for building relationships with these individuals. Without that kind of access, you’re simply not going to get the view of the “top.” 

Your job is to be on the pulse of what’s happening risk-wise in your org, and these are the folks with whom the metaphorical buck stops. They need to be able to answer questions about what’s going on in their teams (more on that below), but you also need to be able to tell them when you’ve uncovered something that has gone or might be going sideways. You may actually be the one who surfaces something even they didn’t know about.

So, having the ability to schedule time, build relationships, speak frankly with them, and help them see their own forests for their trees is vital to showing your program’s effectiveness while doing your job to support the overall business.

3. Are you able to ask leaders questions about their/their team’s activities?

Once you have that access, you need to be able to ask whatever you need to get to the bottom of situations. And I’m not just talking about crises—this also includes the innocuous situations that help you better understand workflows, processes, infrastructures, etc., so you can do a better job helping the org identify and detect risk.

Put another way, not everything you ask is about finding bad stuff. In fact, I’d argue that most of the time you’re really in an info-gathering role to help the org find efficiencies and grow.

That being said, you need to be able to ask people about their parts of the company without their pushing back, or having them get defensive or cagey. And that’s where the relationship part is important. So, go out there and be curious. Get to know your org and the people in it by learning about them. And when a situation goes sideways, you’ll be in a position to help unpack it.

4. Are you able to visit any site, location, or office, and generally without prior notice?

The same overall caveat that I mentioned regarding data also applies here—you can’t just bust your way into a classified facility without clearance. (Side note: Maybe that’s another question you need to ask—should you have clearance to visit those kinds of sites?)

With any other sort of non-restricted area, however, you should be able to walk in without having to announce your visit. This access is very important when you’re conducting an audit or other investigation, as well as in basic info-gathering. 

And, yes, you should be doing these basic info-gathering visits to help you understand what is actually happening throughout your company! It's great to hear from and talk with leaders, but there’s nothing quite like getting an opportunity to see what everyone else is up to. 

5. Are you able to communicate with your Board directly without having to go through legal or another senior leader first?

This is a big one. In a perfect world, you’d actually report directly to the Board—i.e., they would be your boss … instead of the GC, who’s probably your boss now. Which is fine, so long as you can go straight to the Board without fear of retaliation if an issue warrants it (yeah, retaliation can happen to you, too).

Say, for instance, the person you report to is responsible for some massive violation. You’re going to have to report it to the folks above them. You need that unencumbered access.  

Now, this doesn’t mean that you need to bypass senior leaders or your boss every time you identify an issue—far from it—you just need to be able to speak openly and freely to the Board when you think the situation calls for it. Otherwise, if your access to the Board is routed through some other entity (typically the GC), you might need to start questioning your actual level of independence.

Are you able to leave?

Here is where Ricardo’s self-assessment questions converge with these queries. Knowing how to answer all these questions matters, and doing these kinds of assessments BEFORE you’re thrust into an investigation–or worse, asked to compromise your integrity–will help you be prepared to act appropriately if things go sideways.

To paraphrase Ricardo, these assessments allow you to prepare both your professional and personal affairs for those moments of truth.

Don’t know the answers right now? It’s ok, but now’s the time to start considering them.

And, drawing more inspiration from Ricardo, I realize this post was a bit more intense than normal, so here’s a video of the dogs of 2024 to cheer you up:

Source: We Rate Dogs via Youtube.com