Z 3d 2 - quality auditors-skills-attributes

Skills, Qualities & Traits of an

Auditor

Module 1

Strong Business Sense

Eye for detail

Exellent Inter-Personal Skills

Articulate Communicator

Necessary Stature to advise and guide at all levels

Personal Attributes / Traits of a Good Auditor

Follower of Strict discipline

Builder of a Good image for Audit

Effective Internal Consultant

On Values & Effective role of Auditor

Technical Skills

Human Skills

Personal Attributes

Qualities of Character

Skills, Attributes & Qualities

Knowledge of Principles of Auditing, Techniques of Auditing

Auditing in depth

Random Sampling

Statistical Techniques

Flow Charting

O & M Study

Systems Analysis

Technical Skills

Method Study

Work Study

Activity Analysis

Value Engineering

Proficiency in Accounting & Costing Methods

Knowledge of Psychology / Behavioral Sciences

Technical Skills

Knowledge of principles of auditing / techniques

of auditing

Data on finger tips

Good Business knowledge

Software Tools usage

Bench marking knowledge

Internal Auditing – Professional updateness

Knowledge on current business issues

Technical Skills

Tact

Ability to reason and draw logical conclusions from the evidence available

Analytical approach

Capacity to separate key information from the insignificant

Human Skills

Strong business sense

Eye for details

Tolerance & patience

Good Inter-personal skills

Team work clarity

Influencing skills

Positive confrontation

Ability to identify one’s own strengths

Recognition of weaknesses (areas for development)

Personal Attirbutes Traits / Qualities of Internal Auditor

Practical / down to earth personality

Effective communication (oral / written)

Self conviction

Process oriented

Systematic in approach

Perseverance

Ability to involve everyone in the system

Necessary statute to advise and guide people at

all levels

Personal Attirbutes Traits / Qualities of Internal Auditor

Adaptability

Understanding

Determination

Qualities of Character

Key Behaviors

Module 2

Why Quality Auditors need interaction skills?

Key behaviors of a Good Auditor

Exhibit courage & Integrity

High ethical standards in performing responsibilities

Stress a proactive approach Reactive approach - energy drain by constant fire fighting

Aiding auditees in the process of continuous improvements in

systems

Stay in touch - all levels (with Vendors & Customers as well) Level of trust you can develop with people

Best interest of company in mind

You are their ally in creating systems which will help them do

their job better

You are interested in them as people, their jobs & their problems

Key behaviors of a Good Auditor…

Do not fall into the trap of complaining constantly

Constant complaining is a demotivating factor

Take ‘action’ by helping people to see what their options are

Inter-Personal Communication effectiveness

Module 3

“Quality Auditing” - Improving inter-personal communication effectiveness

‘Audit Process’ is an on-going continuous improvement cycle

Shewart’s ‘PDSA’ Cycle Model

- Plan

- Do

- Study

- Act

an effective way to conceptualise the audit interaction process.

Planning -- Proper Audit Planning - Critical to total success of audit

Doing -- Managing the open meetings, observing, conducting actual

audit interviews

Studying -- Feeding back the Audit information to the organisation for

examination & study

Acting -- Taking the audit findings & creating action plans for

improving the systems

Applying NLP (Neuro - Linguistic Programming) to the interactions taking place during audit

Gathering organisational information

The three behavioral components

A -- Auditors’ internal state

B -- Auditors’ language skills

C -- Level of rapport during an audit


A – Auditor’s internal state

Auditor’s internal state / feelings about the audit

Possible past experiences of intense discussions with auditees

Stress associated with the overall audit and a pattern of anxious behavior

give birth to “Audit Phobia”

The word audit can produce neurological effects in people. (Quality audits

can also turn normally happy, well adjusted employees into nervous jittery

people!) - This will create stress for both the auditor & auditee.

(Spend time understanding how feelings & attitudes influence the total audit interaction)


B -- Auditors’ language skills

must possess excellent language skills - Have a good understanding of how

language affects human behavior

Eg:

“There is nothing to be afraid of during this audit” What sub-conscious mind hears is the last portion of the statement ie., “be afraid during this audit”

Better way is to say,

“During this audit, audit team members will try their hardest to make

the experience a positive one”.

The sub-conscious mind is now ready and willing to make audit process a positive experience.


C -- Level of rapport during an audit

‘Rapport’ is the relationship (built on mutual trust & emotional affinity)

between the auditor & auditee

Comes from respecting another person’s view of the world while still being

true to your own objectives.

then the conversation flows easily & there is a feeling of goodwill & comfort.

Excellent communicators build rapport easily & unconsciously

Inter personal flexibility

Recognising other channels of communication (voice, spoken language,

body language)

Recognising someone’s preferred channels of communication during an

audit puts you in ‘Sync’ – ‘synchronous communication’

Please remember only 7% of the message is communicated through words.

Rest through voice & body language only.

Communication theories

Learning is enhanced when the underlying reasons or ideas behind the

communication strategies are apparent.

We make sense out of the information coming to us by,

- distorting

- generalising (or)

- deleting portions of messages

Distortion:

Happens regularly as we filter communication messages through our

peceptional differences. (Two auditors can hear the same information but

come with totally different ideas about what was said)

Occurs when we make shifts in our perception of the sensory data

also occurs when we try to ‘mind read’ another person’s thoughts / read

between lines

Generalistion

When we draw generalisation, we create conclusions based on two or more

experiences

At worst it is taking one experience and turning it into a life time belief

Statements that include all, every, always, never, everybody, nobody, must,

should not - are examples of generalisations.

