Six Traits Leading Internal Audit Job Candidates Should Possess

When looking at most internal audit job postings, we generally see requirements of what a potential new internal audit hire should already know and less about the abilities they will need to succeed once they start the job.

We all know from our own personal experience that a good job candidate can learn almost any subject or topic given enough time and resources. Yet there are certain characteristics that are needed to excel as a member of a leading internal audit team. So, as internal audit continues to evolve into a trusted advisor for our organizations, what are the traits that are most desirable and will really position individuals for success in internal audit?

After consultation with many in and around the profession and much personal reflection, I propose what I will call the “Big Six.” These are a set of capabilities that, while they don’t ensure success, should be on every chief audit executive’s wish list of talents, as well as the areas that aspiring internal audit job applicants should be working hard to showcase.

Experience vs. Capabilities
First, some background. I was recently asked what I thought were the characteristics internal audit leaders should be looking for in their next top hire. My mind immediately went to a list of attributes that, upon reflection might be better considered experiences, not characteristics or capabilities. I thought about acquired skills such as accounting or finance knowledge, previous internal audit experience, industry knowledge, data analytics know-how, technology acumen, SOX proficiency, and so on. Those aspects likely fill the resumes of many internal audit job applicants, but are they really the hallmarks of a top internal auditor? Are they the leading capabilities CAE’s should be on the lookout for? I decided no, they were not characteristics at all.

It got me wondering, what is more important, experiences and learned skills or inherent characteristics? My sense was characteristics, but I wasn’t completely sure. So, I went looking for a definition that would provide me with insight into my concern that I was, as they say, barking up the wrong tree. I found the following, and it proved helpful:

The Difference Between Characteristic and Skills: According to an excellent article from the Lowell Sun on the topic: “Characteristics” refer to distinguishing features or inherent qualities of an individual, while learned “skills” are defined as the abilities, that stem from one’s knowledge, practice, and other experiences, to do something well.

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So, characteristics are more about the softer, intrinsic things that make up who we are as individuals, as opposed to what we have learned and what we know, and then apply as we go about our work—our skills. It’s common for chief audit executives to say something like, “I can teach someone to audit and they can learn the business; what is harder is to teach them to be inquisitive, develop trusting relationships, and demonstrate initiative.”

Begin with the End in Mind
Before we get to the list of top traits, it’s important to consider where you want to go as an internal audit team. You need to chart a path from your origin point to the destination. Every internal audit function is different and the traits an internal audit leader will need to round out the team will depend on where it is today—the characteristics of the staff you have—and where it needs to go—what the future of internal audit in your organization should look like.

The answers to these questions may somewhat depend on what executive leadership and the board expect from internal audit and how well you are delivering on that promise today. Remember, internal audit must pursue three goals to truly be successful: to be relevant, to add value, and to have a seat at the table. Yes, all three of these things are linked; you can’t have one without the other two.

So, holistically taking stock of what you have, where you need to go, how much urgency there is to close those gaps, and the speed of change initiatives will dictate a lot. So, first, begin with the end in mind.

Top Characteristics of a Good Internal Audit Candidate
I consulted many in the field. I listened and reflected. And, after much thinking, consolidating, and self-debate, I came to some conclusions. So, in no particular order, here are what I consider the six coveted characteristics of leading internal audit candidates—the Big Six:

1 Curiosity, a Keen Ear, and the Ability to Ask Good Questions
“Curiosity is the cornerstone of internal auditing. We must be able to ask quality questions, assess the answers, and provide relevant conclusions,” says Robert Berry, president of That Audit Guy LLC. That is the crux of being a good auditor, isn’t it? Having intellectual curiosity and asking good questions.

But our ability to ask good questions is just half of the equation. I know many people, myself included, who are sometimes so busy thinking about the next question to ask that we forget to listen. We really don’t accomplish much if we are talking, preparing our next response, and not really actively listening to what comes out of the mouths of our interviewees. As Toby DeRoche, owner of Insight CPE, so aptly states: “Active listing skills are critical for new hires in internal audit. So much of our work depends on the ability to conduct high-quality interviews, which is more difficult in a post-pandemic, hybrid work environment where we are surrounded by the temptation to multitask.”

