Defining What Success Means to Us
I recently had a breakfast meeting with a senior leader in my organisation. She is someone I have the utmost respect for because she has done things her way, prioritising her non-negotiable volunteering commitments outside of work while exceling in her corporate job. This led me to reflect on what success means to me and what I am doing to achieve my definition of success. While I am happy to delve into that in another blog post, I want to share some thoughts on how we, as auditors, can be the best versions of ourselves and be successful in our own capacity.
1. Becoming a Better Auditor
Being a proficient internal auditor is not easy due to the high expectations placed on us. We must balance discipline in our approach to risk with creative thinking to review processes and identify improvement opportunities. How do we become better auditors? Here is an article that covers six characteristics of highly successful auditors – great communication skills, unyielding curiosity, technology savviness, ability to work independently and as a team, lifelong learners, and finally, integrity and courage. While we cannot excel in all six areas, we should maximise our strengths so that they become our competitive advantage, and at the same time, improve our relative weaknesses to ensure that they do not become liabilities.
2. Embracing a Growth Mindset
An individual with a growth mindset believes that he can improve his talents and capabilities over time. This individual is likely to be a lifelong learner, but more importantly, has a positive approach to life and its challenges. Individuals with a growth mindset are likely to view a challenging audit project as an opportunity to prove their capabilities to managers, and even if they fail, take it as a learning experience. The best auditors are typically given the most difficult audit areas and most complex projects. It may not appear to be fair that the more efficient you are, the more work you are assigned. But by putting on your growth mindset lens, you can tell yourself that you can add a new skill by taking on that project and even feel privileged for these opportunities. Consider these 15 strategies to embrace a positive growth mindset.
3. Defining our Non-negotiables
Covid-19 brought about the great resignation, where people left their jobs in large numbers. This phenomenon was most noticeable in the US but also seen in Asia and arose because people realised that life was unpredictable and reconsidered the role of work in their lives. After all, life is ‘what happens when people are busy making other plans.’ For some of us, we think our family is most important to us, but when we must choose between, say, an urgent task that our boss gave us and a family dinner, we invariably choose work, because we are good, hardworking workers at our core. While we all must make sacrifices for work, have you defined your non-negotiables, and if so, have you communicated them to your boss? Assuming your non-negotiables are reasonable, communicating your boundaries at work should not affect your performance appraisal, and if it does, it might be time to look for a more understanding boss!
4. Celebrating Success Beyond Your Job Title and Salary
Our strong work ethic is deeply ingrained from our Big 4 days. We hope that this helps us to achieve that elusive promotion or a bigger bonus. However, some of us work in small departments with limited promotion opportunities. How then do we stay motivated and still give our best? We can define and celebrate success beyond standard metrics of a job title and salary, for example, mentoring new joiners, volunteering for corporate citizenship activities, learning a new skill or even being an advocate for internal audit within the organisation. In my current organisation, we define priorities at the beginning of each year, and these can be independent of our department/organisation’s goals. Set one priority for yourself, which if achieved, would make it a successful year for you.
I hope that we can all take away one action from the list of how we can be the best versions of ourselves. As we take some time to enjoy the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday and festivities, I want to wish everyone a successful 2024 and Dragon Year, and to leave you with this powerful quote, ‘You don’t have to be great to start, but YOU have to start to be great.’
Gary Teo is currently an Internal Audit Director at Accenture and a Board member of The Institute of Internal Auditors Singapore. He is committed to lifelong learning and believes that internal auditors must stay updated on emerging risks and business trends to remain relevant, effective, and do their part in creating organisation value.
The Institute of Internal Auditors Singapore blogs reflect the personal views and opinions of the authors. These views may differ from policies and official statements of The Institute of Internal Auditors Singapore and its committees and from opinions endorsed by the bloggers’ employers.
