What are the skills and attributes of a "QUALITY" AUDITOR !

1. Module 1
Skills, Qualities &
Traits of an Auditor

2. Personal Attributes / Traits of a Good Auditor
Strong Business Sense
Eye for detail
Exellent Inter-Personal Skills
Articulate Communicator
Necessary Stature to advise and guide at all
levels

3. On Values & Effective role of Auditor
Follower of Strict discipline
Builder of a Good image for Audit
Effective Internal Consultant

4. Skills, Attributes & Qualities
Technical Skills
Human Skills
Personal Attributes
Qualities of Character

5. Technical Skills
Knowledge of Principles of Auditing, Techniques
of Auditing
Auditing in depth
Random Sampling
Statistical Techniques
Flow Charting
O & M Study
Systems Analysis

6. Technical Skills
Method Study
Work Study
Activity Analysis
Value Engineering
Proficiency in Accounting & Costing Methods
Knowledge of Psychology / Behavioral Sciences

7. 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

8. Human Skills
Tact
Ability to reason and draw logical conclusions from the
evidence available
Analytical approach
Capacity to separate key information from the
insignificant

9. Personal Attirbutes
Traits / Qualities of Internal Auditor
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)

10. 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

11. Qualities of Character
Adaptability
Understanding
Determination

12. Module 2
Key Behaviors

13. 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

14. 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

15. Module 3
Inter-Personal
Communication
effectiveness

16. “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

17. 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

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

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

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

21. 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.

22. 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

23. Communication theories…
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)

24. 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

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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?

28. 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

29. Auditors,
Live out the Values of,
Openness
Truth
Integrity
Trust
Learning
Generosity
Commitment
Fun
Love
”Bring heart & soul to business - Audit”

30. 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.

31. Module 4
Anticipating &
Preventing Problems

32. Anticipating & Preventing Problems
(Dispel negative perception)
Levels
Board of Directors
Issues
 Establishing & maintaining effective
communications
 Understanding their requirements / expectations
(Communicate regarding how your goals support
them)
 Executive Management
 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

33. Anticipating & Preventing Problems
(Dispel negative perception)
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)

34. Anticipating & Preventing Problems
(Dispel negative perception)
Levels
Issues
Ideas of developing a
 Audit Manager to communicate with Functional
co-operative relationship
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)

35. Anticipating & Preventing Problems
(Dispel negative perception)
Levels
Line personnel
Issues

 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

36. Anticipating & Preventing Problems
(Dispel negative perception)
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

37. Anticipating & Preventing Problems
(Dispel negative perception)
Levels
Audit 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

38. Module 5
Effective
Customer Reach

39. Are you effective in reaching your target customers?
A comparison with Business Divisions
Effective Business
Customer reach
How does the Internal Audit’s focus compare
with these parameters?
I. Product
 What customer wants
Specification,Size,
Quality,Acceptance
Agreed scope of review, areas covered, usefulness
of audit findings, quantification of benefits etc.
 Zero manufacturing defects Zero defect in terms of statement of facts,

Product fitness
 After sales service
Frequency of after sales
service calls, Addressing,
customer complaints etc.
statistics presented etc.,
 Effective follow up audits, written feed back from
auditees on audit quality, properly addressing all
audit shortfalls

40. Are you effective in reaching your target customers?
A comparison with Business Divisions
Effective Business
Customer reach
How does the Internal Audit’s focus compare wit
these parameters?
II. Marketing
 Efforts in marketing your
products
Presentations on Audit, Manuals, Effective use of
Communication Meetings, Stalls / Exhibits /
Advertisements, Exhibitions, Displays, Demos of ‘Audit Tools’, Internal
Demos, (visibility to the
Seminars / Workshops to share audit experiences
Intranet sites etc.
product)
 Market spread/
penetration
New market areas
 Identification of new audit customers - Group
Companies, outside organisation (TNEB – Energy
Audits)
 Bench marking with
competitors
Value addition,
competitive edge
 Global best practices, IA standards

41. Are you effective in reaching your target customers?
A comparison with Business Divisions
Effective Business
Customer reach
How does the Internal Audit’s focus compare
with these parameters?
III. Sales Delivery
 Order to delivery –
Cycle time monitoring
 Report releasing cycle time
 Distribution Management
 Draft report preparation / discussion time, final
report releasing, mode of sending reports – ensuring
delivery with nil damages etc.
safe receipt of reports by the auditees, obtaining
confirmation etc.
Warehousing, Transit time,

42. Are you effective in reaching your target customers?
A comparison with Business Divisions
Effective Business
Customer reach
IV. New Products
 R & D work, New product
launches
V. Competitive pricing
How does the Internal Audit’s focus compare
with these parameters?
 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)

43. Thank You