The Inspiration
It’s been two years since I published a book.
I was waiting for inspiration and boy did I find it! I was thinking about the hundreds of tips I’ve written and filmed since the publication of How to Be a Wildly Effective Compliance Officer, and that led me to think of how valuable it would be to have them all in one place.
From there, I started to think of a book structure that would give the tips context and greater value to you the reader. I didn’t just want one tip per day. I wanted to create a book that could help you, the compliance professional, systematically transform throughout the year into a more and more Wildly Effective version of yourself.
My intention for this book is to assist you in becoming more influential, motivational, persuasive, and productive throughout the year.
The Elements
There is an overlap between the structure of our programs and the structure of our whole lives. There are multiple elements that create an effective compliance program and that also provide structure for creating a happy and productive life.
I thought through 12 compliance elements that can provide useful context for your life as a compliance officer and in your personal life. For instance, we have policies in our programs, but we also have policies that we apply to our lives. But do these personal policies serve us? Have we even identified them?
Internal investigations are critical for our programs, but they are also useful when trying to determine what is making us feel good or bad in our lives.
Risk assessments help us to focus on what matters and on activities that reduce risk. Are we choosing activities in our personal life that bring the most joy and reduce the risk of regret?
Every month, there is an element that functions as a theme, both in business and personally. There are short writing prompts to help you to process the ideas. I loved going through the prompts. I learned so much about myself writing responses to the prompts.
Weekly Tips and Wins
Every week contains multiple tips to help you be more effective. You can read them daily or all at once.
Every week, you’ll be asked to choose one tip and to write down how you’ll implement it in your work. That will help you to focus on one action that will add up over time to really improve your working life.
Perhaps most importantly, at the end of each week, you’ll write down one win or accomplishment. It’s so important to celebrate our victories. Even more importantly, you’ll have a record of your wins when it comes time for your performance review and/or request for a raise!
It’s easy to forget how far we’ve come, and this record will help you to feel good about yourself. It will also serve as a physical reminder of your success.
Quarterly Completions
Audits are helpful to let us know if our programs are functioning as anticipated. They also help us to find areas where we need improvement. Mitigation and action plans ensure that audits don’t exist in a vacuum – they lead to continuous improvement.
The book contains quarterly audits, where you will look back at the tips you chose to implement so you can determine how many you implemented successfully. You’ll then determine which to take forward after the quarter, and which you’re ready to leave.
Vulnerability
This book is my most personal one yet.
Each of the 12 overarching topics contains a story or stories about how I’ve lived the topics. From learning how to choose love, risking my pride to try a marathon, to learning to run my business’ finances more successfully, each topic is applied personally.
That’s different for me and I’m excited to share more of myself and my journey.
Your Year
Your year doesn’t need to start on January 1st. The book is structured so you can start any time – whether New Year’s Eve or a random Tuesday in July.
Your Year as a Wildly Effective Compliance Officer is coming out November 30th, just in time for Christmas presents to yourself, your colleagues, or you team.
I am genuinely excited about this book. It takes the concepts of How to Be a Wildly Effective Compliance Officer and the other books I’ve written and brings them into a tangible form with daily actions that will lead you to your most effective year ever.
OK – that’s the preview! Be on the lookout for announcements and sneak-peak excerpts as the publication date gets closer! I couldn’t be more excited to share it all with you.
Best – Kristy 😊
