When you’re building your career, there are key skills that you need to develop in order to progress. On Episode 21 of The UNCOVER Pod I was joined by Trish Turnham, the Head of Risk & Compliance at Streathers Solicitors LLP and Streathers Highgate LLP, to discuss the skills and attributes that she looks for in her own team. Here are her insights: 

“Effective communication is absolutely essential in this job. Your assessment of a problem needs to be methodical, clear, concise and as reader-friendly as possible, because senior people are approached with lots of questions every day, and their brains can’t handle the information overload. If you as an analyst can sharpen your communication to make it as effective and easy to digest as possible, that is a hugely beneficial and transferable skill. 

The other is being efficient and quick. It’s one thing to provide the correct position, but it’s also important to do it in good time. Showing the client that you’re available to them and you’ve carefully considered their question builds trust. Then, a client would be willing to come to you again if they had another question. That’s how I built my relationships in practice over the years. 

It’s okay to speak up about what you need. Vulnerability is really welcoming in this industry, and it actually encourages people to open up about what’s not working for them. If someone comes across to me as too perfect, I might not want to open up to them about my mistakes. Being a compliance professional in this day and age, especially as a senior person, means sharing the horror stories that shaped your approach, your thinking, and your culture because they can help someone else too. 

The last thing I’m going to say is don’t rush your career for the sake of salary and title. Take your time to learn your craft. High-performing salespeople, when they’re promoted to the manager level, might perform not so well because it will take them time to adjust to it. So my advice to everyone in the industry, or wanting to get into the industry, is to make sure that they take pride in building their experience. That can’t be fast-tracked.”

To find out more about developing your skills in the Legal Risk & Compliance sector, tune into Episode 21 of The UNCOVER Pod here.