Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best to empower a team of professional auditors that like to keep their heads' down and do their work? How do you get them to elevate to demonstrate the power and assertiveness and have the courage to stand for what you believe in when in tough times?
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I totally understand what you mean but as I said they are great auditors but when it comes to communication, they will simply report on issues found. It stops there… to get them to understand and establish network is hard because soft skills are hard something that maybe not everyone can learn….
I think it really requires a combination of the empowerment and the expectation that the auditors are demonstrating this capability. The delivery of challenging messages/results is just as much a part of "doing the job" as the actual execution of the audit work. To help build confidence in this area, my leadership team routinely coaches and roleplays with our auditors when there are difficult discussions that need to occur, to help them prepare and have adequate coaching in advance. Additionally, leaders need to be available to provide support and air cover when those discussions don't go as well as hoped. And. sometimes, the team needs to see the leaders delivering the tough messages, so that they can learn from how their leaders are modeling the types of capabilities we want the auditors to develop and demonstrate.
Leaders do step in and is always available to support. I feel it’s because they know that they have become even more reliant on them without trying to do it themselves. 🩼<br><br>I like the idea of role play. Is it with the whole team or more a prep meeting before their actual meeting?
Would really love to hear what others o that they believe are "empower" their team?
I think it's important to define to them what "their work" is. It's not just fieldwork and auditing but the full process of identifying decificiencies, communicating results and recommendations and publishing the audit report. They need to feel powerful - this is a key message I give to my team that they are in a powerful position and should feel empowered to use that power - but be equipped to use that power (training) and feel supported from both the leadership team of audit and also the business leaders.