Trent Russell, founder of Greenskies Analytics, shared this personal observation: “I want to work with someone who asks good, insightful questions during the interview process. And they have great follow-up questions, signaling they are also a good listener. For me, this is a strong indication of how they will conduct interviews during audits.”

So, when looking to hire your next internal audit professional, perhaps start with how the interviews go during the recruiting process. Assess the ability of the candidate to ask good questions, listen to the response, and follow-up with insight.

2 Flexibility and Adaptability
The rate of change in internal audit, in the organizations it supports, and the world around us will only continue to accelerate. As we all learned last March when the pandemic created great organizational disruption, situations can be radically different from one day to the next. Moving from project to project, multitasking, and juggling an ever-expanding to-do list are critical self-management skills for any internal auditor. Add to that the need to expand our knowledge base about the business, about the industry we are in, about technology, about the risk profile of our organizations, and about a hundred other things, and the need to prioritize is obvious. The interplay of all these complications will place enormous pressure on anyone who prefers the status quo and cannot be flexible and adaptable to handle whatever comes their way. Climbing all the requisite, and potentially steep, learning curves that become mandatory amongst all this change must be done adeptly and swiftly, regardless of the demands on our time.

“The best auditors have the ability to learn new things easily. Not master them, but to understand them,” says Thomas Mullinnex, owner of Re-Vision Management Consulting LLC. “They aren’t afraid to ask questions and can also adapt to new technologies or circumstances as business evolves.”

3 Tolerance for Stress
A common truism in life, and certainly in internal audit is: “It’s not what happens to you that causes stress, it is how you react to what happens to you that does.” And we all know we are not at our best when we are stressed. Yet, internal audit can be an incredibly stressful job. There is pressure to get projects completed, work to deadlines, draft findings and reports, all while identifying risk, interviewing difficult clients, talking with people who know the business better than you, and working with team members with differing personalities and priorities. Add to that the pressures of internal departmental initiatives, new technology adoption, working remotely, and balancing a home life amidst all these challenges. If that is not enough, then throw on top of that the reality that you are now the new hire in a new organization in a new culture, perhaps in a new city. Oh my! Sounds like quite the pressure cooker.

“Balancing work and home life; dealing with transitioning to a new organizational culture; managing more remote interactions; climbing the learning curve of new people, processes and methodologies; and so on, has always been stressful,” says Jason Mefford, president of Mefford Associates. “Now, and into the foreseeable future, this pressure will only intensify. A new hire’s tolerance for stress and how they manage all these challenges is critical, so assessing their ability to self-manage these various stressors should be near the top of the list during the interviewing process … it’s make or break for me.”

4 Empathy
“Audit clients should feel invited and safe that we are focused on collective improvement going forward, rather than on finding errors,” says Rainer Lenz, head of corporate audit services at SAF-HOLLAND SE. “Therefore ‘gotcha’ type of individuals will perpetuate the negative stereotypes we have worked so hard to dispel. Having the right mindset to develop trust will be key.”

Reflecting on Lenz’s observation, the human aspects of how we approach internal audit are critical. An “inviting personality” is one that demonstrates empathy and can quickly gain and develop a trusting relationship. We all know how important that is.

According to Benita Lee, managing director & head consultant, international trade & customs compliance at Benita Lee Professional Corp., “Technical competency is great but even more important are what have been traditionally been called ‘soft skills.’ They are critical human skills like communication, empathy, ability to build trust, and to learn.”

These soft skills also include the ability to consider the well-being of coworkers. “My most successful team members are driven by compassion to continuously bring smarter, not harder, process solutions to improve their coworkers’ jobs while meeting our audit and shareholders’ goals,” says Shannon Davis, internal audit and compliance manager at Diamondback Energy Inc.

