These excerpts are taken from our interview of Alan Leibowitz, a former Director of Environmental, Safety and Health, ITT.
What we’re going to find as we go forward as a profession is that it’s going to be less and less about being the policeman/the trainer, and more and more involvement in the strategic, operating and planning processes for these different organizations we work with. Ultimately, we’ll get to the level where each of the critical decisions made within an organization passes through or in conjunction with somebody whose focus is compliance, ethics, or ESH.
You can get a lot done without having to be abusive about it. I’ve seen people who think that they’re the cops, and that they need to have that sort of police mentality, when that’s not really very effective. You’re asking people to do things they won’t otherwise want to do, and they wouldn’t choose to do. There’s a resource cost, either in dollars or time. And you have to make sure everybody understands you’re not doing it to build an empire or for personal aggrandizement, but that you truly have their interests and the interests of the organization at heart.
Alan Leibowitz's interview is included in Working for Integrity: Finding the Perfect Job in the Rapidly Growing Compliance and Ethics Field.
(All interviewees spoke to us about their own personal experiences and opinions; interviewees were not acting as a spokesperson or otherwise representing their current or former employers.)
