Special thanks to our featured speaker, Clint Reese, for contributing this valuable article on leading successful audit projects. Yellowbook-CPE.com greatly appreciates Clint for allowing us to publish it.
Only one thing is required to be a leader: Followers. It’s that simple.
While job titles and descriptions may include some form of the word leader, there is a definite distinction between managing and leading. A project can only be managed, however, the people working on that project can be managed, lead, both, or neither.
Knowing the skills, traits, and qualities of leadership is good, but putting them into practice consistently is rare and truly something to admire.
Leading an Audit Project
I invite you to join Leita Hart Fanta, CPA and me for Leading an Audit Project (LAP) scheduled for October 21-25 to strengthen your leadership skills. In this exclusive webinar series, come prepared to look at yourself, your team, and the environment you operate in in new ways.
Over the course of LAP, Leita and I provide the art & science, and the how & why of successfully managing and leading an audit project.
The following are some of the topics and takeaways to expect from this incredible week spanning five consecutive half-day afternoons:
Building Trust
In a “normal” work environment, building trust and comradery within and amongst the workforce is a challenge. The deck is already stacked against a leader of a project team because the level of trust begins anew with each project. Weak leaders use this as an excuse to not focus on building trust. Instead, they focus on the completion of tasks necessary to achieve the desired result. This may be beneficial in the short term – because unfortunately, the strategy can be successful – but those feelings of success fade.
Predictability trust is the easiest form of trust to build. All it requires is time spent together. Even if two people don’t see eye to eye or have conflicting personalities, over time they will begin to trust one another simply because they know what to expect. This is an underrated luxury and absent in project-based work.
How do you build trust quickly with an all-new team that won’t be together for years? How do you put aside negative experiences and baggage from previous projects and start fresh with each project?
Do you like cliffhanger endings? Because you’ll have to attend LAP to find out the answers to those questions.
Expectations, Delegation & Feedback
People often tout themselves as excellent communicators citing their ability to “speak their mind,” “shoot from the hip,” or “say what they’re thinking.” This is errant, oblivious, obnoxious, and off-putting behavior. Newsflash: everyone says what they’re thinking! That’s literally how speaking works – think it, say it.
To properly set expectations, delegate, and provide feedback in an effective way not destroying leader-team dynamics requires three things: assertiveness, emotional intelligence, and empathy.
Assertiveness gets your message or point across in a professional and well-understood way while considering and respecting the emotions of others.
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is far more than simply being nice. Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management are the four tenets of EQ. Each has its place and role in a leader’s abilities and long-term success.
Empathy could be considered the ‘bonus’ skill of EQ. Easy to explain, but difficult to truly practice, especially when forming and building new relationships.
Those topics will be covered over two different sections of LAP.
Team Building
Leading an Audit Project is a virtual event, so fear not, there will be zero trust falls. Such activity seems like a liability anyway.
Authentic team building has little to do with a group of people passing a person through a ropes course. Those things are simply exercises and examples used to explain what it takes to build a team – a mutually understood vision or goal and shared experiences.
These things occur naturally throughout the course of a project. But, when time is of the essence, it is incumbent upon the leader to highlight and memorialize those moments.
Adaptive Leadership
Do you manage or lead? Both. What leadership style is the best? All of them. When should I employ strategies and skills from each style? When it makes sense to do so.
The nomenclature used to define this type of leadership changes with the times; Adaptive Leadership, Servant Leadership, Situational Leadership, Intentional, Purposeful… apples to apples to apples.
Call it what you like, but know what it means. This type of leadership employs all the skills and strategies we’ll discuss throughout LAP and brings them together with others to understand the immense challenge and responsibility a leader faces. But, moreover, realize the satisfaction that comes with becoming a truly admirable leader.
We are so excited about Leading an Audit Project and can’t wait to see you!
As an added bonus…
Delve into objective setting and audit findings before Leading an Audit Project for 4.5 self-study CPE hours. Registration grants immediate access to each course:
- Tackling a Challenging Audit Objective (1 hour)
- How to Write an Audit Report Finding (3.5 hours)
What are you waiting for? Secure your space in Leading an Audit Project today!
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