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Webinar: Safe Teams, Bold Decisions — Empowering Teams for Accountable Decisions
- Julien Haye
- 15 hours ago
- 4 min read
The Risk Within Q&A #3
On 20 November 2025, over 30 professionals from financial services, fintech, and purpose-driven organisations joined the third session in the Ask the Author Q&A series to explore how empowerment, clarity of authority, and leadership follow-through shape risk visibility, escalation, and confident decision-making.
The conversation, grounded in Chapter 4 (Empowering Teams) and Chapter 8 (Cultivating Supportive Environments) of The Risk Within, examined how empowered teams act earlier, how leadership behaviour enables or suppresses ownership, and why accountability often breaks down between intention and impact.
You can watch the full event below:
Empowerment as a Cultural Enabler
Empowerment in risk management is often described as a process or framework problem. In reality, it is a behavioural and cultural capability. Teams act with confidence when three conditions exist:
Clarity of authority
Visible leadership support
Consistent follow-through
When any of these are missing, escalation slows, ownership diffuses, and organisational learning stalls. This session examined how leadership actions — not slogans — determine whether teams speak up, act early, or wait for permission.
What the Polls Revealed
Across four polls shared during the session and online in the lead-up, participants highlighted the structural and behavioural conditions that shape empowered decision-making:
“What helps you act faster under pressure?” → 48% said clear authority and 32% said leader backing.
“What shows leadership trusts its teams?” → 46% said shared decisions and 37% said no-blame culture.
“How often do lessons from escalations change decisions?” → 41% said always and 45% said often.
“What’s the biggest reason accountability fails?” → 57% said no clear authority and 19% said too many owners.
👉 Together, these findings confirm that clarity, support, and learning loops are the strongest predictors of empowered action and effective risk escalation.
Key Themes from the Discussion
1. Clarity Enables Speed
When decision rights are ambiguous, escalation slows. Almost half of participants said they act faster when authority is explicit. Empowerment begins with defining who decides, who advises, and who informs — especially under pressure.
2. Support Must Be Visible
Only a quarter of respondents said tough decisions are always backed by leadership. Empowerment collapses when people fear their judgement will be questioned after the fact. Confidence grows when leaders make their support observable.
3. Accountability Needs Boundaries
Poll results showed that 57% experience accountability failures due to unclear authority. When responsibilities overlap, ownership blurs. Clarity of roles is essential for timely escalation and consistent oversight.
4. Learning Loops Drive Trust
A strong majority said lessons learned often change decisions. But 13% said they rarely see this happen. When follow-through is inconsistent, teams hesitate to raise issues. Trust is built not by asking for honesty, but by acting on what is shared.
5. Empowerment Is a System, Not a Policy
Empowerment requires alignment between tone, behaviour, process, and culture. Organisations that treat empowerment as a value rather than a practice often see escalation stall at the first sign of pressure.
Psychological safety empowers teams to raise concerns, share ideas, and escalate risks without fear. When boards and CROs prioritise this discipline, they create a culture that strengthens trust, accelerates decision-making, and supports long-term resilience.
👉 Ready to assess how safe your teams feel to speak up?
Q&A Highlights
The live Q&A expanded on these themes, linking The Risk Within principles to day-to-day leadership dilemmas:
How can leaders create real autonomy without losing control? By defining explicit decision thresholds and modelling predictable responses. Oversight should clarify expectations, not second-guess decisions.
What stops empowered teams from escalating early? Inconsistent support. When responses vary from one leader to another, teams default to caution.
Why do learning loops fail? Because follow-through is not visible. People need to see that raising risks leads to action, not delay or defensiveness.
How can leaders build trust in high-pressure environments? By sharing decisions, reinforcing a no-blame culture, and making support public. Silence from leaders is often read as disapproval.
Where does accountability most often break down? Between ownership and authority. When roles overlap, escalation becomes optional — and risk visibility drops.
Final Reflection from the Session
Empowerment is not granted through policy; it is earned through behaviour.The Q&A closed with a reminder that empowerment becomes real when clarity, support, and learning align. Leaders who reinforce follow-through and make accountability visible strengthen not only decision-making, but also trust and organisational resilience.
The Risk Within provides a roadmap for embedding psychological safety into risk management. It identifies critical touch points across the risk lifecycle and offers clear actions to align leadership, culture, and governance. It is designed to help risk functions integrate more deeply into the business and strengthen decision-making at every level.
What Attendees Said
Feedback from participants emphasised both the relevance of the topic and the value of practical, experience-based dialogue:
“Julien is tackling a difficult but important theme that has been overlooked or neglected in risk management for far too long.”
“Clear agenda of what was going to be covered and audience interaction.”
Next Steps
This discussion forms part of The Risk Within learning series and leads directly into the upcoming CPD-accredited masterclass:
🎓 CPD Masterclass – The Risk Within: Leading Risk with Clarity, Culture, and Foresight - 📅 10 February 2026 | 12:00–16:10 GMT | Live Online
Equip your board and risk leaders to see blind spots earlier, embed a culture of challenge, and make sharper decisions under uncertainty. 👉 Register here
📘 Read the book → The Risk Within on Risk.net
📰 Subscribe to Aevitium Insights → Newsletter link
📅 Join the next Q&A (17 December 2025) → When Systems Fail: Culture, Tolerances, and Trust
Watch the first webinar here: Webinar: Why Risk Strategy Starts with Trust | Insights from The Risk Within
Watch the second webinar here: Seeing What You’re Missing - Leadership Blind Spots in Risk Escalation
About the Author: Julien Haye
Managing Director of Aevitium LTD and former Chief Risk Officer with over 26 years of experience in global financial services and non-profit organisations. Known for his pragmatic, people-first approach, Julien specialises in transforming risk and compliance into strategic enablers. He is the author of The Risk Within: Cultivating Psychological Safety for Strategic Decision-Making and hosts the RiskMasters podcast, where he shares insights from risk leaders and change makers.