The credit crunch has exposed extremes of good and bad risk management, and risk professionals are in the spotlight. Those who have coped most successfully with the market upheaval have certain abilities and strengths – what are they?

A synthesis of technical and analytical expertise with communication skills: Risk people who have both spotted the problem areas and highlighted them effectively have proven very valuable. Risk people don’t run the business, but if they can communicate clearly the right information in the right way, they can help those that do to do it better.

Courage and assertiveness: There have been countless stories over recent months of risk managers spotting problems and highlighting them, but being ignored or overruled by divisional line management.

Maybe they could have got their message across in a different way. Did they just email someone a report? Or did they proactively seek out the right people? Did they concisely articulate the issues and the scale of the potential problems, and then follow up tenaciously?

Awareness: Financial institutions have realised that the CRO needs to change, to become more business-savvy and better at strategy and leadership.

Risk managers can respond to this need by sharpening their commercial and business skills and becoming more aligned with what the front desk is doing.

And the good news is that those who can demonstrate this combination of skills and competencies will find themselves seriously in demand.

Hugh Pye is a partner in the financial services practice at search firm CTPartners.