I was in a meeting in the Board of Directors room of one of the largest financial institutions in the world and I said to myself, “if only these walls could talk”. A senior executive presented on the company and his career and the differences of working at this company versus non-financial institutions. One of the characteristics that stood out was that in his current role that risk management was one of the highest priorities of his and the rest of senior management. Not that it hadn’t always been a priority, but now more than ever there is scrutiny from all angles around the risks being taken and how risk is managed and mitigated. I was impressed by how in the number of people who get involved now versus before in risk management that the opportunity for mistakes have gone dramatically down and they are finding themselves better managed and prepared if something does come up. This makes sense to me. So many times we try to go it alone in the areas that we don’t want others to see us make or potentially make mistakes. It is almost built in as a way of things getting done in business. But just the opposite, there is safety in numbers. We know that from our school yard days. The Bible tells us the same. In Proverbs we read this; “Without wise leadership, a nation falls; there is safety in having many advisers.” It is not only about a nation, it is about a company, an organization, or a team. Without wise leaders these groups fall apart. Without many as advisers we are in danger. To manage risks and to be on the right side of safe, find your trusted advisers and make them part of your routine risk management today and every day. There is no reason to ever go it alone and having those around you who share your same beliefs as trusted advisers will only make it better.

Reference: Proverbs 11:14, NLT