(while auditors have to generalise the data they collect, the degree to which

information is generalised is key)

Communication theories…

Deletion

We ‘delete’ information and pay attention to selective aspects of the

communication

We ‘delete’ when we are faced with too much information

We ‘delete’ when are under stress (like being audited / conducting audit)

Communication beliefs

Glue that holds the theory and strategies together is the belief that one has

about human communication

The communication beliefs we hold can influence all aspects of our

behavior

Communication theories…

What are they?

(1) Auditees have positive intentions

Believe that every action taken by someone has an underlying positive

intention (This will make your emotional state more resourceful)

(2) Communication is redundant

If message has to be perceived as truthful - auditors must use all channels of

communication

Being congruent in all channels builds trust into relationship and rapport

at sub-conscious levels of interaction.

What are they?..

(3) Meaning of your communication is the response you get

Effective communicators always have a different communication

strategy to try if the one they are using doesn’t work. (It is called

interpersonal flexibility)

(4) Auditor with the most flexibility will control the interaction

By taking another perceptual position / using a different communication

strategy to appreciate another’s point of view, you become more

emphathetic & gain deeper understanding of the message.

What are they?…

(5) Auditees respond to their map of reality and not to reality itself:

It is how someone views the world - their perception and reaction to the

environment will be different from your own. (There is no such thing as

‘reality’ only ‘perception’)

(6) Leave the auditees in a better state than when you found them

Because of your interaction does he (auditee) feel good?

What are they?…

(7) There is no such thing as ‘failure’, only ‘feedback’

Providing value added information to the organisation is what auditing is

all about.

By taking an interest in improving interpersonal communication skills,

auditors can greatly improve quality of information received during

an audit

Auditors,

Live out the Values of,

Openness Truth Integrity Trust Learning Generosity Commitment Fun Love

”Bring heart & soul to business - Audit”

Please remember,

Getting the best information during an audit is critical to the success of that audit

Marrying the mechanics of auditing to all these techniques creates a dynamic system for gathering good information from the auditees.

Anticipating & Preventing Problems

Module 4

Anticipating & Preventing Problems(Dispel negative perception)

Levels

Board of Directors

Executive Management

Issues

Establishing & maintaining effective communications

Understanding their requirements / expectations

(Communicate regarding how your goals support them)

True support for audit essential at this level

Visible demonstration of their support essential

Need for expanding audit scope may be resisted

at this level

Dispelling negative attitudes most critical

Levels

Middle Management / Supervisory Management

Issues

Presents hardest challenge in overcoming negative

attitudes They may not see the big picture as clearly as Executive Management They see problems in their own areas and identify with those affected by them Resistance to change Fear of critique Adequate communication from Executive Management normally absent (Educate them on purpose, goals & potential benefits of your audit)


LevelsIdeas of developing a co-operative relationship

Issues Audit Manager to communicate with Functional Manager to help identify potential areas of concern in terms of quality

Action on areas of concern promptly

Acknowledge that corrective action is under way

Allow middle manager to look good for having

independently acted to improve quality

Allow them to evaluate your performance and

professionalism and to make recommendations for

further audits (They will know that this is an

interactive process)


Levels

Line personnel

Issues

May view audit as a performance appraisal

Take the help of Supervisory personnel to dispel

this notion

Tell them that it is the ‘system’ which is being

evaluated and not the personal performance


Levels

Audit Team Members

Issues

Jobs being assigned (purely clerical tasks which

require no judgement on their part may not enthuse

them)

Everybody to participate in the actual auditing

function

Demoralised if their recommendations are not

valued / acted upon

Perception that there is no potential for growth /

career path (Professional development support)

Audit – a good training ground


LevelsAudit Team Members

Issues Problems with low level, poorly qualified,

inefficient people being dumped into audit

(This undermines the value that audit brings to the

organisation and lowers morale amongst other staff)


Develop good relationships at all levels

Make audit report a constructive management tool

Be proactive

Effective Customer Reach

Module 5

Are you effective in reaching your target customers?

A comparison with Business Divisions

Effective Business Customer reach

I. Product

What customer wantsSpecification,Size,

Quality,Acceptance

Zero manufacturing defects

Product fitness

After sales serviceFrequency of after sales service calls, Addressing, customer complaints etc.

How does the Internal Audit’s focus compare with these parameters?

Agreed scope of review, areas covered, usefulness

of audit findings, quantification of benefits etc.

Zero defect in terms of statement of facts, statistics presented etc.,

Effective follow up audits, written feed back from

auditees on audit quality, properly addressing all

audit shortfalls


A comparison with Business DivisionsEffective Business

Customer reach

II. Marketing Efforts in marketing your products

Advertisements, Exhibitions,

Demos, (visibility to the

product)

Market spread/ penetration

New market areas

Bench marking with competitors

Value addition, competitive edge


Presentations on Audit, Manuals, Effective use of Communication Meetings, Stalls / Exhibits / Displays, Demos of ‘Audit Tools’, Internal Seminars / Workshops to share audit experiences Intranet sites etc.

Identification of new audit customers - Group Companies, outside organisation (TNEB – Energy Audits)

Global best practices, IA standards




III. Sales Delivery

Order to delivery – Cycle time monitoring

Distribution Management

Warehousing, Transit time,

delivery with nil damages etc.


Report releasing cycle time

Draft report preparation / discussion time, final report releasing, mode of sending reports – ensuring safe receipt of reports by the auditees, obtaining confirmation etc.




IV. New Products

R & D work, New product launches

V. Competitive pricing


Innovation in identifying new areas of audit (eg. Steam, Power, Compressed Air, SHE, etc) Awareness creation meetings to introduce new areas of audit

Cost of operations - Internal Audit, Audit Cost to Businesses – competitiveness (Eg. TNEB – Statutory Energy Audits – External vs Internal)

Thank You

Z 3d 2 - quality auditors-skills-attributes

Education

Transcript of Z 3d 2 - quality auditors-skills-attributes