5 Self-Motivation
Old-school management philosophies argued that workers need to be monitored or they were not going to do a good job. The assumption was that many employees were inherently lazy and needed supervision to remain productive. Ironically, what caused workers to appear to be lazy was that they were not motivated or they felt they weren’t trusted. This has been talked about frequently for many years as the need to empower individuals. Fortunately, as enlightened leaders and managers, we all know better now.

What the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us is that when people are not all physically together much of the time, the need for individuals who are adept at what I’ll call “self-management” becomes more evident. Therefore, having people who can manage themselves, manage their time, and manage their priorities without much outside influence will be in great demand as remote work models are likely to continue even after the pandemic has ended.

“I look for new members I recruit to be self-supervising, self-motivated, and self-aware,” says Rick Wright, director of internal audit and ERM at Yellow Corp. “Self-supervising frees me to focus on leadership and strategy, self-motivated is a hedge against complacency and indicates willingness to innovate, and self-awareness is the glue that ensures they can play nice together.”

Cheryl Gregory, principal consultant at the Healthcare Advisory Institute, agrees. “Qualities that I look for include intellectual curiosity, professional maturity, and a strong work ethic,” she says. “We discuss scenarios designed to showcase their ability to appropriately set priorities, manage their time, and stay organized.”

So, whether working together in an office, working remotely, or some hybrid permutation, how well someone manages themself, with or without the influence of others on the team, continues to emerge as a highly desired characteristic.

6 Bravery
Internal auditing has never been for the faint of heart. Anyone who has been successful climbing the ladder within the profession did not do so because he or she was unwilling to take a stand on important issues—even when faced with disagreement or outright hostility.

As the internal audit profession works to be more agile and to more quickly provide the results and conclusions of the assurance and advisory work that is the backbone of the product we deliver to our organizations, the need to stand firm on our convictions about observations, recommendations, and conclusions will be tested. This will require greater levels of experimentation, bravery, and courage to challenge management towards improvement and enhanced risk management capability. Being courageous and confident, without being “cocky,” is a fine balance, and something that becomes a necessary trait in the auditor of the future.

“Courageous auditors are needed to not only challenge the status quo, but to be comfortable experimenting with new techniques. These maverick auditors will routinely challenge the approach to audit delivery and will enjoy innovating in unpredictable business scenarios. It’s exactly what is required to adapt to change,” says Nicola Osinaike, founder of Audit Data Hub.

Foundational Attributes
This is by no means an exhaustive list. While it’s true that every internal audit function is different and will have different needs, there are certain foundational qualities that emerge as universal requirements to build a leading internal audit function. Addressing these givens through the people, process, and technology you have as your raw material will help cement your relevance, your ability to add value, and, consequently, the ability of internal audit to attain that coveted seat at the table. These are not included in the “Big Six” because they are starting points and should already form the foundation of your internal audit team.

These givens include:

• Being more attuned to the business and the sector it operates in
• Being quicker to deliver on the results of audit work
• Being viewed as a collaborative business partner
• Being viewed as a trusted advisor
• Adopting technology as part of continuous improvement
• Becoming more and more comfortable with a business operating model that is inextricably linked with technology
• Recognizing that the workforce of the future will not look like the workforce of today (diversity, physical location of personnel, and geography, to name a few influencing factors)
• Acknowledging that the companies we work for will continue to evolve and change at ever accelerating speeds, and our ability to keep up will be stretched and strained like never before

Preparing for the Journey
The goal here is to think about how internal audit is evolving and anticipate what is to come and then reverse engineer those characteristics that might be most needed to ensure your internal audit team’s success. Not all of these attributes are what people may think of when they think of an internal auditor stereotype, but anyone who has been in the profession over the last few years will recognize these characteristics as critical to success.

When the time comes to look for, and recruit, your next internal audit hire, think beyond the technical requirements of the role. Think about the attributes and characteristics that will make them most successful in your environment. And for budding internal audit candidates, it’s not too late to improve on these characteristics and figure out how to tactfully and proactively demonstrate them in your existing role or a new role you aspire to. 

Hal Garyn is Managing Director and Owner of Audit Executive Advisory Services, LLC based in FL.