Building Internal Partnerships: Who Ethics & Compliance Leaders Need in Their Corner
No ethics and compliance leader succeeds in isolation. Building a credible, resilient E&C program requires strong internal partnerships, especially with the functions and business units that influence decision-making and culture. The goal isn’t to “own” compliance, but to embed it into the organization’s everyday operations.
So where do you start? And who needs to be at the table with you? Here’s how experienced CECOs identify and engage the right internal allies:
- Start with the other corporate functions. HR, Audit, Finance, IT, and Communications are essential partners. These functions are long-standing, influential, and often more embedded in business operations than E&C. Aligning with them early helps ensure your initiatives don’t operate in a vacuum, or worse—get sidelined.
- Treat business leaders as collaborators, not clients. You’re not a service provider and your stakeholders are not passive recipients. View business leaders as co-owners of the compliance agenda and show them how you can help achieve their strategic goals while avoiding unnecessary risk.
- Use dashboards and data to earn credibility. Metrics are a powerful way to anchor conversations and demonstrate value. Come to business leaders with insights they can’t get anywhere else. Then, show how those insights connect to their objectives.
- Communicate with empathy and precision. One message won’t work for everyone. Tailor your approach to your audience, whether it’s the board, a business executive, or a frontline manager. It isn’t enough to be technically right; you need to be understood and persuasive.
- Lead with partnership, not policy. Especially when it comes to ethics-related issues, partner closely with HR to ensure consistency and clarity. Shared ownership of investigations, culture initiatives, and reporting channels increases effectiveness and builds organizational trust.
- Balance candor with timing. When compliance issues affect the business, inform your partners promptly but constructively. Surprises at the board level, or misalignment between E&C and other functions, can erode credibility and momentum.
Building these partnerships takes time, consistency, and shared wins. But once in place, they become the foundation of a compliance culture that scales and sticks.
The 2025 Compliance Program Self-Assessment Worksheet is now available! Built from our industry-leading Ethics Quotient® (EQ) questionnaire and benchmarking from this year’s list of World’s Most Ethical Companies® honorees, this 16-question program assessment worksheet is the first step for compliance leaders looking to gain a unique glimpse into the overall effectiveness of their work to date, especially when paired with our automated Compliance Program Self-Assessment. Download your free copy today!
